September 19th, 1940 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - marshalling yards at Mannheim.
78 Sqn. Eight aircraft. Five bombed primary, three bombed alternatives.
RAF Fighter Command: Little daylight activity. At night London and Merseyside are bombed and mines are laid in the Thames and Mersey Estuaries.
The weather is showery. During the day, Luftwaffe activity is on a much reduced scale. There are no major attacks, but a considerable number of single German aircraft reconnaissances are made over South East England, South Wales and the Liverpool area, and also over convoys. It has been noticed that raids often appeared to originate in the Liverpool area without having been previously plotted. Furthermore raids are sometimes lost some 60 miles (97 kilometers) North of Milford Haven. In the South and East at 0950 hours a raid crossed the coast at Beachy Head flew North over London to as far as the Sutton Bridge area and is shot down near Newmarket at 1050 hours. At 1045 hours one raid which flew to Harwich and North West inland is intercepted and shot down near a convoy off Orfordness. At 1442 hours a raid appeared 60 miles (97 kilometers) South of Tangmere crossed the coast there and went North to Kenley, Northolt and the Wittering area, thence to Peterborough. Fighters followed this Luftwaffe aircraft, which is a Ju 88 and which force landed intact at Oaklington, east of Peterborough, owing to engine trouble. Throughout the day many single reconnaissances are active in the Kent and Sussex areas, two of which are destroyed by our fighters (plus one probable). In the South West and West, two raids are plotted in the Liverpool area in the morning. At 1930 hours, two raids appeared in the Liverpool area and at that time ten German aircraft are off the coast of Wales approaching Liverpool. The tracks of these raids appeared to have been completely lost between South West and North Wales. At 2005 hours 13 raids, each of one single aircraft, came from the North West corner of the Cherbourg Peninsular and went inland from the Needles to Selsey Bill.
During the night of 19/20 September, the Germans attack London and Merseyside. At 1956 hours London received the "red" warning as raids commenced to come from the mouth of the Scheldt. They are flying at about 20,000 feet (6 096 meters) straight up the Thames Estuary to the London area. At 2100 hours there are about six raids operating over London. A similar number of raids is in the Isle of Wight area, in Kent and in Wales, making a total of some 30 Luftwaffe aircraft inland with many more on their way. At 2130 hours German aircraft are still crossing the coast in fair numbers, but only in the sector between the Isle of Wight and Harwich. The Wales area is clearing and Luftwaffe aircraft are going South to Devon and Somerset and at 2200 hours the West Country is practically clear and German activity is confined to Kent, London and the Thames Estuary, off the Suffolk and possibly the Sussex Coasts. During the night considerable Luftwaffe activity occurred in the East Anglian area.
RAF Fighter Command claims 4-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft and anti-aircraft batters claim 1-0-0 aircraft. The RAF lost no aircraft.The first of three "Eagle Squadrons", No. 71 Squadron, manned by American volunteers, is formed at RAF Church Fenton, Yorkshire, England. On 5 February 1941, the squadron became operational from RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, Englad with Hurricane Mk. Is. On 29 September 1942 the squadron, transferred to the USAAF to become the 4th Fighter Group, as the 334th Fighter Squadron.
Corvette HMS Petunia launched. Destroyer
HMCS Iroquois (ex- Athabaskan) laid
down Vickers-Armstrong
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
FRANCE: The German invasion fleet starts to pull out of the Channel ports to avoid further damage from Bomber Command.
GERMANY: The government issues a decree which forbids "Aryan" women from working in Jewish homes.
U-69 launched.
ITALY: Ribbentrop meets
Mussolini and Ciano in Rome and warns them not to attack Greece or
Yugoslavia. He is told they will capture Egypt first.
AFRICA: A regular air-bridge has been opened across Central Africa by the RAF,
over which short-range aircraft can be transported to strengthen the units in Egypt. A
base has been set up in Takoradi, the Gold Coast, where aircraft arriving from England by
ship can be equipped and then moved to Cairo via a 4,350 mile route across Nigeria, French
Equatorial Africa and the Sudan.
PACIFIC: The French colony of New Caledonia declares its allegiance to de
Gaulle.
U.S.A.:
The existence of the cavity magnetron is first revealed to the Americans by the British at a party Washington's Wardman Park Hotel, hosted by the millionaire and amateur scientist Alfred Loomis. (Cris Wetton)