http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/sep40/f30sep40.htm
RAF fights off German raiders
Monday, September 30, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... Day 82 of the Battle of Britain. There are five German attempts to bomb London. The aircraft from the first and second raids jettison their bombs over Hastings and Rexhill. An estimated 30 Ju88 bombers from the fourth raid reach the western suburbs of London and cause some casualties. Meanwhile, about 40 He111 bombers escorted by Me110 fighters aim for the Westland Aircraft Factory in Yeovil fail to find the target and bomb Sherborne (Dorset). Four German He111 bombers and 5 British Hurricane fighters are shot down. Total aircraft losses amount to 47 German and 20 British planes. During the night, London is raided again with the bombs dropping mainly on the suburbs. Other targets include Liverpool where some fires are reported.
Over Occupied Europe... RAF bombers conduct night raids on Berlin, invasion ports, airfields and other objectives. Five British planes are lost.
In Britain... Three German agents are put ashore from a seaplane on the coast of Banff, Scotland in Operation Hummer (literally translated to Lobster). All three are captured and two are executed. The third, a double-agent, Vera von Schalburg, disappears.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/30.htm
September 30th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain: During the daylight, London and the Westland factory at Yeovil are bombed. On this last day of mass daylight bomber raids the Luftwaffe reintroduces old tactics with close escorts to their bombers and pays a heavy price in bombers and fighters for negligible damage.
(Night) London bombed.
Civilian casualties of the Blitz this month are 6,954 killed and 10,615 hurt.
Wattisham, Suffolk: Wing-Cdr Laurence Frank Sinclair (b. 1908) dragged an airman from a crashed, burning plane. Unfortunately, the airman later died. (George Cross)
Bridlington, Yorks.: Mr. Thomas Hooper Alderson (1903-65), ARP, after leading many rescue attempts this month including one where he saved six people who were trapped by tunnelling for 14-feet, is awarded the George Cross. (This is the first GC to be gazetted.)
Losses: Luftwaffe, 48; RAF, 20.
RAF Bomber Command: Bombing - Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
4 Group. 10 Sqn. Whitley, N1483 ditched off Eire. Flg Off. L.D. Wood, Plt Off K. Humby, and Sgts E.R. Mounsey, C. Douglas-Browne and R.H.Thomas all rescued.
Whitley T4130 Missing from Berlin. Shot down near Badbergen. Sgts V. Snell and G.L. Ismay killed, Sgts W.D. Chamberlain, R.E. Nicholson and A.S.Shand PoW.
10 Sqn. Ten aircraft. All bombed. Opposition severe. One FTR, one ditched in Irish Sea, crew saved.
Edinburgh: An arrest was made at the left-luggage office at Waverley station tonight. A German agent had landed earlier by seaplane on a remote beach in North-East Scotland. He was travelling under the name of Werner Walti, with two accomplices, Karl Drucke and Vera Erikson. They were arrested later.
Walti deposited a suitcase. It was water-stained and proved to contain a transmitter. When he returned to claim it, a detective superintendent disguised as a porter grabbed his wrist as he reached for his pistol.
Two German agents, Karl Drucke who had a loaded 6.35 Mauser automatic which was taken from Drucke by Inspector John Simpson after a struggle, a flickknife was found in his suitcase and Vera Eriksen, were arrested at Buckie, on the Moray Firth, having first been spotted in Port Gordon. A third member of the same group, Werner Walti (real name Robert Petter), was arrested in Edinburgh, where he had deposited a wireless set in a suitcase at the Waverley Street luggage office. After extensive MI5 interrogation in London the two men were sentenced to death at the Old Bailey and hanged in Wandsworth Prison on 6 August 1941. The woman, who had been a prewar part-time informant for MI5, escaped the same penalty. (Bill Howard)
Destroyer HMS Quail laid down.
Destroyers HMS Farndale and Brocklesby launched.
Corvette HMS Cyclamen commissioned.
Light cruiser HMS Dido commissioned.
Submarine ORP Sokol (ex-HMS Urchin) launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE:
Paris: The Reich Chief Security Office sets up a special section under orders from Adolf Eichmann in Berlin. It will register France’s entire Jewish population.
GERMANY: KptLt Helmut Rosenbaum commissions U-73. (Dave Shirlaw)
U-408 laid down.
U-73 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
Merchant ship losses for September: 2 ships of 6,000 tons.
Italian submarine ‘Gondar’ approaches Alexandria with human torpedoes for an attack on the base. She is located by an RAF Sunderland of No 230 Squadron and sunk by Australian destroyer HMAS Stuart.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Battleford laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC:
Early in the month the first wolf-pack attacks are directed by Adm Donitz against the convoy SC2. Five of the 53 ships are sunk. A similar operation is mounted two weeks later against the 40 ships of HX72. The U-boats present include those commanded by the aces Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke. Eleven ships are lost, seven to Schepke’s U-100 in one night. The German B-Service is instrumental in directing U-boats to many convoys, where they hold the advantage as they manoeuvre on the surface between the merchantmen and escorts.
Losses: 53 ships of 272,000 tons and 2 escorts.
European Waters, Merchant ship losses: 39 ships of 131,000 tons.
U-37 sank SS Heminge and SS Samala in Convoy OB-220.