A day down at Margate

Thursday August 8th, 1940 - The attacks on Convoy Peewit part 1

....Soon, on this day August 8th, the first day of the second phase of the battle, seven squadrons from 11 Group and two from 10 Group would be engaged in fierce combat that would prove costly to the RAF, said by many as the first day of the 'real Battle of Britain'.....

.....out went the order to the 8th Flying Corps at Abbeville to send out all available Ju87 Stuka dive-bombers and the fighters based at the Luftwaffe 27 Group at Carquebut and Crepon and all aircraft to set course for the British convoy CW9 codenamed "Peewit" by the RAF. In all, some 300 Ju87's and 150 Bf109s took to the air and planned to attack the convoy during the early morning....

 



More Stukas than you can shake a stick at

There was a slight mess about down to the TS channel restructre, then 1C decided to release the patch right in the middle of our flying night. Eventually, with Fingers crossed, we spawned in at Biggin, with the task of intercepting a large very large HUGE formation heading towards Convoy Peewit which had just entered the Dover Strait.

Taxying out

We knew there would be fighter cover and were glad of some company.

"Hello little friends, so glad you decided to join us, over"

Brigstock, five o'clock

The glare from the sun was making it difficult to see too much forward, though we managed to find the ships and began the patrol. Ten minutes in, Splash spotted the formation at around 14,000 ft and we headed in.

Due to the volume of targets, you could feel yourself being drawn to one sector of sky, then a better target presented itself. With the large numbers, this process just kept happening and it became difficult to single out an area to attack.

Planes all over the shop

Coming through the middle of the formation and climbing I found myself on the right hand side and settled on stalking a group of nine aircraft that were slightly isolated. I made a couple of passes and got hits, but lost the group in the numbers and ended up attacking another section which Brigstock was getting stuck into.

Running in again, I got some more hits on a Stuka, but stopped a few bullets as I climbed out. With my left wing guns out of action, I headed turned for Blighty expecting to see Manston and finding out that we were already at Folkestone. The fight seemed only to last seconds, yet we'd travelled a long way down the coast.

Splash and Brigstock were still engaged and getting some hits. There was still no sign of the fighters, friend or foe.

Cheeky buggers

On landing at Hawkinge, I taxyed off the runway and saw what I thought was Brigstock returning to base. It was an odd approach he was making and seemed to be pulling out of a dive. As the bullets from his rear gunner started to walk across the turf in front of my Spit, I realised that it wasn't him and that some Stukas had broken from the formation and were taking the opportunity to bomb Hawkinge.

The initial attack over Splash and Brigstock returned. We had a quick cuppa down the NAAFI and then got airborne again.

Airborne

We headed for the convoy to intercept the second wave of the attack. We patrolled for a while and realised it had already been and gone. Calling ground control, the position was given near the French coast.

Feet wet with Splash

It seemed a shame not to push our luck and ruin Hermann's day. So got stuck in.

Brigstock engaging Stukas over France

Returning to Hawkinge, I was sightseeing and admiring the cliffs, just east of Folkestone when I saw a dark shadow pass over my right wing. Thinking it was the returning Spitfires, I banked hard to come round and see what they were up to and whether the landing code has been updated.

It was a shock to see I'd been bounced by Stukas.

Bounced

I lost them quick enough, but landed to save any further embarassment.

This was a bit of a stress test mission, behind the scenes this is what we faced:

First flight:
Enemy
153 JU87's
75 Bf 109 E3's

Friendly
24 Spitfires (12 from 64 Squadron (Kenley), 12 from 65 Squadron (Horchurch)

Second flight:
140 JU87's

Friendly
24 Spitfires

Part 2 next week.