August 18th, 1940 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Battle of Britain: Do17s of KG 76 bomb Kenley and Biggin Hill, only two aircraft from
9.Staffel returning unscathed.
RAF Fighter Command:
First Luftwaffe intruders of the day were six reconnaissance aircraft
including a Bf110 of LG 2 which was shot down at 31,000 feet over Manston.
Come midday and an enormous force, 350-strong was assembling. 10 and 11 Groups' squadrons were called to readiness. Three waves of raiders crossed the coast between North Foreland and Dungeness heading for targets south and south-east of London. They were first intercepted by 54 Squadron from its advanced base at Manston, soon joined by 70 fighters from nine other squadrons. One raid dropped 33 bombs on Deal.
Other raids attacked Biggin Hill ,Kenley and West Malling airfields. The West Malling gunners claimed two aircraft, but two hangars were hit and three Lysanders wrecked. Nine Do 17Zs of 9/KG 76 attacked Biggin Hill at low-level, strafing and bombing with mixed long and short-delay fused bombs, but 32 and 111 Squadrons shot down two, two crashed in the Channel and three force-landed in France, as the Dorniers left, three waves of Ju88s hit the stations landing ground. About 150 HE bombs were dropped with 60 hitting the airfield, the rest hitting the golf course. Some small anti-personnel bombs were also dropped on the gun sites, killing two men by a Bofors gun. Two of the Ju88s were destroyed, one by Flt. Lt. Stanford Tuck, forced by return fire to bale out of his 92 Squadron Spitfire.
Kenley was attacked shortly before West Malling. Nine Do17Zs of KG76 attacked the aerodrome from between 50 and 100 feet, followed Five minutes later the high level force arrived scoring hits on the Station Armoury, Sick Quarters and damaging six Hurricanes of 615 Squadron. Two of the low-flying element were brought down by Parachute and Cable rocket defences.. About 100 bombs were dropped. Twelve personnel died, 20 were injured. 615 Squadron responding to the raid was caught by the rear support Bf109s, and four aircraft shot down. One pilot was killed.
The afternoon phase began with six raids approaching east of the Isle of Wight just before
14:00. 70 Ju87s of StG77 accompanied by 24 Ju88s of KG54 attacked Poling CH radar station
bringing down two pylons and disabling the station for a week, Ford naval air station
was raided losing two hangars destroyed, a third of the quarters and killing 14, Gosport and finally
Thorney Island where at 14:30 several Ju87s bombed a hangar and started a fire.
The Poling Stukas were intercepted by in turn 43, 152, 601 and 602 Squadrons with 234 Squadron taking on the top cover. In all 16 Ju 87s were shot down, two more crash landed and four were badly damaged, in addition to 8 escorting Bf109s shot down. The RAF lost four Spitfires and two Hurricanes.
At 15:30 a dozen Bf109s strafed Manston destroying two Spitfires, killing one man and injuring 15.
Two hours later 8 raids crossed over the Essex coast via the Blackwater and Thames
estuaries. 54 and 151 Squadrons came into action to hinder the bombing of North Weald and
Hornchurch.
During the night raids took place on South Wales, RAF Sealand (Chester), Birmingham and
Wolverhampton. Another bomb at Hook, Hampshire, exploded killing five members of a bomb
disposal squad dealing with it.
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - Caproni aircraft factory at Milan and
Aluminium factory at Rheinfehlen.
10 Sqn. Ten
aircraft to Rheinfehlen. Very bad weather, eight bombed primary.
58 Sqn. Ten
aircraft to Rheinfehlen. Six bombed primary, one bombed an alternative target.
77 Sqn. Four
aircraft to Milan. Four bombed primary, one claimed a fighter destroyed.
In the heaviest day of fighting so far, the Luftwaffe loses 69 planes to the RAF's
33;
another 29 RAF machines are wrecked on airfields.
L/Sgt William John Button (d. 1969), Royal Engineers, showed great coolness before and
after a bomb on which he was working exploded, killing five sappers. (VC)
GERMANY: Berlin: Göring rebukes the Luftwaffe generals for their disappointing campaign, and the
fighter ace, Adolf Galland asks for Spitfires in reply.
ETHIOPIA: Vickers Wellesley's of the RAF bomb Addis Ababa from Perim Island.
NORTH AMERICA:
Canada and the USA set up a joint defence board to co-ordinate military decisions.
US President Franklin D Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister W.L. MacKenzie King
sign the Ogdensburg Agreement which provides for a Permanent Joint Board for the defence
of the US and Canada.
U.S.A.: Walter P. Chrysler, the auto tycoon and founder of the Chrysler Corporation, dies at age 66. Chrysler had been president of the Buick Motor Company and resigned in 1919 to take control of the Maxwell Motor Company. In 1925, the company was renamed the Chrysler Corporation the manufacturer of Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler automobiles.
In a display of utter bad taste and stupidity, Jimmy Powers, the sports editor of the New York Daily News newspaper, writes that the bad play of baseball's New York Yankees can be attributed to "a mass polio epidemic" contracted from former Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig. Gehrig, who is suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and quit the game in 1939, and his former roommate, catcher Bill Dickey, sue the Daily News and the newspaper retracts the story on 26 September and apologizes.
Light cruiser USS Columbia laid down.