During the morning of 7 August 1940 over twenty merchant ships set sail
in Convoy CW9 "Peewit" and edged past Dover, hugging the shore, slowly
heading westwards as daylight faded. Under the watchful eyes of the
Germans, the large convoy had been seen from Cap Gris Nez and warning
messages flashed to the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe. At Boulogne E-Boats
were readied and left port in the early hours of the 8th to take up
station off Beachy Head to watch and wait for the inevitable convoy.
With horrendous suddenness, the E-Boat Flotilla was amongst the convoy
as it passed Newhaven. Like a pack of wolves into a flock of sheep, the
German boats scattered the convoy and mayhem ensued until the E-Boats
called off the attack in the gathering light. The rest would be left to
the Luftwaffe. What followed was initially and correctly recorded in
history as the first day of the Battle of Britain, and resulted in the
heaviest losses witnessed in the war so far. After sustaining massive
damage RAF fighters were scrambled from Tangmere to defend the convoy
and clashed with attacking Me 109s, Me 110s and Ju 87s in a vicious
battle over the Channel. Andy Saunders delivers a blow-by-blow account
from the perspective of the RAF, Luftwaffe, Merchant Navy, Royal Navy
and Kriegsmarine on this milestone day. Using personal accounts of the
action, official diaries, logbooks, contemporary records and a host of
new photographic material, Convoy Peewit gives a chronological breakdown
of events on land, sea and air, successfully setting them into context
against the wider picture that was the Battle of Britain.
