history · 14 August 1940 · 84 years ago
Cloudy weather prevented Germans from launching large scale raids against Britain early in the day as planned. At 1200 hours, 300 German aircraft flew over the Dover Strait and attacked Dover and Folkestone in southern England, which drew out the No. 65 Squadron RAF for defense, leaving RAF Manston undefended during the attack that came shortly afterwards (though anti-aircraft gun crews were able to shoot down two Bf 110 fighters). At 1545 hours, RAF Middle Wallop in Hampshire was bombed by Ju 87 dive bombers and He 111 medium bombers, killing 3 airmen and 1 civilian. In Portland Harbour, British sloop HMS Kingfisher and tug Carbon were damaged by bombing. On this day, the Germans lost 30 aircraft while the British lost 3 Spitfire fighters and 5 Hurricane fighters.
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