Looking for further information concerning some German bombing attacks of Britain on Oct. 6, 1940

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Many of you know that for our major publishing project the EOE Working Group is translating the 5000-page (or more) Heinrich Weiss manuscripts concerning German air operations in Europe from 1939-40 into English. Today I was proofing that translation for Oct. 6, 1940, and was wondering if further information could be developed on the results of the following attacks, including any more detailed accounts from events on the ground relating to the British side. This might be more appropriate for the Allied Board, but I'll take a shot here first. What I'm trying to see is if more detailed information can be provided, particularly eye-witness accounts of what took place, to make these accounts more interesting from a human perspective. These are just incidents from one day, and I want to explore what more can be determined of the events written about here. If you respond, please quote sources, including for any possible photographs which might help illustrate these events. I just picked these incidents out of a detailed 13-page (single space, typewritten) manuscript, that covers all Luftwaffe Operations over the whole of Europe on Oct. 6th. As you can see there is a wealth of information from the Luftwaffe side in these reports that has never been published before:

1) (Under Daylight OPs for Luftflotte 3, Harassing Attacks against Britain):

At 13.05 hrs: The CO of II./KG76, Hptm. Walter Storp, attacked Northolt airfield dropping 2 SC500, one SC250 and one Flamm-250 bomb from an altitude of only 80 m. Hits were observed on a large building, and two explosions were seen in front of the hangars.
In fact at 13.10 hrs a single Ju 88 dropped out from the clouds in steep dive and passed over the airfield from the north while under fire from machine-guns sites in buildings on the airfield's southern boundary. Two bombs were released and they exploded between the hangars. AC2 Henry Eugene Stennet, who was manning the observation post on the hangar`s roof, was killed. A couple of parked aircraft were also hit:
303 Sqn Hurricane I P3120 destroyed while taxing out. The pilot: Sgt. Siudak was killed
303 Sqn Hurricane I P3217 cat.2
Station Flight Hurricane I L1684 cat.3 DBR (Damaged Beyond Repair) [end of page no.1712/2712]
Hptm. Storp`s crew safely returned to base."

2) (Under Nuisance attacks on London by Luftflotte 3)

"13.30 hrs: Hawker Montage Works at Weybridge-Brooklands. The crew of Lt. Seitz of I./KG76 approached from the south-west and attacked from an altitude of 25 m. 15 SC50 bombs were dropped at intervals of 20 meters. The last bomb exploded close to the last building. [end of page no.1713/2713] The detonations inside the buildings were observed by the crew. A couple of steel cables were fired from the ground and the aircraft was hit by one of the cables between the cockpit and the engine. After landing, two grooves were found on the wing and in the cockpit area. Barrage balloons were not observed over the target. However no attack (against this target) was recorded by the English side on this objective on 6.10.40." (LJH Note: In a later section on British reports, however, it is obvious that the crew mis-identified their target) "Also Biggin Hill was attacked by single raider. A low-level attack was made and the bombs wrecked some barracks and Spitfire I K9940 of No.72 Sqn was hit and assessed as Cat.2. Rockets with steel cables were fired and the wings of the attacking plane were hit, but the aircraft escaped (see report from I./KG76 on page no.1713)."

3) (Under Harassing attacks by Luftflotte 2)

"In the early morning (of Oct. 6th) a Do 17Z of III./KG3 took off from St.Trond. The crew of Olt. Kühn was ordered to attack the Percival Airframe Factory at Luton N of London. The target was approached from the direction of Colchester at an altitude of 700 m. The crew was in visual contact with the target. 20 SC50 bombs were dropped from an altitude of 150 m and all bombs were jettisoned simultaneously. One building was completely wrecked and other hits were observed on the boiler house as well as in a montage hall (LJH note: I'm not sure of meaning of this word in this context-- airframe assembly building?). Fires and flames were also seen after the attack. A wide turn was made after the attack and the crew saw that a boiler house and montage hall were both wrecked."

We have one of these daily accounts for every day for the 1939-40 war period, and I'm just trying an experiment here to see what additional material can be developed to expand upon these German reports. The translations range in length from 10-85 pages long per day. Who can help add more depth to the above accounts from events on the ground?

Regards,