Jetrader - March/April 2009 - (Page 33)

what turned out to be 100 JU-88 bombers, 120 BF 110 ﬁghter bombers and 25 BF 109 escort ﬁghters higher and behind, waiting for the Spitﬁres to join them in combat and several squadrons of Hurricanes approaching the bombers below. We sat on a bench to watch the battle above our heads as they turned West to destroy the Ventnor radar station on the Isle of Wight, (it was out for a few days, but the lattice masts were not affected by the 500kg bomb blasts). Meantime the Hurricanes had downed 10 bombers before the 109s chased after them. That day a 100-mile gap was torn in the radar chain, with stations attacked from Dunkirk (Kent) to Ventnor. Manston ﬁghter airﬁeld also incurred heavy damage. Flying more than 1,700 sorties a day, by September 15 the Luftwaffe had the RAF on the ropes, with its airﬁelds being destroyed and replacement pilots being rushed out of Operation Conversion Units with just a few hours of training. Convinced the RAF was almost ﬁnished, with the London docks ablaze, on September 15 the Luftwaffe threw everything serviceable for the knockout blow. Sending a 100 bombers over London with 400 BF 109s to protect them, they were met by 200 Hurricanes and Spitﬁres, to be repeated several times that day. At the end, the Luftwaffe lost 56 aircraft and their crews; the RAF lost 25, with 12 pilots being able to bail out. When the Battle of Britain wound down a couple of weeks later, of the 2,739 enemy aircraft claimed destroyed at the time, 1,593 were attributed to the Hawker Hurricane. REFERENCES • • • • • • • Len Deighton, Fighter, Alfred A. Knopf, 1978 www.chuckhawks.com/hawker_hurricane www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Hurricane www.wingweb.co.uk/biographies www. hawker-restoration-ltd.co.uk/Technical Numerous minor searches My witness of air battles 1940 A line drawing of the Hawker Hart 109, so it was given the task of tackling the bombers while the outnumbered Spitﬁres attempted to hold off the ﬁghter escort, which ﬂew higher and behind the bombers. Ofﬁcially, the battle was joined on July 10 and declined in ferocity in October, when, realizing they had not gained control of the air for a successful invasion, the Luftwaffe turned its attention to night attacks on the cities. In the meantime, Hitler had turned his attention to planning an invasion of the Soviet Union. The air war over Southern England was most intense from August 8, when JU-87 Stuka dive bombers attacked a convoy of coal ships hugging the coast off Brighton. I was then 10 years of age when, just as my mother was getting breakfast, we heard the shriek of the sirens ﬁtted to the Stukas’ wheel spats. She ran out the front door to snatch up the pint of milk delivered daily. On Sunday, August 12, walking on the seafront with my father, we saw a mass of contrails approaching from France. To the West, a squadron of Hurricanes from Tangmere were climbing to meet MCC Aviation Services, Inc. Regional Aircraft Specialist Frederick P. Dibble President 6867 Elm Street, Suite 101 McLean, Virginia 22101 + (703) 847-6921 fred.dibble@mcc-aviation.com www.mcc-aviation.com Jetrader 33 http://www.chuckhawks.com/hawker_hurricane http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/hawker_hurricane http://www.wingweb.co.uk/biographies http://www.hawker-restoration-ltd.co.uk/technical http://www.mcc-aviation.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Jetrader - March/April 2009

Jetrader - March/April 2009 A Message from the President Contents Calendar/News Crunching the Numbers World Air Cargo Forecast Brain Drain in the Transportation Industry Aircraft Appraisals From the ISTAT Foundation Aviation History Advertising Index

Jetrader - March/April 2009

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.