The Hurricane Pocket Manual

Often considered the 'unsung hero' of the Battle of Britain, the Hawker Hurricane was the primary RAF fighter aircraft in the years leading up to and the first year or so of WWII in Europe. The type was basically a monoplane version of Hawker's superb Fury biplane, though there was much more to it than that. It was the RAF's first high performance monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear and a rather heavy for the time, armament of eight rifle calibre machine guns.

Thanks to its simple construction of canvas over a wood and metal tube frame, the aircraft was easy to build when compared to the Spitfire. It was also easier to repair and its fabric covered surfaces often resulted in enemy bullets simply passing through rather than causing any significant damage. It was also considered to be a more robust airframe than its stable-mate and it was more maneuverable than most other single wing fighters of the time. Many pilots stated that they liked flying the Spitfire, but preferred fighting in the Hurricane.

Indeed, over 60% of the air to air victories of the Battle of Britain were scored by Hurricanes. It was the Hurricane that fought in France during the 'phony war' and during the dark days of the French invasion. It was the Hurricane that was first modified to operate at sea with standard RAF Hurricanes successfully landing on the deck of the HMS Glorious during the Norway campaign. It was the Hurricane that was also successfully modified as the RAF's premiere tank buster in the North African Desert. Indeed, the type was so useful that it was still in unit service around the world at the end of the war.

This is a neat book in a series which apparently covers a number of other types. It begins with an introduction that covers the history of the aircraft and provides the significant variants. Then there is a section on design and trials. Now one of things about this book is that much of it comes from official Air Ministry records, so you get information pretty much verbatim from the reports that were submitted.

Next section is on pilot notes where one learns about the various operating parameters and procedures required to fly the plane. It is interesting to note that one of the standard operating procedures upon landing was to raise the flaps, so modelers, you can use this to justify not showing lowered flaps on your model. This goes into a a report from 1941 by the Air Fighting Development unit on trials to use the Hurricane as a tactical bomber. Finally, we get into a section on Operations with records from 111 Squadron's official log book for September of 1940, a Fighter Command Combat Report from 12 Group on 9 September 1940 and Douglas Bader's logbook from 7-19 1940. All really interesting stuff.

It concludes with a report on the operations of 6 Squadron in the Eastern Desert in June of 1942 as they learn how to operate the Hurricane IID 'tank buster'.

In all, it is a very enjoyable and interesting read on this aircraft and while you might think the reports would be dry, they are actually something I enjoyed reading; espectially the section on Hurricane IID operations. A book that should be a requirement for any Hurricane fan or those simply interested in the RAF in WWII.

August 2016

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