About 200 hostile aircraft were detected over Calais at 9 am today. They proved to be mainly Messerschmitt Bf 109s in a number of waves of varying sizes.

Flying Officer Terry Kane of No 234 Squadron shot down a Bf 109 off the French coast, but was then forced to bale out and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner.

Once the 109s had passed Dover, they were engaged in combat by RAF fighters. Further waves came over later in the day. London suffered badly at night, while Berlin was attacked by Bomber Command.

Fighter casualties today included Pilot Officer Walter Beaumont of No 152 Squadron at Warmwell, Dorset, whose Spitfire was believed to have crashed into the Channel during a sortie.

A former member of the London University Air Squadron, he appears to have been officially, the first person to join the RAFVR his number was 740000. The award of the DFC to Walter Beaumont was announced on October 22 1940. In 1999 a plaque was unveiled in his memory at Calder High School, Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire.