12th August 1940 marked the first major raid inland against RAF airfields by the Luftwaffe and Manston was to feel the full force of the offensive. By the end of the day, Manston was left unserviceable. This was in preparation for Adlertag, “Eagle Day” on the 13th August, part of an offensive by the Luftwaffe to wipe out the RAF in a few days.
The Luftwaffe began with attacks first detected at 0840hrs on the high towers of the British radar stations by Messerschmitt Bf110s at Dover, Pevensey, Rye and Dunkirk near Canterbury. Dunkirk suffered only minor damage, but the other three were back on the air after just a few hours. Dover also sustained accurate long-range artillery fire from guns located on the coast of France, some 21 miles away.
In late morning, the attack turned to large formations of Stuka dive bombers against several small convoys in the Thames Estuary and attacks on other radar stations and naval bases.
No.65 Sqn scrambled in their Spitfires from Hornchurch to protect two small convoys passing North Foreland from reports of enemy dive bombers, but not before two ships had been sunk. Hurricanes from No.501 Sqn were dispatched from Biggin Hill.
Once the enemy had taken out the radar stations, their attentions turned to the destruction of the RAF airfields in Southern England, with Lympne, Hawkinge and Manston the first three on the list.
At 1250hrs the airfield at Manston was the first to be hit by Bf110 and Bf109s. All but one of No.65 Sqn’s Spitfires got into the air, hit just as they were taking off on a routine patrol, after returning to Manston at 1115hrs to refuel and rearm. Pilot Officer K.G.Hart’s propeller was stopped by an explosion, with Hart surviving and the aircraft later repaired.
Manston had become a key target, being the most easterly of all the airfields in the south and was, at the time, an all grass airfield, allowing entire squadrons to take off together, allowing them to be in the air and reaching the enemy quicker than if they had to take off in single file on a normal concrete runway.
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