Bombing - invasion fleet at Antwerp.
10 Sqn. Ten
aircraft. All bombed causing fires. One fighter seen, but did not attack. One
ditched, crew rescued.
51 Sqn. Twelve
aircraft. One bombed due to severe weather and electrical storms.
78 Sqn. Eight
aircraft. None bombed, one FTR.
The French coast is now so well lit up by burning barges that it has become known as "Blackpool Front" to the RAF bomber pilots.
RAF Fighter Command: During the day south London and radar stations are attacked. At night
London and south Wales are bombed.
The Luftwaffe broke through the London defences today and again set fire to the docks.
They are an easy target, a sprawling mass of warehouses packed with combustibles, found
easily by the Germans who simply flew up the Thames.
The RAF response to the raid was weaker than usual, and the German pilots thought that at
last they detected signs of the promised collapse of Fighter Command.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 14; RAF, 14.
The work of the London docks is transferred to the Clyde in Scotland.
Corvette HMS Honeysuckle commissioned. Destroyers HMS
Matchless and Meteor laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: The financial penalties imposed by Germany upon France for the privilege of paying the
costs for the army of occupation are far steeper than reparations imposed on Germany after
the Great War.
Under the armistice signed at Compiegne in June France must pay 20 million Reichsmark a
day, or RM7.3 billion a year, almost three times what Germany had to pay under the Dawes
plan of 1924 - one billion a year rising after four years to 2.5 billion.
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler brings the invasion of Britain forward to 17 September on advice from Göring that the Luftwaffe is close to success.
U-96
commissioned. U-109,
U-551 and
U-552 launched.
(Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Corvettes
HMCS Chilliwack and Matapedia launched in
North Vancouver and Quebec City respectively. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The Congress passes the Selective Service Act authorizing the first peacetime draft (conscription) in U.S. history. (Jack McKillop)
New United States naval policy called for a two-ocean navy. Destroyer USS Eberle launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A US destroyer, part of Task Force 15, en route to Iceland, spots a submarine emerging from the fog. The sub submerges and 3 destroyers drop depth charges. (Jack McKillop)