Air Operations, Europe

Kesselring sends 50 Stukas to attack Convoy 'Bacon' in the English Channel. The destroyer Codington is sunk off Dover and the destroyer Wren off Aldeburgh, Suffolk. 1 other destroyer is damaged.

Battle of Britain

Day 18

Weather - Fair in Dover Straits, cloudy in Channel. Rain over most of country.

Combat - Just after 0800 hours a raid of Ju-87's and Me-109's approach Portland and Swanage and is met by Hurricanes of No: 145 and 238 Squadrons. At about 0930 hours, a convoy is bombed off Lowestoft. Another raid on Swanage at about 0945 hours is met by Spitfires of No: 609 Sqaudron and Hurricanes of No: 145 Sqaudron. Later, Spitfires of No: 234 Squadron engage Ju-88's off Lands End.

An Me-109E-1

Into the afternoon and Dover is bombed at about 1430 hours by Me-109's. This is the first time during the battle a fighter has been used to bomb a target. Another small raid attacks ships off Dungeness at 1600 hours. Neither of these raids is intercepted. Between 1700 hours and 1830 hours two small raids are intercepted, with success, off Dover; one by Spitfires of No: 41 Squadron and the other by Hurricanes of No: 615 Squadron. A third raid succeeds in bombing a Navy destroyer, which sinks, off the Suffolk coast at Aldeburgh.

During the night no bombing raids are reported, but raids are plotted around the British coastline, probably mine-laying.

R.A.F. Losses: 6 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 1 pilot killed and 1 wounded.

Luftwaffe Losses: 8 aircraft damaged or destroyed and 15 pilots and aircrew killed or missing.

NOTE: Losses include non-combat patrols and accidents.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The British destroyer Wren, escorting minesweeping trawlers, is sunk off Aldeburgh by German bombing. 35 of her crew are lost. Survivors are picked up by the British destroyer Montrose, badly damaged in the attack, and the minesweeper Halcyon.
• U-34 sinks the British steamers Sambre (5260t) and Thiara (10,364t) south southwest of Rockall. The British destroyer Winchelsea rescues the entire crew from Sambre but 25 crewmen from Thiara are lost.
• The British tanker Sylvestria (11,938t) sinks on a mine about 3 miles from Inchkeith Light House. 10 of her crew are lost.

Diplomatic Relations

• The Bulgarian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister also visit Berchtesgaden for talks with Hitler.
• Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka informs the British ambassador in Tokyo that Japan 'was determined, and in fact, compelled by circumstances, to step up a new order in the Far East,' while London was 'resisting these tendencies with every means.... It was therefore difficult to see how [a] fundamental clash of interests and purpose could be avoided.'
• A Romanian mission arrives in Rome, its members attired in their new Nazi-styled uniforms, to pay obsequious tribute to their new Axis partners. The Italians are less than impressed. Ciano writes, 'They are simply disgusting.' The king says the Romanians look like a bunch of hotel porters. Mussolini advises his visitors to rid Romania of all Jewish influence.

East Africa

French troops abandon the vital Jirre pass which opens British Somaliland to a possible Italian invasion.

Japan

Japanese secret police begin arresting foreign nationals on various charges vaguely associated with alleged spying activities.