I am looking for a site that could give me any battle accounts of the Tank-Buster version of the Hawker Hurricane. Would also like to know how the aircraft and its Vickers 4omm "S" guns stacked up against the Ju-87's 37mm's.

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I'll straightaway annoy you with an out-of-print book - 'Hurricane - The War Exploits Of The Fighter Aircraft ' by 'Adrian Stewart' ( William Kimber, London, 1982 ).

This includes a long chapter about the 'tank-busting' Hurricanes. ( The author's name is a nom-de-plume disguising a former Hurricane pilot who did not wish to be identified ).

You should be able to find a copy on ABE or Bookfinder - it's worth buying for the cover painting alone !

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Martin, I have a little question that may be particularly well suited to you. My Grandfather watched an air display at Hendon in the early 1940's, I think it was around 1942 as it seems to have been soon after he got his commission but before he went to fight. Anyhow, he said he saw a Hurricain destroy a tank for the display and I think it was using rockets. Does this make sense and what type of Hurricain would it be?

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Wow ! Those 3-inch rockets ( or 'RP's in RAF parlance ) were never very accurate and if a couple went astray at Hendon.....

But the timing of your uncle's memory does fit.... Late in 1941, Hurricane IIA Series 2 Z2415 was fitted with three launcher rails under each wing and tested at Boscombe Down. Two other aircraft soon followed and were fitted with eight under-wing rails. Trials were successfully completed by May 1942 but no immediate use was made of RP-equipped Hurricanes operationally.

The Typhoon came into service in Northern Europe but RP Hurricanes were used by No 6 Squadron in Italy employing Hurricane IVs in anti-shipping strikes from February 1944 onwards. They then went to the Balkans where they were used in an anti-tank role.

This information comes from another book ( sorry ! [img]redface.gif[/img] ), Francis K Mason's undisputed 'Bible' entitled, simply, The Hawker Hurricane ( Aston Publications, 1987 )which tells you just about everything you ever wanted to know about the Hurricane - even the fate of every single one ever built.....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Thanks Martin, I was thinking about it and I reckon he was wrong, I thing it was on sailsbury plain as there are firepower displays there on a regular basis (saw one a while back WOOOOW). Anyhow, thanks, that has sorted something I have wondered about for a while.

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There's no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.

Have been watching "The Battle of Britian" again for the umpteenth time and I know of no other movie that shows "Spit's" and "Hurricanes" and others so well. A lot of wonderful, well known actors as well; however, I can't stop thinking of "Jaws" everytime I see Robert Shaw- he'll always be the ill mannered, boat captain named "Quint" to me! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

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Agree with you about 'BofB', wilconqr. Absolutely the best and never-to-be-repeated without computer trickery. On the 30th anniversary of the film I met two of the RAF pilots who flew for the movie - they had some great tales to tell ! In those days, the warbirds weren't looked on as multi-million pound investments - so those guys really flew the 'planes in that film : hard !

Actually, Shaw worked hard at producing a very good impersonation of 'Sailor' Malan ( called 'Skipper' in the film...).

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Doe's anyone know what ever happened to the Miles aircraft that they tried to convert to a flying Stuka but it was too unstable to use? I have a picture of it in one of my magazines but it was just a semi good conversion, a real Stuka fan could spot it as a fake in a second. They ended up using scale model Stukas in the film.

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Work Harder ! Millions on welfare are depending on you.

I think the 'plane in question was a Percival Proctor, known on the set of the movie as a 'Proctuka'.

The conversion was done by Vivian Bellamy who probably took it back home and hid it somewhere because, as you rightly say, it was rejected in favour of r/c models.

Incidentally, two of the models collided accidentally during filming and it looked so good the scene is used twice from different angles......

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson