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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2345.PDF
AUGUST 22, .1940 141 in the Am Enemy's Heavy Losses : London Suburbs Raided : Streets Machine-gunned : German Oil Plants Destroyed IN our last issue we brought the story up to the heavyair fighting on Sunday, August 11. Jt will be remem-bered that Thursday, the 8th, saw the first mass air attack on Britain, when we shot down 61 enemy aircraft and lost 18 of our own machines, from which three of our pilots escaped safely. There was a lull on the Friday and Saturday, on each of which days we only destroyed one German machine, losing none of our own on the Friday and one on the Saturday. The Sunday, however, proved to be the first day of a continuous series of heavy attacks, sometimes by 500 German machines at once. On the Sunday we shot down altogether 65, on the Monday 62, and on the Tuesday 78. On the Wednesday the intensity of the attacks died away to a considerable degree, and we only destroyed 31 enemy aircraft (24 by fighters and 7 by fire from the ground). Our own losses during these days were: Sunday 26, of which two of the pilots were safe; Monday 13, of which one pilot was safe ; Tuesday 13, of which 10 pilots were safe though three were wounded ; Wednesday 7, but two of the pilots were safe. On Thursday, August 15, our total of victories passed the century for the first time, as we destroyed 180 German machines, losing 34 fighters, but 8 pilots survived. On Friday we bagged 75 and on Sunday over 140. Fighters and Bombers ? '-! '"THE interesting point about these figures is the varying •*• proportion of fighters and bombers which the Germans lost. On Sunday, the nth, they lost 22 bombers and Me. Jaguars to 37 fighters. These figures do not include one seaplane shot down and six machines of unspecified type shot down by the fire of naval vessels. On that day it was obvious that the German fighters were engaging our defenders very hotly, and though they lost 37 fighters to our 26, they had evidently done something to protect their own bombers. On Monday, August 12, the figures do not tell quite so clear a story, as the Air Minis- try communique has classed the Jaguars among the twin- engined fighters, perhaps because in the heat of combat . our pilots could not always distinguish one sort of Me. no from another, though it would be more instructive if the Jaguars were classed among the bombers. However, it is certain that we destroyed 26 bombers of the Ju. 87 and Dornier types, as well as n Me. 110s. The proportion of bombers to fighters destroyed was growing. Tuesday, August 13, was a more satisfactory day, as we destroyed APPARITIONS: Strangeshapes are to be seen in our skies these days whenA.A. gun fire puts up a barrage against balloonstrafers. 64 bombers and fighter- bombers to 14 fighters, while we only lost three pilots killed and three wounded (13 machines lost). On that day the German fighters had conspicuously failed to protect the bombers in their charge and did us very little damage. In fact, for that day the tactics of the fighter escort broke down com- pletely. We cannot ex- plain why. All through this period the Gen^n iDMta were much heavier than ours, but compared with the numbers of German machines employed they were not anything like crippling, and they ought not to have been such as to spread alarm and despondency among the airmen of the German fighter squadrons. Yet we must conclude that on that day the enemy fighters did not engage our Hurricanes and Spitfires so closely as to keep them from wreaking something very like havoc among the various types of bomber which were sent against us. The object of the attacks on those days was to cripple a number of our ports, while as a secondary object several attacks were made on some of our aerodromes. Attack on Portsmouth ON the Monday morning proceedings opened with a raidoff the Kent coast by 10 dive-bombers escorted by a dozen Me. 109s. This time the escort absorbed the atten- tion of the fighters which went up to meet the raid and chased it all the way back to France. Six of the Messer- schmitts were shot down. Three hours later 30 Ju. 87s escorted by about 50 Me. and He. fighters attacked shipping in the Channel. This time it was the dive-bombers which suffered most as six of them went down, accompanied by three of the fighters. One of the latter was a Heinkel 113, the latest type of German fighter to take part in the war. Then raid after raid appeared. One strongish force dropped bombs on the Isle of Wight, where a church and some houses were damaged. The I biggest fight of the day took place over Portsmouth. The raiders consisted of Ju., He., and Do. machines escorted by fighters. One account says that about 200 machines started on this raid, but that UNCIVIL AVIATION : TheGermans claim that pros- perity follows their occupa-tion of territory. Here i3 Le Bourget on a busy day.
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