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September 11th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)

4 Group (Whitley):

10 Sqn. (P4941). Rear gunner bailed out over Germany on night operations. Flt Lt D.G. Tomlinson and rest of crew returned safely. 51 Sqn. One aircraft damaged by Flak.
Bombing - shipyards and fuel stocks at Bremen - industrial targets at Berlin.
10 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Bremen. All bombed. One tail-gunner 'lost' over target.
51 Sqn. Four aircraft to Berlin. All bombed primary, one damaged by Flak. Four aircraft to Bremen. All bombed.
78 Sqn. Five aircraft to Berlin. One returned early, two bombed primary, two bombed alternatives.

Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command operations: Four airfields attacked. Daylight raids on London, Southampton, Portsmouth. At night London and Merseyside are raided.

In daylight small-scale attacks are made on Portsmouth, Tangmere, Poling and Weymouth. 

Port Victoria on the Isle of Grain is attacked in mid-afternoon when about 300 aircraft headed for London, most of them fighters, and only 36 proceeded to bomb the capital. A public shelter was hit in Lewisham High Street where 100 casualties resulted, and 50 people were buried by rubble when Deptford Central Hall was hit. 

Meanwhile eight Bf110s dive-bombed the Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft works at Eastleigh, Southampton killing 28 and injuring 70 when a shelter was hit.

The weather is mainly fine with some local showers and cloud in the Channel and Thames Estuary. One major attack is made on the Kent Coast and inland at about 1530 hours by some 250 Luftwaffe aircraft, and of these about 30 penetrated Central London. Other activity is confined to an attack on the Portsmouth area simultaneously with that on East Kent, and to reconnaissance flights round the Coasts with a few penetrating inland. On the North and East Coast, two reconnaissances are made in the Firth of Forth, one off the Humber and one off Yarmouth. In the South, up to 1200 hours there are six patrols by single aircraft in the East Kent area, one of which is identified as a Henschel, and there are two reconnaissances in the Thames Estuary. At 1505 hours two raids consisting of 20 aircraft at 25,000 feet (7 620 meters) and six plus at 11,000 feet (3 353 meters) crossed the Coast at Dover and flew north to the Estuary and to Essex. At 1534 hours, some 150 to 200 aircraft at 15,000 and 20,000 feet (4 572 and 6 096 meters) crossed at Folkestone and flew North West to Maidstone. Of these, 30 penetrated to Central London but a split, however, turned and flew towards Brooklands. These 30 are intercepted by four RAF squadrons. At 1545 hours, a second wave of 100 enemy aircraft crossed the Coast between Dungeness and Dover and followed a course similar to that of the previous raid. Sixteen RAF squadrons are detailed to patrol aerodromes and to intercept and considerable casualties are inflicted. During the attack Dover is bombed and at 1545 hours is shelled by shore batteries from France. At 1700 hours, a raid of five enemy aircraft at 15,000 feet (4 572 meters) approached London from the South-west and may have formed part of the raid attacking Portsmouth. It finally turned South-easterly towards Maidstone. In the South and South West at about 1130 hours one aircraft at 15,000 feet (4 572 meters) crossed the coast at Beachy Head and flew near Biggin Hill and on towards Central London returning on a reciprocal track. Reconnaissances are made off the Isle of Wight, Start Point and the Bristol Channel. At 1610 hours, at the same time as the attack is being made on London, 75 German aircraft came in over Portsmouth and Southampton and flew inland over Hampshire and Sussex. Three RAF squadrons are sent to intercept and enemy aircraft are shot down.

     During the night of 11/12 September, London and Merseyside are attacked. German activity commenced at about 2020 hours, when the first raids, originating from Le Havre and Dieppe, France, crossed the Coast between Beachy Head and Shoreham. These early raids approached London but failed to penetrate the antiaircraft Barrage and turned South again. From 2150 to about 0130 hours, a stream of raids of one or one plus aircraft from Cherbourg, France, flew to the Bristol Channel and then across Wales to the Liverpool area. At the same time there are scattered raids in the Midlands. At 2345 hours, raids of single aircraft crossed the Coast at Dungeness and penetrated the London area, returning over Tangmere. By 0145 hours raids are becoming more numerous in the London area, but had practically withdrawn from the rest of the Country. At 0300 hours, raids ceased coming to London from the South, but started approaching from the North-east, originating from the Dutch Islands and returning over Beachy Head. This activity continued until about 0500 hours, and by 0530 hours the whole Country is clear. Minelaying is suspected in the Thames Estuary, off the Costs of Northumberland and Aberdeenshire, off the Sussex Cost and South of the Isle of Man.

Losses: Luftwaffe, 25; RAF, 29.

London: Dr. Arthur Douglas Merriman (1892-1972), a government scientist, with help from his boss, removed most of the explosive from a bomb in Regent Street, so that it caused little damage when it went off. (George Cross)

Westminster: Churchill tells the Commons that he expects Germany will try to invade in the next week.

London: The Lord Mayor opens the Air Raid Relief Fund.

Corvette HMS Asphodel commissioned.


GERMANY: Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief:
The British attack on Berlin on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning should be denounced by the press with blazing indignation as an attack on our national symbols. However, in the interests of good preparation, the press should as a general principle wait until the morning papers to bring out a summarising view, unless the individual newspapers have already done satisfactory groundwork of their own account, without the need of a previous press conference.

The Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, tells the Czechs that they had better get used to German occupation in a blunt speech.

U-507 laid down.

ROMANIA: Adolf Hitler sends German army and air force reinforcements to Romania to protect precious oil reserves and to prepare an Eastern European base of operations for further assaults against the Soviet Union.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Three Vichy French light cruisers, FR Gloire, Montcalm and Georges Leygues and their destroyer escort, destroyers pass through the Strait of Gibraltar en route to Dakar. All but one of the cruisers arrive at Dakar just as Operation MENACE, the British raid on Dakar, is about to get underway. Admiral Sir Dudley North, Flag Officer, North Atlantic, at Gibraltar, is held responsible for allowing their passage and he is relieved of his command.

LIBYA: The Italian army begins it North African campaign by crossing into Egypt.

CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Cougar (ex yacht Breezin' Thru) commissioned at Esquimalt. Postwar renamed Breezin' Thru. Sunk off Kingston, Jamaica in a September 1950 hurricane.

Minesweeper HMCS Chignecto laid down North Vancouver, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: The first demonstration of remote computing occurs. George Stibitz, a scientist at Bell Telephone Laboratories, had developed a digital calculator using dry cell batteries, metal strips from a tobacco can, and flashlight bulbs. The binary adding machine, called the Model I Complex Calculator, was used at Bell Labs for the next nine years. Stibitz demonstrated the machine to the American Mathematical Association at Dartmouth College in Hannover, New Hampshire. He asked mathematicians to propose problems, which he transmitted to the computer in New York City via a teleprinter. The answers returned over the telephone line hookup within a minute. The presentation is believed to have been the first-ever demonstration of remote computing.

Al Jolson returns to Broadway after a 9-year absence in the play "Hold On To Your Hats" at the Shubert Theatre. The songs that night included "Swanee," "April Showers," "You Made Me Love You," "Sonny Boy" and "My Mammy."

Submarine USS Drum laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-28 sank SS Maas and damaged SS Harpenden in Convoy OA-210.
U-99 sank SS Albionic.

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