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AllFlying |
Brothers
in arms -- Spitfire & Hurricane The
planes that won the Battle of Britain
 Of
all the planes that flew during the Second World War, none was quite as beautifully
graceful as the Supermarine Spitfire. With its distinctive elliptical wing profile
it now stands as the very symbol of Britain's air war, adorning a range of badges
and commemorative plates. Loved by its pilots and the public alike, its name has
become synonymous with that most crucial of clashes, the Battle of Britain, and
one would be forgiven the impression the Spit' won the battle alone.
In actuality
it was the Hawker Hurricane - somewhat lost in the glare of the Spitfire, as it
were - that bore the brunt of Allied fighter operations in the first years of
the war. Less spectacular, and hardly as good-looking, the Hurricane nevertheless
was as important as its more agile partner, to whom it was inextricably bound
during that pitched battle in the summer and autumn of 1940.
The two fighters
complemented one another nicely. While the highly manoeuvrable Spitfire would
take on the German Messerschmitt escorts, the Hurricane would zoom in on the bombers,
blasting them from the sky with eight .303 calibre machine guns. While the Spitfire
catpured the imaginations of the breathless spectators below, the Hurricane, by
battle's end, had accounted for more enemy kills than all other defences combined,
including ground fire as well as fighting planes.
The story of these two
brothers in arms is a story of both likenesses and differences. Both planes were
an answer to the same Air Ministry call - specification F.7/30 - which in 1930
sought a replacement fighter for the fast-becoming obsolete Bristol Bulldog. Both
the Hurricane and the Spitfire, when finished, utilised the same Rolls Royce Merlin
engine, and both planes carried the same compliment of eight Browning .303 machineguns.
Yet the paths each plane followed from idea to construction were almost as different
as could be - a difference that would carry over into the characteristics of each
machine, and ultimately produce the winning combination that saved Britain from
invasion and Europe from complete German domination.
The Hurricane was the
next logical progression in a line of fighters of an illustrious pedigree stretching
back to the earliest days of military aviation. In 1913, the Sopwith Aviation
Company produced the first plane in which the company's test pilot, Australian
Harry Hawker, had taken a lead role in the design. The result was the Sopwith
Tabloid, a racing plane that won the prestigious Schneider Trophy in 1914. During
the war years Sopwith and Hawker designed a range of legendary fighters, like
the Pup and the Camel, and when in 1920 economic difficulties forced the liquidation
of the company, it was immediately reformed under the name of Hawker Engineering.
Hawker's perhaps best inter-war fighter was the Fury. This sleek part-metal,
part-fabric biplane was the very picture of the halfway mark between the plywood
machines of the Great War and the high-powered metal fighters of the war to come.
In 1933, the Fury's chief designer, Sydney Camm, came up with a proposal for a
"Fury monoplane", a design that would ultimately become the Hurricane. True to
the company culture, this design would take on many of the elements of previous
models, onto which were added improved features and inventions, a formula that
had served the company well ever since the day of the Tabloid.
 If
the Hurricane was the sturdy and reliable workhorse it is sometimes likened to,
the Spitfire was a warm-blooded racing stallion. Its design grew out of a love
for speed and an ambition to win, as the young chief designer of Supermarine Aviation
Works, Reginald Mitchell, took it upon himself to ensure Britain's dominance in
the annual Schneider Trophy seaplane races. With a radical new monoplane design,
Mitchell ensured Supermarine's first victory in 1922 with the Sealion II, and
again in 1927 with the Supermarine S5. In 1928, the more powerful S6 - often considered
the direct predecessor to the Spitfire - brought victory home yet again. In 1929,
a modified version of the S6 set a world speed record of 407.5 mph, a record that
would stand unchallenged for an astonishing 14 years.
Boosted by the success
of his racing seaplanes, Mitchell felt confident enough to answer the Air Ministry's
call to design a world-beating fighter. The first attempt, the gull-winged Type
224, did not fair particularly well against the competition, and was promptly
scrapped. The next model, the Type 300, was a very different story. By 1936 this
prototype featured a stressed skin construction, a brand new Rolls Royce engine
(the PV-12, later to be renamed the Merlin), and the now-famous broad, elliptical
wing. In June that year the Air Ministry ordered 310 of these aircraft, and also
came up with a name for the new fighter. Mitchell, upon hearing it was to be called
the Spitfire, is reported to have said: "Just the sort of bloody silly name they
would choose!"
That same month, June of 1936, the Air Ministry
put an order to Hawker for 600 of its new fighter. The Hurricane - a name apparently
no one objected to - was the first of the two to enter service. By the outbreak
of war, 19 RAF squadrons were flying Hurricanes, and nine were equipped with the
Spitfire. There was never any doubt the Spit' was the better fighter, but due
to its special construction materials it was much more difficult to build, and
old assembly plants couldn't immediately handle it. The decision by the Air Ministry
to employ both the Hurricane and the Spitfire, and in the relative numbers they
did, was arguably one of the factors that would save Britain in the battle to
come.
In July 1940, 700 British fighters faced a combined force of some 2800
German fighters and bombers across the Channel. The battle that ensued is today
both history and legend. What is rarely reflected upon, however, is that had the
Ministry decided only to employ the Spitfire, by 1940 the RAF would most likely
not have had enough of them ready to stand against the onslaught. Had the RAF
on the other hand been equipped just with the Hurricane, the superior Messerschmitt
Bf-109's would surely have sent them all burning from the sky. It was the partnership
that saved the day and subsequently the war - the sturdy workhorse and the graceful
natural - a team far greater than the sum of its parts. It was a partnership forged
by chance and necessity, but a partnership, in retrospect, with all the trappings
of one destined to be. By
Martin Sellevold (with
thanks to Fleeet Air Arm Archive at http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/) 
Mustang
enthusiast site: click
here Spitfire
enthusiast site:
click here Modern
Spitfire replica: click
here
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