"BATTLE OF BRITAIN DAY"

Chronicle (Levin), 17 September 1946, Page 4

"BATTLE OF BRITAIN DAY"

GREAT R.A.F VICTORY SIX YEARS. 4GQ NAZIS LOST 185 PLANES, IN ' ONE DAY ' Sunday, September 15, was. the anhiversary of the greatest defeat i of the Luftwaffe during the war, a victory for the Empire's figh.ter pilots which was probably, a turning point in the battle against Nazi aggression. Qn that day in 1940, no less than 185 German fighters and bombers were destroyed b.y our Hurricanes and Spitfires in a daylong battle over the squth of England, the North Sea ahd the channel. This was the number of qonfirmed victories; it is believed that over 200, would b.e a more accurate figure. This great victory was commemorated all over the Empire yesterday as "Battle of Britain Day." A fly-past of more than 30.0 fighters over London was a part o.f the proceedings. The Nazi bomhers and fighters took off from fields in France and the Lqw Countries to stage what was to be the greatest air assault to that time on England, a prelude to the ipvasion of England by the Wehrmacht — the "invincible" xGerman Army. The first enemy patrols arrived soon after 9 a.m. and at 11.30 Goering launched the first wave of the attack, consisting of a hundred or more aircraft, followed soon after by 150 more. Their objective was Londo.n. Battle was soon joined and raged for about three-quarters of an hour over East Kent and London. Some hundred German bombers burst through our defence and reached the capital. A number of them were intercepted above the centre of the city just . as Big Ben was striking. The battle took place roughly in a cube about 80 miles lpng, 38 broad and from five to six miles higli. In this space between 150 and 200 individual combats took place. Many of these developed into stern chases, which were broken off a few miles from the French coast. The enemy soon realised that our defence was alert and awake, for the German pilots were heard calling "out to each other over their radios, "Achtung, Schpitfeucr." Dive attacks carried out by one squadron of Spitfires threw the enemy , into the greatest possible co'nfusion. Each time they dived through the formations they delivered beam attacks as they went. The bombers turned, almost blindly it seemed, aircraft dropping in flames or in uncontrolled dives within every few miles of the return journey. The Nazis seemed unable to profit by their numerical superiority. A single Hurricane for example, encountered 12 yellow nosed Messerschmitts flying straight at it. The pilot dived urider them, but swooped upwards and shot down the rear enemy aircraft from underneath. As he still had plenty of speed the pilo.t halfrolled off the top of his loop and followed the formation, which had gpparently not perceived the fate of their comrade. The British pilot accordingly shot down another German and damaged a second before they realised what was happening, and he was forced, being still outnumbered nine to one, to break off the action-. The morning attack ended at 12.30. The Germans came back in full strength in the afternoon, but 21 of our squadrons met them and "tore into tliem." As in the morning,- there were over 200 ipdividual combats. A single British aircraft, in this case a Hurricane, piloted by a group captain, encountered a large formation of German fighters and bomhers and went into the attack alone. "There were," he said on his return, "no other British fighters in sight, so I made a head-on attack on the first section of. the bombers, each attack from climbir|g.beam ;u, Do.imier lett|the f dXmatioiy ■ .ahd .^a'st ?fifeijght. ^Tithf no ammuhition lef-t 1 cquld hpt finish it off. I last saw the bomb'er at 3000 feet, dropping slowly ." While the fight lasted the Germans were destroyed at a rate of two aircraft a minute. That afternoon's attack cost them 97 destroyed. In the entire day we lost 25 aircraft, but fourteen pilo.ts were saved. Such was the greatest tritimph of the Royal Air Fojce's history, the day when the power of the Nazi Luftwaffe was' broken and scattered, never to recoyer.