On 7 September 1940, the Luftwaffe launched its first mass attack on London, and the course of the Battle of Britain changed. The pressure was taken off RAF airfields, allowing Fighter Command to regroup and leading some historians to suggest that “Black Saturday” was the day Germany lost the Battle.
London, and particularly the East End, suffered as a result. Auxiliary fire fighters found themselves in the front line, fighting fires amongst boxes of live ammunition and explosives at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, molten tar flowing through the docks, blazing stacks of timber in the Surrey Docks and flaming streams of rum and other products flooding out of warehouses.
Despite fine weather, things had been quiet until 4.16 pm, when a report reached the Observer Corps operations room at Maidstone that “many hundreds” of enemy aircraft were approaching the Kent coast between Deal and North Foreland.
Hurricanes and Spitfires fought to defend London, with a major confrontation taking place over the Isle of Sheppey, but enormous fires burned north and south of the Thames. Fire crews from as far away as Birmingham raced to help.
Today, on the 85th anniversary of “Black Saturday”, the Trust pays tribute to the Battle of Britain aircrew who gave their lives on that momentous day, all but one of them in the defence of London.
Pilot Officer J Benzie
Flight Lieutenant H R A Beresford
Pilot Officer W H Coverley
Pilot Officer R D S Fleming
Flight Lieutenant P C Hughes
Squadron Leader C B Hull
Pilot Officer W Krepski
Flight Lieutenant R E Lovett
Flying Officer L R G Mitchell
Pilot Officer H W Moody
Squadron Leader J S O’Brien
Flight Lieutenant R C Reynell
Pilot Officer K V Wendel
