The German assault used to be not just fought within the air. moment Lieutenant E. P. Griffin of the Royal Engineers building corporation established at RAF Tangmere, on listening to the air raid caution, went to his conflict place and along with his Lewis computing device gun shot down a Messerschmitt Me110. The plane crashed three-quarters of a mile from the aerodrome, killing the 3 individuals of its workforce. a couple of days later his colleagues awarded him with a caricature entitled, ‘The excellent sixteenth of August 1940’. The Stuka assault on Tangmere aerodrome had all started at thirteen. 00 hours and lasted merely 20 mins. The bombing was once super actual with out bombs dropped outdoor the aerodrome perimeter. In that point, the Luftwaffe destroyed or broken past fix (with the exception of one), the entire prewar hangars, the station workshops, shops and the water pumping station. The officials’ mess, the y-service hut and lots of different structures have been additionally badly broken and auxiliary platforms equivalent to the station tannoy, strength, water and sanitation have been placed out of motion. 5 Blenheims, together with these flown by means of the Fighter Interception Unit, seven Hurricanes, and a Magister have been destroyed at the floor and different plane broken. a few forty automobiles have been additionally destroyed within the raid. The Luftwaffe didn't break out unscathed; the returning combatants claimed 25 enemy plane destroyed, together with Me110s, 5 Me109s and 8 Stuka bombers with an extra seven Stukas broken. even if, the true tragedy for Tangmere on that day used to be the loss of life of ten RAF body of workers (all yet one have been later buried in Tangmere’s St Andrew’s churchyard) and 3 civilians. an additional 20 folks have been injured. one of many civilians who died used to be Henry Ayling, a civilian builder; he was once killed while the slit trench he was once sheltering in acquired a right away hit from a Stuka bomb. he's buried in Chichester Cemetery. His spouse by no means remarried. best Aircraftman Maurice Haffenden used to be an engine more healthy with forty three Squadron and later defined the day’s occasions in a letter to his kinfolk: [At] lunchtime at 1 pm the loudspeakers, with a better urgency than prior to, by surprise appealed, “Take conceal! Take disguise! ” inside 3 mins of that caution I observed the 1st of the Junkers coming directly down at the ’drome in a vertical dive. The chief used to be inside 2,000 toes of the floor – lengthy wing span – fastened undercarriage – unmarried engine – after which w-h-e-e-e-z . . . . I went head-first down a manhole because the first bomb landed at the ship's galley. For seven mins their 1,000-pounders have been scoring direct hits and every thing used to be swept away through machine-gun bullets. I by no means believed such desolation and destruction to be attainable. every thing is wrecked – the hangars, the shops, the health facility, the armoury, the ship's galley, the canteen – good, every little thing. by means of distinctive permission a Lyon’s ice cream fellow is authorized within the ’drome. He continuously stands simply outdoor the ship's galley at the sq.. He used to be final obvious status there guarding his tricycle yet now on the comparable spot is a bomb crater thirty ft deep.