For the next several minutes, the two squadrons chased each other for miles in all directions. Work on the Spitfire design actually began several years before the Hurricane, but because it was a more complex and innovative airplane, it took longer to develop. Both also saw active service until World War II ended in August 1945. Others were more generous in their appraisal of the man, who was a vociferous anti-apartheid protestor in South Africa after the war. Asked for his opinion of Malan’s famous “Ten Rules for Air Fighting,” which became an unofficial guide for new pilots, Freeborn snorted with derision: “A lot of rubbish. I heard someone say that the hurricane was actually better. Spitfire required a minimum speed of 250 mph to retain maneuverability advantage. As one of the few surviving RAF pilots who had flown night patrols against the Germans, his input was invaluable. But when the Spitfires dove to the attack, the plan quickly fell apart. Later, on September 29, 1931, his S.6B, fitted with a special ‘Sprint’ engine with its horsepower upgraded to 2,550, pushed the world speed record to 407.5 mph. “We landed back at North Weald very angry at the terrible mess-up where our controllers had so irresponsibly vectored two wings onto each other, guns loaded and pilots warned for combat,” he remarked after the war. “And if you had no money to lend him he would take it out of your pockets. Deighton also noted that the Hurricane had a tighter turning radius than the Spitfire-800 feet for the Hurricane compared with 880 for the Spitfire. But when Dowding decided that eight guns would be needed to destroy an enemy bomber, Camm changed his design. Freeborn shot down a 109 in the second sortie and was leading a third sortie of 11 Spitfires at midday when he was given misleading information by the ground controller. Or, as another pilot said, ‘The Spitfire and the Hurricane complemented each other.’. Suddenly Malan’s voice called over the radio: “Tally-ho! The larger engine he had in mind was supplied by Rolls-Royce–a new, 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled power plant called simply the PV-12. Eventually, 14,000 Hurricanes would be built and 22,000 Spitfires (including Royal Navy Seafires). Some Spitfire pilots shared that bias in regard to the Hurricane. Although both aircraft played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain they could not have been more different from one another. Did that include lying to protect his reputation? Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], French astrologer and physician. Both aircraft are from the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. He was, in short, not only lonely but also extremely uncomfortable. • Hurricanes had a wooden rear frame covered in fabric and the Spitfire was made completely of metal. It had been given a name-the Spitfire-by Vickers and made official by the Air Ministry. Freeborn did. “They were Germans and they had to go,” he said. Spitfire vs. Hurricane: First RAF Combat of World War I . Deighton also noted that the Hurricane had a tighter turning radius than the Spitfire-800 feet for the Hurricane compared with 880 for the Spitfire. As you fly, the Hurricane and the Spitfire will be flying wing-to-wing with you. He wouldn’t give us any more money. Perhaps the fairest assessment of what happened that September morning is to attribute it to the fog of war. Flight Commander Wilfred “Paddy” Treacy talked him through the controls and then wished the teenager good luck. At 0645 hours on September 6 there was another scramble and Flight Lt. Adolph Malan, nicknamed “Sailor” because of his stint as a naval cadet, led Red Section through a thick ground mist into a clear blue sky. He gave us the order to attack and we attacked. Freeborn’s outspokenness undoubtedly worked against him in the rigid hierarchy of the RAF, as did his relatively humble upbringing. 74 “Tiger” Squadron at RAF Hornchurch, east of London. The Fury was powered by the Rolls-Royce Kestrel, which gave it a maximum speed of 184 mph. A turning radius quoted as 800 feet for the Hurricane and 880 feet for the Spitfire. A squadron of Gloster Gladiator biplanes was actually assigned to defend the Royal Naval dockyards at Portsmouth. Mitchell’s fighter first took to the air on March 5, 1936. Shirley Jackson, novelist and short story writer (Life Among Savages, The Lottery). None of the 20 fighter pilots had ever been in combat, or even seen a German airplane up close, and this inexperience, ignorance and excitement was about to have fatal consequences. Each side thought its own airplane was the best. (Imperial War Museum). And that is NOT a carburetor (carburettor in British English) air inlet. Harbourne Stephen had a blazing row with him after he heard of his habit of buzzing Luftwaffe pilots who had bailed out. Henry IV, the first Bourbon king of France. Together, they turned the tide of history’s first great air battle. The Spitfire, Hurricane, and Fw-190, with their “vertical” landing gear and heavier structures, fared much better. Leave A Reply. James Thomas Aubrey Jr., TV and film executive; president of CBS television (1959–1965). “He was controlling the squadron at 32,000 feet and 10/10ths cloud and he said there are bandits,” recounted Freeborn. 2. If those officers had had their way, the RAF would have faced the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt Bf-109s with obsolete Gloster Gladiators in the spring and summer of 1940. Spitfire vs Me-262 fw-190-wurger. This failure was almost entirely due to the ‘unconventional’ creations of Reginald J. Mitchell and Sidney Camm. He soon acquired a reputation for ruthlessness. He noted that the exploding cannon shells of the Messerschmitt Bf- 109, which inflicted heavy damage to metal skin, had less effect on any sort of girder work-in the same way that bomb blasts so often failed to topple the skeletal British radar towers. Needless to say we would'nt have been victorious withour either of these two magnificent aircraft, their pilots, the ground crews and all the other people that contributed. Wood and fabric biplanes were familiar; monocoque monoplanes were new and strange to them. He was a brilliant pilot, but he was as evasive on the ground as he was in the air, a mix of showman and politician. Freeborn’s methods upset some of his fellow pilots. When the Hawker plane made its first test flight on November 6, 1935, it was still without a name-the Air Ministry did not approve ‘Hurricane,’ the name suggested by the manufacturer, until June 1936. Revolutionary for its time-it was the RAF’s first monoplane fighter and its first fighter to exceed 300 mph-the Hurricane was still a wood-and-fabric airplane. It was the result of an evolutionary process that began with the fabric-covered biplanes of World War I. For in spite of all the facts, it is the myth that is best remembered-the myth of the Spitfire taking on the air fleets of the Luftwaffe single-handedly. We got 14 and 6 pence a day during the Battle of Britain.”, In time Freeborn saw many of his friends killed: Cobden, Douglas Hastings, Peter St. John, Wally Churches and Peter Chesters, the last as he attempted a victory roll over the airfield in April 1941. And the argument was not always confined to the officers mess. If taking … Repositioning to attack from the rear, Byrne dispatched one of the aircraft and Freeborn opened fire on the other with his Spitfire’s eight Browning .303-inch guns, sending it down in flames. Stresses placed upon both aircraft during tests were not measured. Nobody’s skills at breaking up bomber formations had improved, and neither side could brag about a clearcut victory over the other. The Hawker Hurricane won the Battle Of Britain, The Supermarine Spitfire helped. Each was created under a completely different set of circumstances and came from totally different backgrounds and antecedents. Die-hard defenders of the Hurricane are quick to comment that the Hawker aircraft is credited with shooting down more enemy aircraft than the Spitfire. “He told him he was a downright bloody liar.”, The court-martial lasted half a day and, after considering the evidence, the tribunal acquitted Freeborn and Byrne. By the time Britain went to war with Germany on September 3, 1939, the war that Air Vice Marshal Dowding had foreseen, 2,160 Spitfires were on order for the RAF. 56 Squadron embark on a mission from North Weald. And the cynics would have a point. It was that line of thinking that made Dowding’s job of upgrading and modernizing the RAF more difficult. (Imperial War Museum CH158). Which is better, the Supermarine Spitfire or the Hawker Hurricane? His designs really were ahead of their time. The changing nature of the air war over Europe drove a slew of upgrade programmes for both aircraft. Mustang, Spitfire, Hurricane – The Fighters that Brought the Luftwaffe to its Knees Germany had the most powerful air force in Europe when the World War II started. Height: 13 ft. 12 ft. 7 in. The Spitfire owed its famous graceful lines and speed to its early ancestors, evolving as a fighter from a series of extremely successful racing seaplanes that were designed in the 1920s–and 1930s. The original armament of the new Hawker monoplane consisted of two .303-caliber Vickers Mark V machine guns mounted in the fuselage, and two .303-caliber Browning machine guns in the wings. But at least it had given the pilots something else to argue about. In consequence, many seriously damaged Hurricanes were repaired in squadron workshops while badly damaged Spitfires were being written off. The Hurricane and Spitfire are slow and clumsy fighters at low altitudes. This was true in relation to the Mark I Hurricanes which came up against the Me 109 in France in 1939 and in the early battles over England in 1940. Despite the great effort, however, nothing was accomplished by the little drill. Emmett Tyrell, journalist, author, publisher; founded The American Spectator magazine. An IFF (identification friend or foe) signal system was also fitted into aircraft to aid ground controllers. Number 64 Squadron was to send six Spitfires to intercept the incoming ‘bombers.’ It all looked like a nice, easy practice drill on paper, but whoever planned the exercise had not reckoned on the rivalry between Spitfire and Hurricane pilots. The Air Ministry confirmed this with its statement, ‘The total number of enemy aircraft brought down by single-seater fighters was in the proportion of 3 by Hurricanes to 2 by Spitfires,’ and also noted, ‘the average proportion … of serviceable [aircraft] each morning was approximately 63 percent Hurricanes and 37 percent Spitfires.’ A cynic might be tempted to say that the Hurricane did most of the work, but the Spitfire got most of the glory. Emmett Tyrell, journalist, author, publisher; founded The American Spectator magazine. There were other strong characters in the squadron: Sgt. The Spitfires in the Battle of Britain were fitted with the Merlin III of 1,030 horsepower. So he began to experiment. Both machines may have had their good points and bad points, but no one ever praised either one for its comfort or luxury. He was a bully.”. On February 13, 1939, 74 Squadron took delivery of its first Spitfire. It was unarmed and fitted with a fixed-pitch wooden propeller. One of his sergeant pilots, Bill Skinner, recounted how a Junkers Ju-88A was shot down over France in May 1940: “The Nazi crew were seen to get out and shake their fists at us. Mitchell’s efforts at streamlining produced aircraft that were not only graceful but also among the fastest in the world. The first prototype of the aircraft that would become known as the Spitfire was an odd-looking affair. (Courtesy of Bob Cossey, 74(F) Tiger Squadron Association), Freeborn did do the odd daft thing in the war, on one occasion buzzing two golfers on a local links course. James H. Doolittle, American Air Force general who commanded the first bombing mission over Japan. For armament, he gave his fighter four wing-mounted .303-caliber machine guns. P-51 Mustang vs Spitfire: Opinions (Imperial War Museum). The final time we spoke I asked him what it was that had made him such a good pilot. Daarnaast bestond ook nog de variant Seafire, waarvan er 2.594 werden gebouwd. The … Nostradamus [Michel de Nostredame], French astrologer and physician. Dowding’s insistence upon equipping the RAF with these two fighters while he was still attached to Supply and Research paid large dividends in the skies over the south of England during the summer of 1940. He had only recently agreed to talk publicly about his wartime experience as the pilot who had flown more operational hours during the Battle of Britain than any other. Peter Townsend, who flew both Spitfires and Hurricanes, said that Spitfires were ‘faster and more nimble, the Hurricane more maneuverable at its own speed and undoubtedly the better gun platform.’ One of Townsend’s fellow Battle of Britain pilots defended the Spitfire: ‘Our Spits were so well balanced they would fly themselves. In 1937, at the age of 42, he died of cancer. Discover (and save!) F-35 Lightning II vs Chengdu J-10; F-35 Lightning II vs MiG-35; According to Wing Commander Raymond Myles Beacham Duke-Woolley, who flew with the all-American Eagle Squadrons, a fighter pilot was a lonely man. “As soon as he saw me, he pushed his stick forward, which we [Spitfire pilots] couldn’t do because the engine would stop and it would be some time before the carburetor would be able to flow again. But luck came into it, too, particularly in shooting down the enemy. For one thing, it was underpowered–its Rolls-Royce Goshawk II engine gave it a speed of only 238 mph. 111 Squadron, which received its new fighters late in 1937. R. J. Mitchell's masterpiece, the prototype Supermarine Spitfire. But Mitchell made engineering theories more than just possibilities; he turned them into brilliant successes. The Spitfire’s long nose prevented Freeborn from seeing where he was going, and the sheer power of his new mount took him by surprise. If a pilot passed out through lack of oxygen, the Spitfire would fall away in a dive and correct itself’ But another of Townsend’s contemporaries spoke up for the Hurricane: ‘ [It] was built with the strength of a battleship, had an engine of great power and reliability, and was throughout an excellent and accurate flying machine.’ Some of the Hurricane’s detractors (or Spitfire’s defenders) point to the Hawker fighter’s wood-and-fabric construction as one of its failings. Your email address will not be published. German pilots had a great deal more respect for the Spitfire than for the Hurricane. The Supermarine firm had been taken over by the industrial giant Vickers by this time; the new corporation was known as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd. Wing Commander Robert Stanford-Tuck said the Spitfire was like ‘a fine Thoroughbred racehorse, while the dear old Hurricane was rather like a heavy workhorse.’. Many pilots owe their lives to this property …. One pilot absent from the hard labor was Pilot Officer John Freeborn, a 19-year-old who spoke his mind with a confidence that belied his tender years. What hadn’t dulled over the years was his character: Like many Yorkshiremen he was forthright, funny and fearless in what he said. Charlie Rich, crossover country singer, musician ("Behind Closed Doors"). Hap was able to evade and outmaneuver Spitfire by maneuvering at low speeds. “Practicing all the time,” he replied. Recent tests had shown that the minimum firepower needed to shoot down an enemy bomber was six or, preferably, eight guns, each capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute. XIIa (left) and a Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Nonetheless, Freeborn liked Malan well enough to apply for a transfer to his A Flight, and early on the morning of September 6 the South Afri­can led his flight to intercept the approaching hostiles high over Essex. On April 11, 2015 October 30, 2015 By Corporal Frisk In Air, Historical. 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