Posted on 09/25/2010 6:39:58 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
Date: 25th September 1940
Enemy action by day
With the exception of attacks on Filton and Portland during the morning and an attack on Plymouth in the afternoon enemy activity has been confined to small raids chiefly in the South Eastern area. About one hundred aircraft had massed in the Calais area by 0900 hours but an attack did not materialise.
During the day our fighters destroyed twenty-two enemy aircraft (plus eight probables and ten damaged). In addition anti aircraft destroyed three enemy aircraft (plus two damaged). Our losses were four aircraft with one pilot missing and one died of wounds.
In the main attacks, the proportion of fighters to bombers appears to have been approximately equal.
Attack on Filton
At 1148 hours, about sixty enemy aircraft consisting of twenty seven bombers with fighter escort, which had crossed the coast near Weymouth, attacked the Bristol Aeroplane Company's Works at Filton. The attack was made from 11,000 feet and all bombs were dropped simultaneously. Three Squadrons plus one section were despatched to intercept and all of them engaged, though only one Squadron succeeded in doing so before the enemy aircraft reached the target. Eighteen enemy aircraft - chiefly bombers - were destroyed (plus six probables and seven damaged). Anti aircraft destroyed three enemy (plus two damaged). Our losses were four aircraft and one pilot (died of wounds).
Attack on Portland
It is reported by AA Command that seven Ju88s broke away from the main body flying to Filton, and made an unsuccessful dive bombing attack down to 500 feet on the oil tanks at Portland.
Attack on Plymouth
Approximately twenty-four enemy bombers with an escort of twelve Me110s crossed the coast at Start Point and attacked the Plymouth area at 1647 hours. Two sections of fighters intercepted and dispersed this formation. One enemy bomber was destroyed (plus two aircraft probably destroyed and one damaged) without loss to our fighters.
Reconnaissances and Patrols
Hostile reconnaissances - mostly of single aircraft - were plotted during the day as follows:
Night Operations - 25th/26th September 1940
Enemy activity in the London area was widespread and steadily maintained throughout the night.
1930 to 2100 Hours
Shortly after 1930 hours, raids began doming out of Le Havre towards Portsmouth and made for London. These were followed by others from Cherbourg which entered along the coast Westward from Beachy Head. Other raids from Holland came in over the Norfolk Coast and the Wash. Some of the later made a wide sweep and approached London from the North West.
During this period, about twenty-five raids crossed our Coast, some of which flew to South Wales and one over Derby.
Anti-aircraft in the Rochford area claim to have destroyed on JU88 at 1940 hours which is reported to have fallen into the sea.
2100 to 0100 Hours
About 100 enemy aircraft came inland, nineteen of which proceeded to the Midlands (as far North as the Mersey) and to the West Country and South Wales.
After 2300 hours, raids ceased to approach London from East Anglia, the points of entry being between Dungeness and the Isle of Wight. Many raids appeared to return via the Estuary to the Dutch Coast.
After midnight, about nine aircraft from the Dutch Coast circled in the outer Thames Estuary and may have been engaged on a shipping search or minelaying operations.
0100 to 0500 Hours
At 0115 hours, a new series of about twenty raids started approaching from Holland and made for the London Area, but some remained in the Thames Estuary and these, to, may have been minelaying.
By 0530 hours, the last raids from the London area had recrossed the South Coast.
In addition to the activity mentioned above, there have been a few raids in Lincolnshire, the Humber area and in the South West. There has been no activity in the North of England or in Scotland.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 25th September 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 1 Me109 | ||
| 3 Me110 | 3 Me110 | 3 Me110 |
| 4 Ju88 | 1 Ju88 | |
| 1 Do215 | 2 Do215 | |
| 2 Do17 | 3 Do17 | 1 Do17 |
| 9 He111 | 4 He111 | |
| 2 E/A | 1 E/A | |
| 22 | 8 | 10 |
| By Anti-Aircraft | ||
| 4 E/A | 2 E/A | |
| 4 | Nil | 2 |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Air Intelligence Reports
Home Security Reports
You’re going to have to hurry it up going forward. We can’t be waiting 4 seconds after the ping for the diary to show up. Two should be enough.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/sep40/f25sep40.htm
Germans target British airplane factories
Wednesday, September 25, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... Most of the German attacks are against aircraft factories up to the end of the month (September 30th). Factories in Bristol, Southampton and Yeovil are all hit but defending fighters exact a high price. The RAF loses 82 planes and the Luftwaffe 143.
In French West Africa... The British battleship Resolution is seriously damaged by a torpedo. The Barham takes a 15-inch hit from Richelieu. Following these setbacks the operation is abandoned on Churchill’s orders.
In the Mediterranean... As a retaliation for the events at Dakar, Vichy air forces again attempt to raid Gibraltar. Again, little damage is done.
In Oslo... Terboven, the Reichs Commissioner, deposes the King of Norway formally and appoints Quisling to lead the new Norwegian government.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/25.htm
September 25th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - Scharnhorst at Kiel - Antwerp docks - power station at Berlin.
51 Sqn. Eleven aircraft to Berlin and Kiel. Five bombed Scharnhorst, two bombed Berlin, two bombed alternatives.
78 Sqn. Ten aircraft. Four bombed Scharnhorst, three bombed Antwerp, three did not bomb.
Battle of Britain: By day Plymouth, Portland and Filton (Bristol) are bombed by heavily escorted bombers aiming for aircraft factories. At night London, South Wales and Lancashire are bombed.
Dispersal of the invasion assembly released sufficient aircraft to reinforce Luftlotte 3 to allow it to resume large-scale daylight operations with a morning attack by He-111s of KG 55 on the Bristol Aeroplane works at Filton. No. 10 Group, after incorrect intelligence indications had pointed to Raid 22H attacking Yeovil, positioned squadrons of fighters accordingly. As a result 90 tons of HEs and 24 oil bombs caused serious damage to Filton’s aero engine and airframe works as well as nearby villages and communications. Casualties amounted to 60 dead and 150 injured before Nos. 152 and 238 Squadrons struck down at least three of the withdrawing Heinkels and AA gunners another. Several Ju88s of LG1 later dive-bombed oil installations at Portland and Plymouth, where a crane was destroyed.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 13; RAF, 4.
Under the dispersal plans Vickers prototype Wellingtons including the high-altitude models are flown to Squires Gate airfield in Blackpool, Lancashire.
Destroyer HMS Quentin laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY: The Reichs Commissioner for Norway, Terboven, deposes the King of Norway formally and appoints Vidkun Quisling to head the new Norwegian government.
GERMANY: U-581 and U-582 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
WEST AFRICA:
Dakar: The bombardment of the town continues but HMS Resolution is torpedoed and badly damaged by Vichy submarine ‘Beveziers’ and HMS Barham is hit by Richilieu’s 15in gunfire. At this point the operation is abandoned and the Anglo-French forces withdraw.
The pro-Vichy police in the meantime are rounding up Allied sympathisers, and Senegal’s black middle class, which demonstrated in support of de Gaulle, is paying the price.
It was the pro-Allied street demonstrations and an unsuccessful naval mutiny that persuaded the Allies that Senegal was fertile ground for the Free French. An so it was. Then the pro-Allied Governor was replaced by the present Governor Boisson and the colony was purged of Free French sympathisers. Worse, the amphibious force arrived two days after three French cruisers had docked bringing with them reliable Vichy reinforcements - although the Royal Navy did prevent several more French warships from sailing further south to overawe the Free French supporters in French Equatorial Africa. For the Royal Navy failure is bad news since it fears that Dakar may become a German U-boat base.
GIBRALTAR:
The French bomb again. The French formation is reinforced by two escadrilles and two more bomber groups. A total of 83 bombers made their run in good weather from 3:00 to 4:15 PM., this time without fighter plane cover. The air crews reported stronger anti-aircraft fire than on the previous day. They met no fighters and dropped 56 metric tons of bombs. A LeO45 bomber of French 23 Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group based on Merknes, was shot down by AA and crashed into the sea with its air crew under Lt. Court. 13 bombers were slightly damaged. Scout aircraft confirmed hits on the base and harbour installations.
This raid was the largest French operation since the war broke out.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The last lifeboat of survivors of the City of Benares sinking is picked up due to the actions of Flight Lieutenant William Garing of No. 10 Squadron RAAF. When he heard about the sinking Garing himself worked out the likely course of winds and surface currents. He still had to protect his own allocated convoys but flew flight paths that would check these areas. Today, six days after the sinking, he found the one remaining lifeboat with 46 survivors aboard. He could not break radio silence so flew back to his convoy, even though this
meant he now did not have enough fuel to get home. He signalled his find to another Sunderland and the lifeboat was later picked up by destroyer.
Husbanding his fuel, Garing ditched 10 miles from his base at Oban. He and his crew were towed in. (Mike Mitchell)
U-29 sank SS Eurymedon in Convoy OB-217.
U-43 sank SS Sulairia in Convoy OB-217.
U-32 sank SS Mabriton in Convoy OB-216. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Military intelligence reads the Japanese “Purple” code for the first time.
The MIT Radiation Laboratory, where much Allied radar development would take place, comes into formal existence with a budget of $455,000 for the first year of operation. (Cris Wetton)
CANADA: AMC HMCS Prince Robert intercepted and seized German freighter Weser 9,472 GRT, 15kts, renamed SS Vancouver Island. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 391 September 25, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 78. Again, the weather is fine but only 2 major raids materialize. At 11.45 AM, 27 German bombers and 30+ fighters attack the Bristol Aeroplane Company factory at Filton, near Bristol, which manufactures Blenheims. In 45 seconds, construction sheds are damaged, 8 newly built are aircraft destroyed, including 2 Beaufighter prototypes, and 132 people are killed (315 wounded). 6 German aircraft are shot down (8 airmen killed, 10 taken prisoner) and 2 more crash land returning to France. 4 RAF fighters are shot down (1 pilot killed). At 4.47 PM, 24 bombers and 12 Me110s attack Plymouth (1 bomber shot down, no RAF fighters lost). London and other cities are bombed overnight and mines laid in the Thames Estuary.
Operation Menace. British warships return and shell Dakar harbour and coastal batteries. At 9 AM, French submarine Beveziers torpedoes British battleship HMS Resolution (which has to be towed back to Freetown, Sierra Leone, by HMS Barham), forcing the British warships to retire. In consultation with the British war cabinet, the operation is abandoned. Vichy French bombers return to bomb Gibraltar from bases in Algeria and Morocco. While most bombs drop in the sea, the harbour receives some damage and British anti-submarine trawler Stella Sirius is sunk.
At 3.25 AM, 500 miles West of Ireland, U-32 sinks British SS Mabriton (12 dead, 25 survivors rescued by British survey ship HMS Jason and sloop HMS Rochester). 400 miles West of Ireland, U-43 sinks British SS Sulairia at 1.30 PM (1 killed, 56 survivors picked up by Canadian destroyer HMCS Ottawa) and U-29 hits British MV Eurymedon at 2 PM, which sinks 2 days later (20 crew & 9 passengers lost, 42 crew & 22 passengers picked up by HMCS Ottawa). http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/555.html
Operation Lucid. Old Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers War Nizam & War Nawab are to be set on fire and sent into the French Channel ports as fire ships to ignite German invasion barges. Filled with 2-3000 tons of a cocktail of 50% heavy fuel oil, 25% diesel oil and 25% petrol, they depart Sheerness and Portsmouth escorted by 6 destroyers, 5 minesweepers and torpedo boats. The operation is cancelled in the evening when War Nizam breaks down. Reminiscent of Sir Francis Drake’s attack on the Spanish Armada in 1588 which “singed the King of Spain’s beard”, the plan is supported by Churchill to “singe Hitler’s moustache”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Lucid http://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=28522
These ‘realtime + 70 years’ threads always make me jump out of my skin. I always see them in the morning with coffee in hand, and I’m going “WHAT WHAT WHAT??! Oh- 1940.”
It was outlandish for anyone to suggest that Duranty was a British agent.
Everyone should have known from his writing that he worked for Stalin.
LOL! You’re lucky I got it up at all. I’ve been up since 3:30 loading up and going to a multi-family garage sale and only ran back home because I left a table in the garage.
I really regret that I was so busy yesterday that I didn’t get to this paper until today. There really is a lot of perspective that can be gained from these recent papers that really helps put things in context in a way that you just wont pick up from the general story of World War II.
First there is the strong resistance by the French. Unless you are well read on this conflict you only think of France in terms of their defeat to the Germans last June. France is pretty much a non-entity until their liberation in 1944. Yet here we see that the French are fighting the British at Dakar and the Japanese in Indochina. This outlines a theme you will likely see me harp on more than once moving forward in that the French seem willing to fight anyone except the Germans. You can also see some of the basis for British ire towards Admiral Darlan which will become relevant later on down the road.
So what we have at this moment in time:
The French are fighting the British.
The Italians are beating the British in their African colonies.
The French are fighting the Japanese.
The Russians are allied with the Germans.
It you approached someone with only a common knowledge of World War II history he would tell you that you didn’t know a thing about the Second World War.
I found it interesting a couple months ago about the ‘paranoia’ in Brittan. I had always seen their paranoia about paratroopers in a mocking light. But when you go through the fall of France and the low countries, in which there were wide spread reports of paratroop attacks and infiltration, then it makes far more sense.
I would have to think it must have been very unnerving for the British people and especially Whitehall when details of the Belgium fortress of Eben Emael came out. Here was a totally new form of warfare that went up against a perceived impenetrable fortress and it took it out handily.
That 20 miles that separated the Germans from heart of the British Empire must of suddenly seemed minuscule. The Royal Navy was no longer the stop gap to invasion as it was perceived to be in many’s eyes.
The French are fighting the British.
The Italians are beating the British in their African colonies.
The French are fighting the Japanese.
The Russians are allied with the Germans.
"It you approached someone with only a common knowledge of World War II history he would tell you that you didn’t know a thing about the Second World War."
Amazing! I hadn't realized it.
So if you think about it, can there be any wonder that the vast majority of Americans still wanted to stay-the-h*ll out of that fight?
It certainly would make one wary. From the current perspective it doesn't look like Britain has much of a chance. If nothing else they are going to get starved and bombed out if the Germans don't land troops. Now with Japan throwing in with them it almost looks as if the world is against Britain and we will be the last island of democracy.
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