stona
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- Steve
Wednesday 16 October
The weather closed in again, fog blanketing airfields in France and southern England severely limited daytime operations.
Had they flown operations today 11 Group’s pilots would have received another revision of tactics from Keith Park. Park decided to abandon the tactic of letting his squadrons operate rigidly in pairs, or even in Wings.
“Controllers will see the importance of ordering pairs or Wings to rendezvous over a point at operating height in order that they can climb quickly, singly, and not hold one another back by trying to climb in an unwieldy mass…Bitter experience has proved time and again that it is better to intercept the enemy with one squadron above him than by a whole wing crawling up below, probably after the enemy has dropped his bombs.”
It was one of Park’s great strengths, that he was never rigid in the way he operated his squadrons and was always prepared to react to changes in the enemy’s tactics.
Corporal Bob Morris, who we met earlier, had a chance to examine a downed Bf 109 today. He was not overly impressed.
“I looked in the cockpit and by our standards it was nowhere near up to the Spitfire’s instrumental standards. It was very bleak.”
The Luftwaffe lost three of its bombers on operations against England today with another two damaged. 3 more bombers were lost on operations tonight, one a rare victory for a Defiant night fighter. This was an He 111 of 2./Kgr. 126 shot down by a No 264 Squadron Defiant, crashing on Creasey’s Farm, Hutton at 02.00. Two of the crew managed to bale out and survived, the other two were killed. The CEAR states that the aircraft was completely destroyed and this photograph, taken the following morning would confirm that.
Fighter Command suffered no operational losses today. Just one of No 249 Squadron’s Hurricanes was damaged by return fire from a Do 17 and made a forced landing. P/O K T Lofts was unhurt. Both sides suffered a number of accidents, a reflection of the poor weather.
Tonight, an estimated 150 Luftwaffe aircraft raided the London area with the rest of the country being visited by 50 more. Birmingham was heavily bombed, with other bombing reported in the South West, Liverpool and isolated places across the UK.
Bomber Command despatched 73 sorties to targets in Bremen, Kiel, Merseburg and Bordeaux. 3 aircraft failed to return and 10 Hampdens and 4 Wellingtons crashed on their return when their bases were fogged in.
The weather closed in again, fog blanketing airfields in France and southern England severely limited daytime operations.
Had they flown operations today 11 Group’s pilots would have received another revision of tactics from Keith Park. Park decided to abandon the tactic of letting his squadrons operate rigidly in pairs, or even in Wings.
“Controllers will see the importance of ordering pairs or Wings to rendezvous over a point at operating height in order that they can climb quickly, singly, and not hold one another back by trying to climb in an unwieldy mass…Bitter experience has proved time and again that it is better to intercept the enemy with one squadron above him than by a whole wing crawling up below, probably after the enemy has dropped his bombs.”
It was one of Park’s great strengths, that he was never rigid in the way he operated his squadrons and was always prepared to react to changes in the enemy’s tactics.
Corporal Bob Morris, who we met earlier, had a chance to examine a downed Bf 109 today. He was not overly impressed.
“I looked in the cockpit and by our standards it was nowhere near up to the Spitfire’s instrumental standards. It was very bleak.”
The Luftwaffe lost three of its bombers on operations against England today with another two damaged. 3 more bombers were lost on operations tonight, one a rare victory for a Defiant night fighter. This was an He 111 of 2./Kgr. 126 shot down by a No 264 Squadron Defiant, crashing on Creasey’s Farm, Hutton at 02.00. Two of the crew managed to bale out and survived, the other two were killed. The CEAR states that the aircraft was completely destroyed and this photograph, taken the following morning would confirm that.
Fighter Command suffered no operational losses today. Just one of No 249 Squadron’s Hurricanes was damaged by return fire from a Do 17 and made a forced landing. P/O K T Lofts was unhurt. Both sides suffered a number of accidents, a reflection of the poor weather.
Tonight, an estimated 150 Luftwaffe aircraft raided the London area with the rest of the country being visited by 50 more. Birmingham was heavily bombed, with other bombing reported in the South West, Liverpool and isolated places across the UK.
Bomber Command despatched 73 sorties to targets in Bremen, Kiel, Merseburg and Bordeaux. 3 aircraft failed to return and 10 Hampdens and 4 Wellingtons crashed on their return when their bases were fogged in.