12th September 1940: The Battle Of Britain

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The poor weather today over Britain kept the Luftwaffe at bay, at least for a while. Bombing raids were scattered and minimal this night.

A barrage balloon brought down a raider over Monmouthshire, Wales. Some bombs fell on London, and a delayed action bomb fell near St Paul's Cathedral which took three days to remove. Two Royal Engineers receive the George Cross for their actions in dealing with this, and two other bomb disposal experts receive the British Empire Medal.
Wing Commander J.S. Dewar
Wing Commander J.S. Dewar, the commander of 213 Squadron at Exeter, decided to fly to Tangmere during a quiet spell and never arrived. It seems he encountered an enemy attack and had to bail out. Tragically, the Luftwaffe strafed him on the way down and killed him. His Hurricane went down in the Channel, and his body washed ashore at Kingston Gorse, Sussex on 30th September 1940.


Isolated raids occurred over Hull, Wolverhampton, Liverpool and a number of ports stretching along the east coast of Suffolk and Essex.

At sea, the SS Gothic, a tanker, was sunk by a mine off Spurn Point, off the Yorkshire coast.Twelve crew were lost.

At 0010hrs on the 13th, bombs fell in the grounds of the Howbeck Institution in West Hartlepool and the ceiling of the First Aid Post was damaged. Another bomb fell close to the Nurses Home, but there was no damage. A bomb fell near the joiner's shop but failed to explode on impact. However, it finally exploded at 0950hrs when the building collapsed. Fortunately, there were no casualties. In a separate raid in Hartlepool, a man was killed at West View.


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