1940: The Battles to Stop Hitler by Mitch Peeke

Author:Mitch Peeke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473858107
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

September 1940: Turning Point

At first, the only noticeable change as August gave way to September, was in the English landscape. The ripening crops on the farms had gradually turned the face of the southern counties, over which the battle was being fought, from a rich green to a golden-yellow. There was no immediate change in the way the great air battle was being fought, though. The tempo of the German attacks against Fighter Command was every bit as furious as it had been throughout the preceding two months. But the Germans, and the Swallows, were growing restless. As Harvest time arrived, both knew that the weather would not last for that much longer. Time was now pressing.

In retribution for the perceived night attack on London that had happened by accident on the night of August 25th, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had authorised RAF Bomber Command to retaliate with raids on Berlin. Although the nightly raids did little material damage to Berlin, they did enormous damage to Nazi pride. The rotund Reichsmarschall had once publicly boasted that if ever an enemy bomb fell on Berlin, the people of the city could call him “paraMeier”; which given the extremely racist nature of the Nazi regime, was undoubtedly an anti-Semitic jibe. The trouble for both Goring and Hitler was that after the first of the British raids on the German capital, many of Berlin’s citizens were taking up Herman’s offer, publicly.

As it became clear to Hitler that these British intrusions were not simply a “one-off” occurrence, he took an unprecedented step. In a vitriolic speech in the Reichstag, (the German Parliament) he promised the horror-struck Berliners that reprisal raids on British cities would be made. “If they bomb our cities,” he screamed, “we will wipe theirs out!”

Meanwhile, the daylight air assault on Britain continued, and that first week of September seemed harder than ever. On Monday 2nd September, the Luftwaffe’s targets were once again RAF fighter stations. That morning, a replacement pilot, Flying Officer Arthur Rose-Price, brother of the well-known British actor, Dennis Price, joined 501 Squadron at Gravesend. He just had time to register his presence and be assigned a Hurricane before he was called to take part in the squadron’s first action of the day. However, in what was now a typical sign of the hectic struggle that was facing the RAF’s fighter pilots, Arthur did not survive the squadron’s second patrol in the afternoon. Though he was an experienced fighter pilot, the twenty-one year-old died flying Hurricane L1578 in combat with Messerschmitt 109’s over Dungeness at about 16:30. He hadn’t even finished unpacking his kit.

Although the Luftwaffe’s intended targets that day were main fighter stations such as Biggin Hill, Kenley and North Weald, non-fighter stations such as Detling and Eastchurch were also attacked again. Though targets such as the latter two airfields still did nothing to further the Luftwaffe’s main aim, they still had to be defended by the RAF.

Monday 2nd September also saw the first German attack on RAF Gravesend.

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