ISSUE 91 : Nov/Dec - 1991 - Australian Defence Force Journal

THE FIRST BATTLE OF BRITAIN 51
dropped 26 bombs at 11.00 p.m. Two of these fell on
the naval barracks and killed 130 sailors, and
injuring another 88. Again, neither of the Gothas
were seen, and no A A guns or aircraft came into
action.
Then the following night they came to London.
The moon was still full, and 26 bombers in all
crossed the coast. Now they were to use their new
tactics and further confuse the defence. The raiders
attacked in seven separate groups, or waves, spread
out over a two hour period. To make it even more
protracted and difficult for the defences, individual
aircraft within each group were spaced out with
about five minute intervals between them. Damage
to buildings was quite heavy, but casualties were
light. In all. about 800 A A shells were fired, but
only one hit was recorded. Eighteen aircraft went up
to attack, only two made contact, and they were
only able to fire a few rounds before they also lost
their targets.
deployed on the approaches to London, with their
tops at 3000 metres.
The remarks by Smuts about the fighters were
certainly true in regard to the 'state of the art' at the
time. However, a new but simple technique soon
enabled the defending fighters to achieve some
spectacular successes. The idea was for two or more
searchlights to direct their beams as accurately as
possible on the sound made by enemy aircraft, and
not to weave the beams back and forth in a search
pattern as they had been doing. The defending
fighter would then fly towards the meeting point of
the beams. While these may not actually be right on
the enemy raider, the pilot now had a reasonable
chance of finding his target by its exhaust flames.
All guns were required to remain silent within a
recognised area. Conversely, none of the defending
fighters were to fly outside this zone, and the guns
could then assume any aircraft found in the outer
zone were hostile. The system was soon refined by
the introduction of accurate height finding and
sound locator systems.
New Defence Measures
These night attacks caused further immediate and
extreme concern to the government. On 5th September
Smuts was once more called upon, and
asked 'to hold an investigation into the last two
nights' raids and forward this to War Cabinet with
his views on the provision of protection for the civil
population in the future, and his proposals as to
carrying the air war into Germany at the earliest
moment.' Smuts actually had the paper ready the
following day, in which he set out the main aspects
of the problem.
He stressed that 'the only proper defence against
the night attacks was an offensive aimed at the
enemy's air bases. Our aeroplanes afford no means
of defence at night, as they find it impossible to see
the enemy machines even at a distance of a few
hundred yards. In recent night raids . . . they might
just as well have remained on the ground.' He went
on to suggest the introduction of two special
measures.
The first was the installation of much more
pouertul searchlights uith the object ot blinding the
enemy pilots, and so making it difficult to navigate
and aim their bombs. The second idea was to
establish a wire screen, or apron, hung from
balloons to form a barrier in which the enemy
machines might be caught, or which would force
them higher up. Ten of these were eventually
The Blitz Begins
After the raid on 5th September, there was a lull
until 24th September, when the moon again entered
its first quarter. This now became the signal for a
nightly series of heavy attacks to begin. On the 24th
sixteen Gothas crossed the coast at intervals, but
only three had London as their objective. The
remainder attacked Dover and other targets in Kent
and Essex. Thirty defending aircraft were sent aloft,
but no contacts were made. The guns also failed to
secure a hit and all Gothas returned safely to base.
But now yet another dimension had been introduced
by the Germans. Hardly had the last of the Gothas
left the coast, when ten zeppelins crossed the coast
and bombed targets in Lincolnshire. They also
escaped unharmed.
Then, following this 'double' raid, and starting on
the 28th September, raids by up to 25 Gothas at a
time were made on London on four successive
nights. Actual casualties were light, but property
damage was severe. In one raid alone, 700 houses
were destroyed. Between twenty and thirty fighters
were sent up for each raid, but had no successes. The
guns were now capable of putting up a particularly
fearsome barrage. On one of the nights in question,
for example, the guns around London fired 12,700
shells. In fact the falling shrapnel and other debris
from these barrages were beginning to create