In what was a day of limited enemy activity, Fighter Command nevertheless suffered a number of casualties. In the early evening, two Spitfires of No 616 Squadron were hit in combat with Bf 109s over Dover. Pilot Officer “Buck” Casson managed to return to Kenley, but Flying Officer “Cocky” Dundas, after struggling to escape from his stricken aircraft, took to his parachute and landed on Adam and Eve Hill at the village of Elham, with a dislocated shoulder. His aircraft fell nearby.

At much the same time a Spitfire of No 65 Squadron, flown by Sergeant Michael Keymer, crashed at the village of Bazinghen, in the Pas de Calais. French civilians later reported that a German officer shot the badly injured pilot as he lay on the ground. He was buried in the village churchyard and local people established the custom of holding a service every year at his grave.

Michael Keymer’s brother John was lost as a Sergeant in Bomber Command. The Wellington from No 149 Squadron, of which he was skipper, failed to return from an attack on Hamburg in May 1941. One of the air gunners who was lost with him was Sergeant Thomas Nathan Menage, who had flown in Blenheims of No 29 Squadron in the Battle of Britain.