Thursday the 9th of July 1940

Event Date: Thursday the 9th of July 1940
Sqn Name / Home-base: No. 19 Squadron / Duxford
Sqn Strength /Aircraft type: 2 later 3 / Spitfire Mk.Ia
Area of Patrol: Ramsgate to Dungeness
Enemy Contacts Location / Altitude: North of Ramsgate, Angels 17 - 24
Enemy Type / Count: Bf109s and unidentified raiders in formation, 109 escorts in groups of 2.

Friendly Damage / Losses: Nil
Enemy Damage / Losses: 1 x Bf109 forced to crash land
Sqn Sortie Report:

Took off with Flt. Lt Hinkel in two ship formation from Duxford and ordered by TOPHAT to patrol Ramsgate - Dungeness at angels 20 - incoming raid was identified by TOPHAT as heading into Thames Estuary at angels 16 - 18, as such we were ordered to patrol north of Ramsgate together with two aircraft from another Squadron.

I spotted a flight of aircraft north of Ramsgate heading west at approx. angels 17 - 18, with snappers a few thousand feet above - I then spotted two snappers turning to intercept us at approx. angels 23 - 24, as such we turned towards them, but were unable to engage in direct dogfighting due to their height advantage, as such we tried to keep them occupied for a few minutes, before leading them south towards Ramsgate, after which they disengaged and we reformed and headed west towards London in an effort to reacquire the raid.

Heading towards London we encountered a number of friendly aircraft (one group of 3 as well as lone Spitfire contacts) and also spotted a flight of two Bf109s heading west-south-west over Gravesend/Rochester at at least angels 25, thankfully they did not engage however, as we were still at angels 20. Moving into central London we then formed up with Flt. Lt. Speedy, who had scrambled in a third Spitfire, and continued searching for the enemy raid, which by now had broken up into smaller groups of 1+ and started to turn back to the south east.

Turning south east ourselves we then descended down to angels 17 to search for the outbound raiders, which were now reported at altitudes between angels 12 and angels 6 - Flt. Lt. Speedy spotted a lone Bf109 between Maidstone and Lympne which he followed down to low altitude and forced to crash land with smoke streaming from its radiators - I then spotted a higher contact and moved to investigate, before being ordered by TOPHAT to land and refuel at Hawkinge, being bingo fuel.

I then spotted a flight of 2 Bf109s moving above my section, and attempted to warn them - however we then encountered severe radio interference which made communications almost impossible, thankfully the Bf109s did not make a serious effort to engage, however (possibly due to their own communication issues) and Hinkel and Speedy were able to disengage and presumably continue to Hawkinge - I found myself between the two 109s and the rest of my section, however - and as such instead decided to land at Eastchurch to refuel, before returning to base at Duxford due to the communications issues (as did Hinkel and Speedy).

Other Notes:

Tactical observations have been removed from this AAR for security reasons, for full notes see AAR section of Storm of War Allied Sub-Forum