start of the Battle of
Britain. On this day the first large scale
engagement took place. At 13.50
British radar picks up a strong signal that
indicated that a German formation had been
detected coming across the French coast just
west of Calais and heading in the general
direction of Folkestone. The main
force were 24 Dornier 17s spread in three
groups, 30 escorting Bf110s of ZG 26and more
than 20 Bf109s from JG 51.
The 'scramble' order
went out to Manston, Biggin Hill, Croydon,
Hornchurch and Kenley. Manston dispatched
the Hurricanes of 56 Squadron (North Weald)
who had been operating there, Biggin Hill
dispatched 32 Squadron (Hurricanes), Croydon
dispatched 111 squadron (Hurricanes),
Hornchurch dispatched the Spitfires of 74
Squadron while Kenley sent out six Spitfires
of 64 Squadron towards the closing stages of
the battle.
The Dorniers turned and headed for the
Channel convoy code named 'Bread' just as
74, 56, 32 and 111 Squadrons arrived on the
scene. The Spitfires of 74 Squadron and the
Hurricanes of 56 and 32 Squadrons engaged
combat with the Bf109s and the Bf110s while
the Hurricanes of 111 Squadron went straight
in and attacked the Dorniers
[1].
Squadron Leader J. M.
Thompson's 111 Squadron pilot's were trying
out a new tactic; the head-on charge.
Thompson led his nine fighters in line
abreast formation in a head-on attack on the
KG2 Dorniers, all pilots blazing away and
knocking down two of the bombers in the
first pass [2].
After this initial
attack the bombers would react by breaking
wildly to avoid both the mass of firing and
possible collisions, and 111 would then take
advantage of the loss of cohesion to pick
off individual bombers.
The skies off the coast
at Folkestone became a maze of vapour trails
snaking in all directions. It was a tough
dogfight with neither side gaining the upper
hand, Flying Officer J Mungo-Park in a
Spitfire swept past a Dornier and the
resulting 'hit' saw the bomber drift down
towards the waters of the Channel, another
Spitfire of 74 Squadron scored a 'hit' on
one of the Bf109s and saw it head in the
general direction of France and safety. As
the dogfight continued, the Dornier
formation started to break up as many of the
fighters began to harass them like dogs
snapping at their tails, Flying Officer
Thomas Higgs took to a lone Dornier,
flown by Hauptmann Krieger, firing many
rounds towards the weaving bomber that was
desperately trying to evade the ensuing
Hurricane. Higgs went in closer than his
firing range, and still with thumb on the
firing button clipped the Dornier with his
wing before spinning seawards out of control
with one wing missing. The Dornier also spun
out of control and hurtled to what seemed a
watery grave. Both aircraft crashed into the
Channel and a rescue launch that was soon on
the scene picked up the pilot of the and
another member of the crew, but there was no
sign of the rest of the bombers crew or of
Tom Higgs.
This was the first
major battle of the Battle of Britain, and
considering the amount of aircraft that were
in the air Higgs was the only British
fatality, three Hurricanes were damaged as
well as four Spitfires, two Dorniers were
shot down and ten of the escort fighters. As
far as the convoy "Bread" was concerned,
only one ship was sunk the rest were not
even attacked and continued their journey
[3].
Flying Officer Thomas
Higgs managed to bail out of his Hurricane.
Apparently a picture exsists, taken by a
German bomber crew member, that shows the
wing that was severed from Higgs's Hurircane
and Higgs himself, bailing out. However, he
was not found by Sea Air Rescue and drowned
in the North Sea. His body washed ashore on
the Dutch coast on 15 August 1940. He was
buried two days later.
Flying Oficer Thomas
Higgs is buried in Noordwijk
General
Cemetery, Plot 1. Joint grave 8. He was
23.
