10.42 As the battle goes on, the devil is in the detail
September 25th.
Day Bristol and Plymouth Bombed.
Night, London, North Wales, and Lancashire attacked.
Weather, Fair to fine in most districts. Cool. Channel cloudy with bright intervals: Hazy. (1)
The early morning was quite, just the usual German reconnaissance flights and a diversionary build up over France around half past eight. The mornings main assault commenced shortly after eleven o’clock when a large formation crossed the channel further west than normal, whilst a diversionary attack consisting of fighter bombers attacked Portland drew the attention of No 10 Groups ready squadrons. A force consisting of Heinkel 111’s from Three Gruppen of KG5 total sixty air craft accompanied by Me110’s of ZG26 successfully evaded the defending fighters to attack the Bristol Aircraft factory at Filton. Nearly one hundred tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs caused extensive damage to the plant and killed two hundred and fifty people. Full production was curtailed for several weeks. Having sent two squadrons to defend Portland a further three Squadrons had been scrambled by 10 group to intercept the main attack. Un fortunately these defending fighters had been sent by the group control to orbit Yeovil as he had anticipated that the aircraft factories there were the main target. Once the true track of the raid had be ascertained these squadrons were vectored towards Filton and managed to intercept prior to the bombing but were engaged by the Me110’s enabling the bulk of the sixty Heinkle 111’ to carry out a measured and largley unopposed attack. The two squadrons that were using Filton as a sector station had been dispersed to Exeter and Bibury to counter coastal attacks. The retreating bombers were harried all the way to the coast and losses were inflicted.
Later that afternoon eighty seven Squadron flying from Exeter intercepted a dozen bombers with another dozen Me 110’s as escort near Plymouth and forced them to break off their attack. At the same time three squadrons of fighters from Eleven Group were at twenty thousand feet over London to intercept another bomber attack.
By the time darkness had fallen the day fighters had flown over six hundred and fifty sorties, destroying twenty enemy aircraft (as confirmed by wreck counts and verified observation by multiple witnesses) NIghtime again saw large attacks on London with widely dispersed smaller formations trying to distract the night fighters. Despite far from perfect conditions for the defenders again a steady tole of the attacking bombers was taken both by the fighters and the ever improving AA guns. The new gun laying and ranging RDF sets using the fifty centimetre transmitters were beginning to prove their worth. Especially with the big four inch calibre AA guns in the London sector.
Tonight the Civil Defence organisations recorded the highest number yet of people seeking shelter in the deep tube stations. Despite wide spread fears of panic, it would seem that Londoners could take it and that the cockney gallows humour was thriving as the populace went about their daily lives. (2).
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster
(2) Based upon a weekly report from the Eastend, Home Security operations Room.
September 26th.
Day, Supermarine factory at Southampton attacked and wrecked.
Night, London and Merseyside.
Weather, Mainly fair to cloudy in the south. (1)
Just as Sir Phillip had surmised the German reconnaissance photographs had clearly showed that the Supermarine works had been undamaged and today the Luftwaffe were determined to rectify that failure. So that afternoon after a quite morning the Luftwaffe sent a fleet of seventy six bombers and fighters consisting of Ju 88’s, He 111’s and Me109’s left the French coast and using the available cloud cover and diversionary missions to both east and west plus judicious use of jamming managed to evade any major interception by RAF fighters until they had delivered a highly accurate and devastating attack consisting of seventy tons of high explosive bombs that completely devastated the Supermarine Factory. Only as the Luftwaffe aircraft turned for home did the fighters of 10 and 11 group successfully intercept them with two squadrons from each of the groups engaging in a running fight that lasted almost to the French Coast. This resulted in more than a dozen of the enemy aircraft being shot down whilst two Spitfires and a single Defiant were shot down in return. One British pilot bailed out and fortuitously landed on the beach at Whitsand bay on the Isle of Wight, another was rescued by an MTB in mid channel along with an even dozen very damp and disgruntled Luftwaffe air crew. The fact that their two seriously injured comrades were receiving medical aid and the MTB headed for Halslar at high speed was did not go unnoticed by the others, who’s demeaner improved visibly. Unfortunately the third pilot RAF was lost.
The success of this raid would result in a major post-mortem at Bentley Priory involving both Ten and Eleven group. The fact that in just a few days two raids had managed to evade interception and attack the same major target was a cause of great concern for all at Fighter Command. Factors examined included, the fact that Southampton was close to the boundary with Ten Group and that fighters from that group were often called in to reinforce Eleven Group which was still causing problems with coordination. This was exacerbated by the fact that the nearest GCI/PPI was in Ten Groups area at Sopley. The RDF team at Sopely was the most experienced and successful of the GCI Stations so for them to have had problems was an unpleasant surprise. The GCI coverage of Sopley in Ten Group overlapped with the GCI coverage of Durrington to the East in Eleven Group. Southamton was right on the edge of the GCI coverage of Durrington, so any attack or enemy aircraft approaching from the east had to be passed to Sopley just prior to it arriving at a Target in Southampton. Though there was direct communication between Sopley and Ten Group HQ and between Durrington and Eleven Group HQ there was no direct connection from the sector stations to GCI/PPI stations though there was a direct line between Sopley and Durrington. In fact every GCI/PPI station had a direct line to each GCI/PPI station it overlapped with. It appears that one major problem encountered in this instance was the delay in information flow between the GCI/PPI stations and the sector stations via the Group HQ’s. Keith Parks and Quinton Brand also sought answers to the problems highlighted by this failure, not to apportion blame, as some would expect but to avoid recurrence and further loss. The first decision made was to install direct lines from all GCI/PPI stations to their nearest and adjoining sector stations.
(1) Daily summary quoted verbatim from the The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster