http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/aug40/f26aug40.htm
RAF airfields targeted by Germans
Monday, August 26, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... The German attacks continue. They send three major raids against RAF airfields and one on Portsmouth. One of the airfield raids gets through almost undamaged but all the others are heavily engaged by the RAF. The day’s losses are 31 RAF fighters and 19 German bombers and 26 fighters. According to the original timetable Hitler ought to decide now whether the invasion should be attempted.
The Battle of Britain news in the Times is kind of disappointing, but that’s the nature of the air war. The correspondent isn’t in the air with the pilots and they are not in any of the sector stations to see the plots. So we aren’t getting a very good picture of how the battle is progressing. We only get the reports of the sporadic bombing of the inhabited areas, and not reports of the raids on the airfields, which is where this fight is really being waged.
The next two weeks is as close as the Germans will come to winning the battle. Their attacks on No. 11 Group airfields in southeast England are wearing down fighter command. German losses are heavy, but they can bear theirs while over the long term, the British cannot. We are not getting a sense of this in the reports, although the news reports are always going to have some delay in reporting what the situation really is. I recall the news stories on the Battle for France. The reader of the Times only got glimpses of how bad the fight was going for the French, and those were obscured by favorable reports.
Sorry I haven’t participated as much lately, but finishing a basement is really time consuming. Don’t do it unless you are really bored or just like aggravating yourself to no end.