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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1821.PDF
JUNE 27, 1940 559 in the Am Air Raids on Britain : Italy Raided : France Capitulates THE first large-scale air raid on Great Britain tookplace on the night of June 18-19 (Tuesday-Wednes-day), when some hundred or more German bombers crossed our East Coast. The moon was nearly at the full, and the night was exceptionally bright. The raiders spread out fan wise, according to an Air Ministry announce- ment, and while some attacked the Thames estuary others apparently made for aerodromes of the R.A.F. No doubt this is to be taken as a delicate compliment to the work of our aeroplanes. The Germans would certainly like to curb the activities of the bomber squadrons which have been making havoc of parts of the Ruhr and other military objectives in Western Germany, and likewise they knew that their own raiding would be made safer if they could put some of our fighter aerodromes out of action. The damage which they did was not great. A number of '- bombs fell together on a row of two-storey houses in a working-class district of a town in Cambridgeshire. Nine people were killed in them and a number of others were injured. Houses in several villages were hit, and also a school. Altogether, twelve civilians were killed, including two or three elderly folk who died from heart failure, and thirty or more were injured. One bomb hit a pipe-line leading to an oil wharf on the Thames estuary and caused a fire, but it was soon extinguished. The attacks on aero- dromes were not successful. Our Fighters Active '"THE defences were active, and as a result six bombers -*- were shot down by fighters and one by A.A. gunfire, while several more were shot about and were unlikely to get home. As was to be expected, the fighters depended mainly on the searchlights to guide them to where the bombers were, but in the bright moonlight the fighters themselves were not invisible to the bomber crews, and in consequence two fighter Blenheims were damaged by enemy fire. Gne got a bullet through the petrol tank but was safely landed, while another was so shot about that the pilot had to come down in his parachute. Before he had to jump he had shot down his opponent. The bombers shot down were, so far as our information goes, all of the type Heinkel in. The first success of the night fell to a Flight Lieutenant over the Thames estuary just before 1 a.m. He was on the ground when he saw a bomber caught in a searchlight at 8,000 feet, so he climbed at his best speed. In fact, he got two Heinkels within ten minutes. He gave the following account of the action: — "I attacked from astern, closing to 50 yards and giv- ing the enemy a four-seconds' burst," he said. "I saw my bullets enter the enemy aircraft and my windscreen was covered with oil. The enemy broke away and spiralled downwards out of the searchlight beams. I then climbed to where another enemy aircraft was illuminated at 12,000 feet and fired five two-second bursts. Heavy smoke came from the enemy and a parachute opened close to it. This aircraft also went down in a spiral dive." Some of the Heinkels fell in the sea, others in Kent and East Anglia. A number of their crews came down by parachute and were taken prisoner. In one case a bomber shot down by'a Spitfire off the south-east coast made a crash landing on the sands a few yards from a large new hotel. Three of its crew were unhurt, but a fourth, who had tried to make a parachute jump, had become en- tangled with the tail and was killed. The next night, Wednesday-Thursday, June 19-20, the Germans came again in greater strength, and the raids extended up to the Scottish coast. A number of bombs were dropped on the north-east coast. Damage was done R U S S I A INDIA AT OCEAN This map shows the various areas in which R.A.F. bombers andfighters, as well as bombers of the S.A.A.F. and of Southern Rhodesia, have been in action against the Empire of Italy. in three towns, but fires which were caused were all brought under control. Other bombs fell at scattered points in Lincolnshire, in the south of England and in South Wales. Eight civilians were killed and some sixty injured. Six people died from shock and heart failure. Three German bombers were shot down by Spitfire pilots during this raid. A fourth was disabled and is unlikely to have reached home. The night's successes were shared by three fighter squadrons, each of which has had active experience over France. The first came shortly before midnight, when a Heinkel in was disabled near the mouth of the Tees. A quarter of an hour later a pilot from another squadron made a head-on attack on an enemy bomber which had been picked up by searchlights near the Humber. The searchlight crew saw the bomber crash. An hour later a pilot from a third fighter squadron shot a Heinkel down in flames near Grimsby, while almost at the same time his squadron leader was destroying another Heinkel farther south. Before dawn two local auxiliary coastguard patrols saw an aircraft, obviously in difficulties, off the coast. Flames were issuing from one of its engines, and it crashed in shallow water close to the beach. The coastguard men gave the alarm and ran to the beach. They intercepted the crew of the aircraft, a German Heinkel bomber, as they swam and waded ashore with the help of their rubber dinghy. It seemed at first that the crew of the Heinkel, consisting of four men, would show fight. The auxiliary coastguard men thereupon covered the Germans with their firearms, while one of their number gave another alarm. Thereupon the Germans shouted and surrendered to the auxiliary coastguard men. They were searched and dis- armed and detained until the arrival of the military, who hastened to the scene on receipt of the alarm signal which had been passed on by the nearest coastguard station.
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