At 4.00 p.m., again without pause, the third and perhaps heaviest group of raids is plotted building up. During the next two hours large and small formations of enemy aircraft flood in over Kent and the Thames Estuary. The Junkers Ju 88s which appear over Biggin Hill at 6.00 p.m. only number nine but the havoc caused by their bombs is far worse than that of any previous attack. The airfield is taken completely by surprise. Six of 79 Squadron's Hurricanes manage to scramble before the bombs start falling but 610 Squadron, already up, is too far away to help defend its own base.
There is wholesale destruction as workshops, cook houses, the sergeants' mess and WAAF quarters are wrecked and 90% of the station's transport is damaged or destroyed.
All electricity, water and gas mains are cut: and two parked aircraft are reduced to scrap. The airmen's shelter is pulverized by a direct hit and all those who had crammed in a few moments earlier are killed. Another bomb hits the airwomen's shelter and the concrete walls cave in, crushing and smothering those inside.
Everyone outside pitches in and digs furiously to free the trapped women. Ambulance and stretcher parties stand by. One-by-one the women are carried out: some are barely recognizable because of dirt and blood on their faces. Others are dazed and bruised but all, except one, are alive. Lena Button from Tasmania is the only casualty. Altogether, 39 personnel have been killed and 26 injured.
Dennis Newton. A Few of the Few Australian War Memorial 1990 p136
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