Battle of Britain

Day 8

Weather - Dull and overcast with occasional rain throughout the country.

Combat - Again, poor weather keeps the action to a minimum. A raid is carried out on the I.C.I. Factory at Ardeer in Ayrshire by He-111's of KG26, which are attacked by Spitfires of No: 603 Squadron. Small raids cross the coast during the afternoon, two of which sees Hurricanes of No: 64 Squadron deal with a Do-17 that dropped bombs near Kenley and Spitfires of No: 92 Squadron attack a Ju-88 over Bristol.

The night brings bombing raids in the Southwest on Port Talbot, near Swansea and Radstock with mines being dropped in the Bristol Channel and along the Plymouth coast. Raids are also plotted in the East with bombs dropping near Rochester, Felixstowe, Harwich, Chatham, near Barking and Gillingham.

R.A.F. Losses: 2 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 1 pilot killed or missing and 1 wounded.

Luftwaffe Losses: 6 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 11 pilots and aircrew killed or missing and 3 wounded.

NOTE: Losses include non-combat patrols and accidents.

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-57 sinks the British steamer Manipur (8652t) from convoy HX-55A 8 miles northwest of Cape Wrath with the loss of 14 crewmen. The Canadian destroyer Skeena rescues 64 survivors.
• U-43 sinks the British steamer Fellside (3509t), a straggler from convoy OA-184 135 miles northwest of Bloody Foreland with the loss of 12 crewmen. 21 survivors are rescued and landed at Liverpool.
• U-57 sinks the Swedish steamer O A Brodin (1960t) 15 miles northwest of the Orkneys with the loss of 3 crewmen. The British minesweeping trawler Sicyon picks up 21 survivors.
• The British mooring vessel Steady (758t) sinks on a mine at Newhaven. There are 13 survivors.
• The Estonian steamer Leola is sunk by German bombing 60 miles east of the Scillies with the loss of 2 of her crew. Survivors are rescued by the Belgian trawler Roger Jeannine.

Germany, Planning

With the imminent need to defend their cities against bombers from the UK, the Germans begin to plan the formation of night-fighter squadrons. These will be based at first on Dutch airfields to intercept incoming flights.

Mediterranean

The Finnish steamer Wiiri (3525t) is sunk by Italian bombing 30 miles off Malta. 26 of her crew are rescued.