18th August 1940 , What Happened ?

Kenley/Biggin

This sort of “account” copying goes on all the time in historic records.
Of course the material that is “now” available was not at the time and it was also set down “pre digital information flows”.
Biggin was attacked more frequently than Kenley (probably because of poor German intelligence) and they must have thought the 18th Aug raid had finished Kenley off.
None of our sector stations were properly prepared for defence as they had not been built with that in mind.
If you look at the “Camp” set up the scene is one of a “large flying club” with pleasant brick buildings and hangars within walking distance of the Officers Mess.
Kenley was lucky that its ops room was not destroyed (although another one was ready in Caterham).
It was always intended that the airfields would be protected by fighters but of course the collapse of France and our Hurricane losses put a severe strain on all this.
All in all a close run affair.
Peter
The PAC was a complete waste of time money and effort and more bofors guns would have been better.

Thanks Pobjoy Pete,

what I find remarkable is that the Kenley raid is always reported as the same event in every book. ie by KG76, clearly nine Dorniers of which came in low and premature, light AA and Parachute and Cable fired off, and descriptions often given of what happened to each Dornier and the pilots named.

By comparison the Biggin Hill accounts vary widely. Several attribute the high part of the raid as KG1 and a low flying element as part of KG76 again. The story of the Biggin raid is put across in much more vague terms than the Kenley strike, like it being not clear which element ( high or low ) was early, which raises suspicions. In other versions the Biggin raid is intercepted by the same RAF Squadrons as hit the Kenley raid minutes earlier. Then hits are described to Dorniers over B-H in the same manner as planes are described being hit over Kenley only a few pages earlier. It all looks rather odd.

I have that Price book. He does give many eyewitness accounts of both raids, and depth of details of the crews concerned and the fates of each aircraft. This gives one the assurance that his account seems the accurate one.

So the correct account is that the AA guarding Biggin Hill did not fire at the raiders. There were no low flying Dorniers and no planes were brought down by PAC sytems. In fact only one plane was shot down by fighters ? Meanwhile some accounts say more planes were hit over Biggin than Kenley by flak !

What disturbs me is that so many other books have got it wrong. As also, apparantly has the BoBHS site ? How does that happen ?

I would previously have figured that if a similar account is given in several books, then that would be reliable.

Kenley-Biggin raids 18 08 40

I think the confusion started with the “Leaves Green Dornier” that attacked Kenley but crashed next to Biggin.
As far as i can make out the Kenley raid was the only “low level” (100ft) one on that day and all explained in A Price’s “The Hardest Day”.

Brooklands experienced a low level raid by BF110’s in September which also did a great deal of damage (and loss of life) as it appears no warning was given.

The difficulty in spotting low level aircraft and for airfield defences to try and draw a bead on them was no doubt brought home by these attacks as both airfields eventually got their own “Flack Towers”.Brooklands on a high spot near the “banking” at the “test hill” and Kenley about 1/2 mile s/e of the airfield towards a gap in the chalk downs.
The Kenley one is still there and so was the Brooklands one when i visited a few years back.
The Kenley raid was “plotted” by the O/Corps and the Dorniers did not achieve complete surprise and although “Kenleys” squadrons were already busy, 111 from Croydon were scrambled by local orders just in time to intercept.
The Brooklands raid seems to have slipped through but this may have been because they were fighters carrying bombs therefore faster than normal bombers and giving less warning of their approach.