The Hawker
Hurricane was one of the two best RAF fighters in the WW2. Although it had a
fuselage made of linen, it was the
first modern aeroplane of Royal air force. The production started in 1935 and
the plane came in service in the same year. The Hurricane was motorized with a
Rolls-Roys Merlin III of 1,030 horse power. It was easy to pilot for young and
unexperimented pilots and it gave them the confidence that they needed to come
into the air battle. The Hurricane was equiped with eight Browning gun-machines
(7.69mm) that gave it a quite high power of destruction. However, its
performances were lower than those of the best axis fighters, especially the
Messerschmit Bf 109. That is why the main role of the Hurricane pilots was to
shoot down the slow bombers of the Luftwaffe that flew above Britain while the
Spitfires, faster and easier to handle had to fight with the redoubtable
fighters Bf 109. However in the hands of a skilled pilot, the Hurricane could
achieve great success. In fact during the Battle of Britain between July and
October 1940, 1.720 of them took part and had the honour of claiming 80% of
enemy aircraft shot down by Fighter Command.
“As a Hurricane pilot I
had a certain fear and respect for the Me 109. For one thing, it could dive
faster. If an Me 109 pilot saw you, it would drop down taking a shot at you, go
past, pull the stick back and start climbing very fast. You just couldn'y keep
up with him. The only way to overcome this was to roll over inverted and dive
after him in positive g. When the 109 pulled up to level out or climb, we'd
aileron-turn to right way up and see his plan view and get in a perfect shot.
The
Hurricanes visibility was pretty good, except above and below to the rear. The
mirror was useful, but not as effective as it might have been. I replaced mine
with a curved rear view mirror, and actually felt it gave me a touch extra
speed besides giving a better view.
I once
looked in my mirror and saw the biggest, fattest Me 109 ever, or so it seemed.
All at once his front lit up as he fired at me. The 109 went over the top, to
be followed by my No.2, who was firing at me! When we got down I put him on gun
practice for two days and told him "Don't shoot at your friends.....and if
you shoot at anything, make sure you hit it!"
Air
Commodore Peter Brothers CBE, DSO, DFC.
formally
Fl/Lt P. M.Brothers 32 and 257 Squadrons
The
Spitfire has matched the reputation that no other aircraft had in history. That
plane had the highest performance of any other fighters at that time. It was
the first fighter of the RAF that was only made of metal: the concept of the
Spitfire began in 1930 and the first project was called F.7/30. Its cockpit
formed part of the design lines of the body, and the undercarriage was retractable so that any form of resistance to the wind
was removed. By 1935, the aircraft with the Rolls Royce PV12, later called
Merlin, and its four Browning machine gun gave better performances than
expected.The Spitfire MK I. went into service in August 1938 and the
performances were improved with a new motor of 1,175 horse power. Before the
battle of Britain, the Spitfires acted in Norway and flew above France, giving
the protective cover at Dunkirk.
In the
battle, although the Spitfire was more manoeuvrable, faster and could climb
faster than all axis fighters, the qualities of the pilots were also important
to win an air battle: those who piloted Spitfires and even Hurricanes did not
have the experience of the German pilots who already fought in Spain.
The
Spitfire was produced in many versions until after the World War two. It
is still the most famous aircraft of the war and was one of the best fighters
of its time.
The plans of the Messerschmit 109 were made in 1934 by Willy
Messerschmit. At that time it was the best fighter in the world because of the power
of its motor and of the fineness of the fuselage. It has been tested during the
war in Spain where it has proved the qualities in speed handling and climbing
rate. The Messerschmit 109 acted as a fighter during the battle of France but
it had no real opponent because France only had a small aviation. Although it
also escorted the heavy bombers above the cities, it had another role in the
battle of Britain, which was to attack with bombs the English airfields and to
destroy the RAF on the ground. However the Messerschmitt 109 showed its
drawbacks before, during and after the battle: the undercarriage was too thin
and it was extremely difficult to land or to take off ( 5 percent of the
Messerschmits that crashed did it during landing or takeoff), and the working
range was too short so that the protection to bombers was really effective. The
Messerschmit 109 was the most produced aircraft in Germany and it was
the best axis fighter until 1942.
This double-engined aircraft was specially made in 1934 to escort heavy
bombers and to protect them from the fighters that could attack them. However
the Messerschmit 110,although it flew as fast as single-engined fighters, was
not as manoeuvrable as them. Quickly the Me 110 became an escorting plane who
needed its own escort! Then it has been moved away from the battle of England
and had another role which was the role of night-fighter against British
bombers.
The Stuka
was a nose diving bomber whose horrible looking and screaming siren became
famous in the armies of the World War two. Unfortunately the aircraft had so low
performances that the RAF shot down a great number of them: It was awkward in
the air and could not go as fast as the other aircrafts. Like the Me 110 it was moved away very quickly from the battle of Britain.