The Hurricane Story E-Book

Peter R March

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

The Hawker Hurricane won lasting fame in the service of the RAF during the Battle of Britain. Over 11,700 examples were eventually built of this versatile and deadly combat aircraft, fulfilling an incredible number of contrasting roles. Its design, development and production are described in detail, as are the Hurricane's widely varied operational roles during the Second World War, both at home and overseas. Full details are given of production figures, production variants, and operational service with all RAF and RN squadrons and units.

Leseprobe

The HurricaneStory

The last Hurricanedelivered to the RAF(LF363) was handed overin January 1944.

The HurricaneStory

Peter R. March

Also in this series:

The Concorde Story

The Spitfire Story

The Vulcan Story

The Red Arrows Story

The Harrier Story

The Dam Busters Story

The Lifeboats Story

Hurricanes painted torepresent aircraft of aPolish squadron for the1968 Battle of Britainfilm. (via M.J.F. Bowyer)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 bySutton Publishing Limited.

Reprinted in 2009 by

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port,

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

Reprinted 2010, 2017

Copyright © Peter R. March, 2007

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in anyform, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of thepublisher and copyright holder.

Peter R. March has asserted the moral right to be identifiedas the author of this work.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.

e-ISBN 978-0-7524-8516-4

Typeset in 9.5/14.5pt Syntax.Typesetting and origination bySutton Publishing Limited.Printed and bound in China.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction viii

Monoplane Fury 1

Hawker’s Hurricane 3

Early Action 10

Battle of Britain 15

Night Fighting 25

Hurricanes over Malta 30

Second Generation Plus 36

Biplane Hurricane 45

Diverse Duties 47

Hurricat 51

Helping Russia 54

Mediterranean andMiddle East 60

Far East 69

Sea Hurricane 71

Foreign Deliveries 75

Post-war 78

Battle of Britain MemorialFlight 80

Hurricane Survivors 93

Preserved Hurricanes 98

Appendix ISpecifications 109

Appendix IIHurricane Milestones 111

Appendix IIIProduction 118

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The story of the Hurricane’s design and  

development by Sydney Camm from  

his successful Hawker biplane fighter series  

is far less familiar than that of R.J. Mitchell’s  

Spitfire. Yet, as this account shows, the  

Hurricane probably made a bigger impact  

on the ultimate course of the Second World  

War during its first year than the Spitfire.  

I would therefore like to draw particular  

attention to the tremendous contribution  

that Sydney Camm (later Sir Sydney) made  

to the design of British fighter aircraft for  

three decades, through to the Hawker  

Hunter.

I am very grateful to Brian Strickland  

for the research that he has done into the  

background and service life of the Hawker  

Hurricane. Unlike some other famous air-  

craft with a straightforward record, the  

Hurricane’s story takes you all over the  

world through a complex web of role  

changes, conversions and operational use.  

I would also like to thank Ray Polidano,  

Director of the Malta Aviation Museum,  

and Peter Vacher for their kind help.

The Last of the Many.

vi

Michael Bowyer and Derek James have  

been particularly generous in supplying  

photographs from their extensive collec-  

tions. It has been a difficult task to source  

quality photographs to illustrate the  

Hurricane’s story, since much of its service  

was overseas in the Second World War.  

However, I am grateful to the following  

photographers and collectors, who  

searched their photo files for me to find  

suitable historic black and white, and con-  

temporary colour photographs: Kev Baxter,  

Gary Brown, Sue J. Bushell, Bill Bushell,  

Richard J. Caruana, Frederick Galea,  

Darren Harbar, Howard Heeley, Godfrey  

Mangion, Andrew March, Daniel March,  

Frank B. Mormillo, Col Pope, Kev Storer,  

Brian Strickland, Richard L. Ward and  

Tim Wright.

Photo credits

Photographs Peter R. March/PRMAviation Collection unless otherwisecredited.

vii

INTRODUCTION

The Hurricane fighter began its evolution  

in 1933, when Sydney Camm, the then  

chief designer of Hawker Aircraft Limited,  

examined the idea of a high-performance,  

monoplane interceptor to replace the RAF’s  

Fury biplane. He realised that the only way  

to increase fighter performance was to  

move from the established two-wing to  

a single-wing configuration. In the early  

1930s there was still a general distrust of  

the monoplane among the military, that  

was rooted back in the structural failures  

of military aircraft since the earliest days  

of flying.

It is a piece of cake, I could eventeach you to fly it in half an hour.

‘George’ Bulman, Hawker’s chief test pilot, todesigner Sydney Camm on landing the prototypeafter the first flight

Hawker’s new fighter was eventually  

produced to meet Air Ministry Specification  

F.36/34. The prototype, K5083, made its  

first flight on 6 November 1935, in the  

hands of chief test pilot Gp Capt P.W.S.  

‘George’ Bulman. The aircraft was put into  

production in 1936, three months before  

the official order, and the first Hurricane  

I flew on 12 October 1937. Although the  

Hurricane’s performance in 1937 was prob-  

ably superior to the Luftwaffe’s Messer-  

schmitt Bf 109, by 1940 it was already  

falling behind the Bf 109E. This did not  

deter the RAF pilots, who proved that with  

appropriate tactics they could outperform  

the Luftwaffe in the critical months  

of 1940.

With its hump-backed appearance and  

powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the  

Hurricane will be particularly remembered  

viii

Prototype HurricaneK5083 seen atBrooklands, Surrey, beforeits first flight in November1935. It has the Wattstwo-bladed woodenpropeller, wheel-door D-flaps, tailplane strut andshort radiator. (via DerekJames)

ix

for its key role in the Battle of Britain,  

during which it equipped a total of thirty-  

two RAF squadrons. Hurricanes destroyed  

more Luftwaffe aircraft during the summer  

of 1940 than the RAF’s Spitfires and  

ground defences together. It served  

operationally on every day throughout  

hostilities, in every operational theatre and  

in many roles.

Well over 14,000 Hurricanes were  

built (the exact number is somewhere  

between 14,230 and 14,670), the last  

being delivered from the Langley factory  

in September 1944. Hurricanes served on  

seventeen different battlefronts, including  

the British Isles, France, North Africa, Sicily,  

Italy, the Middle East, the Far East and  

Russia, in the Battles of the Atlantic and  

the Mediterranean, in Malta and with the  

northern convoys. During its service career  

it operated as a fighter, a fighter-bomber,  

a ground-attack, rocket-firing fighter, a  

‘tank-buster’, a catapult-launched and  

carrier-borne fighter. Hurricanes bore the  

brunt of the early aerial fighting during  

the first three years of the war until  

Spitfires became available in quantity. They  

also took part in some of the earliest fighter  

sweeps over Europe in 1940 and 1941. In  

October 1941 it became the RAF’s first  

home-based fighter to carry bombs in  

action.

In 1944–45, with rocket projectiles, the  

Hurricane was used to great effect against  

enemy shipping in the Adriatic, and as a  

fighter-bomber it served with distinction in  

Burma. Although no longer in production  

when the Second World War ended, the  

Hurricane was still in service as a front-line  

aircraft.

x

MONOPLANE FURY

Sydney Camm persuaded the Air Ministry  

that his private-venture aircraft, initially  

known as the ‘Fury Monoplane’, was  

worthy of official sponsorship. In fact the  

Air Ministry wrote Specification F.36/34  

around Camm’s initial design. Utilising  

Hawker’s well-established structural prin-  

ciples, the prototype was constructed of  

rigidly braced steel and light-alloy tubing  

with fabric skinning.

The famous Hawker fuselage, which  

had featured in all Hart variants and  

the Furies, was retained in preference to  

the then more advanced metal mono-  

coque fuselage. The aircraft combined the  

well-proven tubular-metal, cross-braced,  

fabric-covered ‘Warren’ fuselage with a  

new fabric-covered, cantilever, twin-spar  

wing with ‘Warren’ girder interspan struc-  

ture. This was in order to speed production.  

The fuselage shape of theHawker Hart/Fury/Hindbiplane series is similarto the Hurricane’s,as illustrated by TheShuttleworth Collection’sSea Hurricane and Hind.

1

Stripped of its fabriccover, this Hurricanefuselage shows itstubular-metal cross-braced ‘Warren’ fuselage.

The enclosed cockpit was situated over  

the wing, with a sliding canopy with quick  

release for emergency exit and a further  

escape panel in the side of the fuselage  

between the upper longerons and the  

canopy.

2

HAWKER’S HURRICANE

Camm’s monoplane fighter was officially  

named ‘Hurricane’ in June 1936. It  

became the first of a new generation of  

monoplane fighters, destined to replace  

the two-gun biplane. Broadly resembling  

the Fury, it featured a new wing with flaps,  

an inwards-retracting undercarriage and an  

enclosed cockpit. Sydney Camm quickly  

developed his monoplane into an effective  

fighter, completing the transformation from  

early-thirties biplane, with fabric-covered  

wings and little protection for the pilot, to  

metal stressed-skin wings, armour plating,  

bulletproof windscreen and self-sealing  

Did You Know?

The first Hurricanewas completed in lessthan twelve months,from drawing boardto first flight on 6November 1935.

Prototype K5083 withmodified cockpit canopy,retractable tailwheel(unique to the prototype)and tailplane struts. (viaSue J. Bushell)

3