Posted on 08/31/2010 5:00:03 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Plus a special guest map from Michael Korda’s, “With Wings Like Eagles,” showing the air defenses of England and Wales, August 1940.
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
That must have left Dracula homeless.
Michael Korda, With Wings Like Eagles: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/aug40/f31aug40.htm
Luftwaffe near victory over RAF
Saturday, August 31, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... The Germans maintain their concentrated attacks on the British airfields. Biggin Hill is almost put out of action and Debden and Hornchurch are severely hit. The RAF loses 39 aircraft in the air and several more are hit on the ground. The Luftwaffe losses are 41. Goring is now in measurable distance of achieving his objective of air superiority over southeast England. The RAF airfields at Biggin Hill, Manston, West Malling, Lympne and Hawkinge are all more or less out of the fight. There are only two RAF sector stations in commission south of the Thames and three more airfields which might be used for that role. There is no reason why these might not be similarly damaged, three having already been hit. This is the RAF’s most difficult period of the battle.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/31.htm
August 31st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil plant at Wesseling.
10 Sqn. Six aircraft. All bombed primary.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Very heavy bombing of airfields (Detling, Eastchurch, Croydon and sector stations at Biggin Hill, Hornchurch (twice) and Debden). Some close due to unserviceability. Radar stations also attacked.
At night Merseyside is heavily attacked as well as the Midlands.
Vital airfields in the south-east including Biggin Hill, Lympne, Manston and Hawkinge, are bombed out of action. Fighter Command loses 39 planes, its greatest daily loss so far.
London: Berlin and London came under attack last night. One the RAF bomber pilots reported: “When we arrived we found the target well on fire. We could see it when we were 25 minutes flying time away. We put our stick of bombs down just to the left of this big fire. Then four more fires started. Altogether we were cruising around over Berlin for about half an hour.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 41; RAF 39.
An Anglo-Free French task force under Admiral Cunningham and General DeGaulle departs Liverpool for Dakar, French West Africa. (Jack McKillop)
RN codes are changed and for the first time operational signals are secure from German interception and decoding. It will be three years before the convoy codes are made safe from the German B-Service. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA:
Destroyers sail to lay mines off the Dutch coast. The minelayers were from the 20th Destroyer Flotilla consisting of the destroyers HMS Express, HMS Esk, HMS Icarus, HMS Intrepid and HMS Ivanhoe sailed from Immingham on a minelaying mission off the Dutch coast. The minelayers were escorted by the 5th Destroyer Flotilla consisted of the destroyers HMS Kelvin, HMS Jupiter and HMS Vortigern. Aireal reconnaissance detected a German force and the ships of the 20th and 5th DF were ordered to intercept, believing wrongly that the German ships were part of an invasion force. HMS Express struck a mine and was badly damaged, HMS Esk went to her assistance and hit mine and sank immediately, HMS Ivanhoe also went to her assistance and hit a mine and was badly damaged, so much so she had to be sunk by HMS Kelvin. HMS Express was towed back to hull and took 13 months to repair. (Dave Shirlaw)
The French colonies of French Equatorial Africa, Cameroon, and Tahiti join with Free France. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY:
Berlin: Brushing aside the misgivings of his generals and admirals, Hitler has given orders for Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, to go ahead. Göring has promised to destroy the fighter defences in the south of England in four days and the rest of the RAF in two or three weeks. So the Fuhrer says that he will decide on the invasion date in the next fortnight.
The transfer of shipping to the Channel ports is beginning, and plans for a feint attack against the east coast of Britain have been made. But Hitler has still not resolved a bitter dispute between the army and navy over the deployment of the invasion force.
The army has planned a landing on a 200-mile front from Ramsgate to Lyme Regis, throwing into action 1,722 barges, 1,161 motor boats, 470 tugs and 155 transports. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder says that it is quite impossible for his navy to protect such a vast and widely dispersed force. He has told Hitler that the navy would risk having all its ships sunk by the British.
Raeder, who was made a Grand Admiral by Hitler on 1 April 1939, says that the army should concentrate on a narrow front between Folkestone and Eastbourne, “Complete suicide,” General Halder, the chief of staff, responded furiously. The British would hit them with overwhelming force. “I might just as well put the troops through a sausage machine.”
During a strategy meeting at Hitler’s Obersalzburg retreat, Hitler asked Raeder to give his opinion. “All things considered,” Raeder said, “the best time for the operation would be May 1941.” This certainly was not the answer the Fuhrer wanted. By next year the British would have had even longer to prepare plans to counter an invasion, the British Army would have recovered from its Dunkirk defeat, and the German Kriegsmarine would still not be able to challenge the Royal Navy.
U-74 and U-98 launched.
U-579 and U-580 laid down.
U-95 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.:
Moscow: Russia protests that it was not consulted on the award of Transylvania, territory it has long coveted, to Hungary.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Prescott laid down.
Corvette HMCS Napanee launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The US calls 60,000 National Guardsmen into active service. The first units will be inducted into Federal service on 16 September.
In the US, Pennsylvania-Central Airlines DC-3-313, msn 2188, registered NC21789, crashes near Lovettsville, Virginia during an electrical storm. All 23 people aboard the DC-3 are killed. (Jack McKillop)
MERCHANT SHIPPING WAR: Losses 45 ships of 163,000 tons.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: Long range Focke Wulf Kondors start patrols off the coast of Ireland from a base near Bordeaux. As well as spotting for U-boats they attack and sink many ships, and continue to be a major threat until the introduction of ship-borne aircraft in late 1941 starts to counteract them.
RN codes are changed and for the first time operational signals are secure from German interception and decoding. It will be three years before the convoy codes are made safe from the German B-Service.
Losses (Atlantic): 39 ships of 190,000 tons, 2 armed merchant cruisers and 1 sloop.
1 U-boat
U-38 sank SS Har Zion in Convoy OB-205.
U-46 sank SS Ville de Hasselt.
U-60 damaged SS Volendham in Convoy OB-205. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
Merchant shipping war: Losses - 21 ship of 1,000 tons.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 366 August 31, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 53. By heroic effort overnight, Biggin Hill is made operational. From 11 AM to 7 PM, Luftwaffe makes concentrated attacks on RAF airfields, repeating yesterday’s exercise of flying large formations up the Thames Estuary which then split up to target multiple airfields. Radar stations on the South coast are also hit. Yesterday’s hero Tom Gleave of 253 Squadron is shot down but survives with terrible burns. RAF loses 41 fighters & 9 pilots. RAF still has 613 Spitfires and Hurricanes but pilots are exhausted and many airfields are out of action or badly damaged, combining to limit severely operational effectiveness. Germans lose 56 fighters, 29 bombers. Their pilots too are disillusioned & exhausted. Overnight, Liverpool is heavily bombed for the fourth night and other cities in the Midlands are also targeted. http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/phase2ofthebattle.cfm
5 British destroyers leave England to lay mines off Texel Island on the Dutch coast. They are suddenly ordered to intercept German ships but blunder into a new German minefield. HMS Express hits a mine and is badly damaged (56 killed). HMS Esk goes to assist, hits a mine and sinks immediately (135 killed, 25 crew swim ashore and are taken prisoner). HMS Ivanhoe also goes to assist, hits a mine and is badly damaged (8 killed, 3 wounded, 23 taken prisoner). Ivanhoe will be scuttled the following day by HMS Kelvin. After this, most minelaying off the Dutch and German coast will be carried out by RAF aircraft.
Despite the threat of invasion by Germany, Free French troops under General De Gaulle and 8,000 British troops leave England escorted by British cruisers HMS Devonshire and Fiji plus 5 destroyers, for forward base in Freetown in Sierra Leone. They will be joined by more British warships including aircraft carriers from Gibraltar. Their final destination is the port of Dakar in French West Africa which is under Vichy French control. De Gaulle intends to land his Free French troops unopposed (but supported in force, if necessary, by British sea, air and land forces) to secure the colony for the Free French. Britain wants to prevent Germany basing U-boats there to threaten trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope. They also have an eye on ultramodern French battleship Richelieu which, although damaged by British attacks on July 7 and 8, could be repaired and brought into the Royal Navy.
100 miles North of Ireland, U-boats torpedo 3 ships from convoy OB-205. At midnight, Dutch passenger steamer Volendam (carrying 273 crew and 606 passengers, including many British children being evacuated to Canada) is hit by 2 torpedoes from U-60. She does not sink and everyone escapes to safety in the lifeboats, except 1 crewman who falls overboard. Volendam will be repaired, although an unexploded torpedo is found onboard, and returned to service as a troopship in July 1941. At 2.06 AM, U-59 sinks British SS Bibury (all 38 crew and 1 gunner killed). At 6.15 AM, U-38 sinks British SS Har Zion (33 lives lost). 1 survivor, Seaman Osman Adem, is picked up the next day by Polish destroyer ORP Blyskawica. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/505.html
At 4 PM, U-46 sinks Belgian passenger steamer Ville de Hasselt 100 miles Northwest of Ireland. All 53 crew abandon ship in 4 lifeboats and are picked up by trawlers on 2 September.
Date: 31st August 1940
Enemy action by day
Three major attacks developed in the East Kent and Thames area, and spread towards South and North East London. Aerodromes were again the main objectives.
70 enemy aircraft were destroyed (plus 34 probable and 33 damaged). Our casualties were 37 aircraft and 12 pilots killed or missing.
North and East
At 0600 hours one aircraft made a reconnaissance off Spurn Point. At 1155 hours a reconnaissance was made at 23000 feet over aerodromes in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and of shipping in the Thames Estuary. Between 1400 and 1530 hours three reconnaissances were made in East Anglia.
South East
At 0755 hours formations appeared in the Deal, Dover and Thames Estuary area. Some two hundred and fifty aircraft attacked in five distinct waves. Aircraft were flying at between 1500 and 20000 feet but one formation crossed the Essex Coast in a dive at 2000 feet. Dispersal commenced at about 0900 hours. Ten Fighter squadrons were detailed for these attacks and accounted for a number of enemy aircraft. The objectives were North Weald, Debden (where some damage is reported), Duxford and East Kent area. At 0845 hours Me109's shot down all (23) of the Dover Balloon Barrage.
At 0930 hours single aircraft made reconnaissances of:
At about 1100 hours ninety plus aircraft crossed the Coast at Dover but this attack was not pressed home.
At 1235 hours fifty plus aircraft approached Dover of which thirty aircraft flew inland towards Biggin Hill and Kenley at 10,000 feet. The remaining twenty turned back at Dover but reappeared at Deal as fifty aircraft and crossed the Coast in three waves followed by two smaller formations flying towards Biggin Hill and Kenley. Biggin Hill suffered some damage. At about 1320 hours fifty plus aircraft were over Hornchurch and Debden plus aircraft were over Hornchurch and Debden at 15/20,000 feet. Two further raids followed in Kent and two in the Thames Estuary. By 1350 hours the attackers began to disperse.
Successful interceptions were made and many aircraft were shot down. During this attack strong enemy patrols were maintained in the Straits until after the raids had withdrawn.
At 1630 hours a small raid reconnoitred the Thames Estuary at 15,000 feet, passed over Hornchurch, then flew to Kenley and South to the Coast. It may have been assessing damage done during previous raids.
At 1800 hours six raids crossed the Coast between North Foreland and Hastings. One of these attacked Hornchurch and the others Biggin Hill, Northolt, Kenley and other objectives in Kent. Another raid of fifty aircraft flew into the Estuary. Altogether some two hundred enemy aircraft wee involved. The raids drew off at 1900 hours.
The patrols covering the retreat of these bombers in the Straits were not so strong as usual. Fighter squadrons were again successful in destroying a number of enemy aircraft.
During the day No 12 Group moved Squadrons into No 11 Group area to assist in the battles.
By night
The enemy programme appeared to be very similar to that of the last few nights both in volume and in targets.
Dusk attacks were made on Liverpool and Birkenhead. Up to 0030 hours a stream of raids crossed the Coast between Shoreham and Lyme Bay towards the Industrial Midlands which together with Liverpool and Leeds areas seemed to be the main targets. There was comparatively little activity over South Wales. Mine-laying is suspected in the Thames Estuary, off East Anglia, Humber, Durham and Northumberland Coasts, but some raids also penetrated inland in each of these areas.
London Central was "Red" between 2150 and 2213 hours, 2225 and 2359 hours and 0057 and 0354 hours. Attacks on this area appeared to be much less severe than those of recent nights and passing to the Midlands across the South West edge of the inner artillery zone and returning across the North East edge.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 31st August 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyted | Probable | Damaged |
| 39 Me109 | 21 Me109 | 12 Me109 |
| 9 Me110 | 5 Me110 | 12 Me110 |
| 6 He111 | 2 Do17 | 2 Do17 |
| 1 Ju88 | 6 Do215 | 4 Ju88 |
| 5 Do17 | 3 Do215 | |
| 10 Do215 | ||
| 70 | 34 | 33 |
| By Anti-Aircraft | ||
| Destroyted | Probable | Damaged |
| 7 Me109 | ||
| 1 Me110 | ||
| 7 Do17 | ||
| 15 |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Attacks on Aerodromes
Organisation:
Home Security Reports
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