Thursday, August 8th : A morning attack on a convoy by Ju
87's and Bf 109's was intercepted by six squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires.
A second raid of 60 Ju 87's was met by four RAF squadrons. At 5.00pm more than
80 Ju 87's and Bf 109's made a third attack. Seven RAF squadrons intercepted
it.
Night: Minelaying and small bomber raids.
Friday, August 9th : Shipyards at Sunderland were bombed. East
coast convoys were attacked.
Night: Minelaying and attacks on east
coast shipping.
Saturday, August 10th : Norwich was bombed. Reconnaissance
over the Channel and inland. Night:
Minelaying
Sunday, August 11th : No. 74 Squadron intercepted a raid
on Dover barrage balloon by Bf 110's and Bf 109's. Portland naval base was
attacked by 150 German bombers. Five Hurricane and two Spitfire squadrons
engaged them.
Night: Raids on Merseyside, and mines
were laid in Bristol Channel.
Monday, August 12th : Radar stations were attacked.
Ventnor was put out of action, others were damaged. Airfields at Manston,
Hawkinge, Lympne heavily were attacked. Portsmouth, Dover and Hastings were
bombed.
Night: Minelaying.
Tuesday, August 13th : Bad weather postponed Adlertag
(Eagle Day) Zero Hour till afternoon. One formation of 55 Do 17's missed the
order and bombed Eastchurch airfield. Spitfires of 74 Squadron and Hurricanes
of 11 and 151 Squadrons caught the bombers on the way home and shot down four.
In the afternoon 23 Bf 110's tried to decoy RAF fighters away from a Ju 87
raid. Five Bf 110's were shot down. A Ju 87 raid went unintercepted but failed
to deliver its bombs due to low cloud. Oldham, Farnborough and Detling
airfields were attacked. Southampton docks were heavily damaged. Goring
mistakenly believed that 30 airfields had been rendered inoperable with 300
British fighters destroyed.
Night: Midlands, West Country and
Scotland were bombed.
Wednesday, August 14th : Airfields, radar stations and
aircraft factories were attacked. 16 Bf 110's bombed Manston and destroyed four
hangars. Dover and Folkestone balloon barrages were attacked. Hawkinge,
Sealand, and Lympne airfields were attacked. Railway lines were bombed at
Southampton.
Night: Small nuisance raids.
Thursday, August 15th : The Luftwaffe's 'Black Thursday'.
60 Ju 87's and 40 Bf 109's attacked Lympne, Hawkinge and Manston. Damage to
electricity supplies put Dover, Rye and Foreness radar stations off the air.
From Norway, 63 He 111's and 21 Bf 110's of Luftflotte V tried to attack
airfields in the north of England. Intercepted by 72, 14, 65, 79 and 607
squadrons, 8 He 111's and 7 Bf 110's were downed. No airfields were hit. A
second raid of 50 Ju 88's without fighter escort was met by 616 squadron and a
flight of 73 squadron and six bombers were destroyed. Some bombs fell on
Bridlington and 10 aircraft were destroyed on the ground at RAF Driffield. Luftflotte
V never attacked in daylight again.
There were continuous attacks on the south of England. In the afternoon
raids of 100 and 150 planes were intercepted by 1, 17, 32, 64, 151 and 601
squadrons. Martlesham Heath airfield was strafed and bombed. Later more heavy
raids hit Biggin Hill, Worthy Down, Odiham and Croydon airfields The RAF
flew a total of 974 sorties and the Luftwaffe 1,786 sorties that day.
RAF
losses : 30 German losses : 75
Night: Bristol, Birmingham, Southampton,
Boston, Harwich, Swansea Crewe and Beverley were bombed.
Friday, August 16th : Attacks began around lunchtime. West Malling,
Tangmere, Westhampnet, and Manston fighter airfields were attacked. West
Malling was put out of action for four days. Non-fighter airfields were
attacked at Farnborough, Harwell, Brize Norton, Gosport and Lee-on-Solent. Many
aircrafts were destroyed on the ground but only three of these were fighters.
Ventnor radar station was put out of action. London docks were heavily
bombed.
Night: Bristol, Chester, Portland,
Newport, Swansea, Worcester and Tavistock were bombed.
Saturday, August 17th :
Luftwaffe rested. Only one reconnaissance mission was flown.
Night: Small raids on Wales, Midlands and
NW England.
Sunday, August 18th : Huge German formations attacked
West Malling, Biggin Hill, Kenley and Croydon around midday. Other airfields
and Poling radar station were attacked. Ju 87's were so roughly handled by
Spitfires and Hurricanes of 152 and 43 Squadrons respectively that the Stukas
were withdrawn from the battle. Galland's second in command, Oberleutnant
Schopfel shot down four Hurricanes in two minutes over Folkestone.
Night: Bristol, eastern England and
south Wales were bombed. Mines were laid in the Bristol Channel.
Total aircraft losses from August 8th to August 18th :
RAF 175 /
Luftwaffe 332