What, when, where.

Still kicking here, Kansan Mate.

Interesting stuff all, NO I got it from Axls Rob, so I knew nuffing!.

I have given up trying to match it, as there are heap’s and heap’s of possible’s, and it seem’s the Hurra did get around just a bit!!

CYA!

Sea Hurricanes rings a bell with me..
I wondered if it was possibly North Africa as well.

Cheers Phil and the rest of you for an interesting discussion.

Tony

Has anyone considered the Isle of Wight for the where? IoW had five airfields at the start of WWII

O Canada, our home and native land…

Is quoting yourself a bad thing?

BTW Where else (if anywhere) on the Web does this picture occur? I couldn’t find it ater a short google yesterday.

Anyway. This may (or may not) add some interest to the “where” aspect.

I found a source for the photo – it’s Canadian.

Actually I bet Stormbird Phil could have told us that anyway. 😀 Are you OK mate??

The URL for the picture itself is:http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/equip/grfx/equip_gallery/historic_gallery/wallpaper/hurrican.jpg

The interesting bit is the copyright/fair use statement (below – formatted by me) which says

Information on this site has been posted with the intent that it be readily available for personal and public non-commercial use and may be reproduced, in part or in whole and by any means, without charge or further permission by the Department of National Defence. We ask only that:

If therefore this is a Canadian DND Official Picture, perhaps we may like to look at this in a new light, especially if we’re on the OTHER side of the Atlantic from where we started (and on the other side of the 49th Parallel from where I am now).

Bring on the Canucks! 😀

Rob / Kansan

Agree on the point about the spinner. What about the lack of a fuselage band? That would suggest to me that, if the location is the UK, these are FAA machines.

The cliffs, if they are cliffs, do not look like Scottish cliffs – far too light.

Best wishes
Steve P

Any chance they are the 5 Portuguese Hurri IIs used in Angels One Five? Seems like I read somewhere they had the wrong roundels to begin with and were changed halfway through filming. They looked pretty beat up and didn’t have cannons.

Dan

I must admit I thought that before I started looking.

However IIRC the ex-Portuguese in “Angels One-Five” still were Hurricane IIcs that had the little cannon blisters in the upper wings which are visible in the film. Also for what it’s worth “Angels One-Five” machines also wore some bad 56 Squadron codes (US-whatever) rather than code/roundel/letter – they also looked darker than this lot – two of them are looking very faded.

There isn’t enough detail on the wings to see whether or not it’s a Hurricane IIc, but it doesn’t look like it. There is enough ambiguity in the spinners that if you *want* to see it, you can see the spinnerless Canadian Hurricane XII, or you can see a shiny surface reflecting on a black spinner.

Coastline edge looks a bit steep to be just sand. Yes, there is some kind of wake in the lower right corner and what looks like some kind of darkened churned-up trail in the surrounding water in theat same area.

How about the weather? It seems to be very bright and the sun is very high. It doesn’t *feel* english. I take the point about the trees near the cliff edge.

Got me wondering about landscapes.

BTW Where else (if anywhere) on the Web does this picture occur? I couldn’t find it ater a short google yesterday.

Rob / Kansan

Any chance they are the 5 Portuguese Hurri IIs used in Angels One Five? Seems like I read somewhere they had the wrong roundels to begin with and were changed halfway through filming. They looked pretty beat up and didn’t have cannons.

Dan

Amusing. Doesn’t seem to be a fake. I’ve flipped it, and the letters look odder, so I think it’s the right way around!

Some facts.

3 stub exhausts. Three blade props (not a surprise!) but with spinner fitted, and it doesn’t look like the Canadian style spinner

Some (all?) seem to have flame shields fitted

Probably 8 gun wings – no cannon, no protruding barrels on outer wing, as per 12 gun wing.

Tired paintwork – patches on centre front a/c roundels, worn paint on wing roots, fabric on ailerons lighter.

However, all visible roundels and fin flashes seem to match – which is unusual in this stage of use.

No rear fuselage band, light coloured spinner – therefore, probably not RAF Huricanes in the UK Should be either black spinner, or rear fuse band)

looks like 2 a/c have high demarkation to lower colour (as mentioned already)

Visible ID for Sea Hurricanes is all below – spools, hook etc, and would not be evident from this angle.

All bearing 2 letter codes, and at least two seem to be numeral/roundel/letter.

Opinion:

The field pattern does not look like a Southern England farming pattern from the air – the landscape is too rugged, looks like some conifers. Could be Scotland, Northern England, perhaps elsewhere in the UK, but I’d guess not Kent / Sussex.

There apears to be a runway end at the top edge, right 3/4, but that is unlikely, doesn’t look quite right, no perri track etc.

They look like (low) chalk cliffs to me, but DHFan may be right. I don’t think sand because of the hard landward edge, there would be some sand drift.

Looks like the end of a chalk island on lower r/h end.

I’d guess Sea Hurricanes, location unknown. Could be Med, Russia (?!?)

Cheers

Any ideas concerning the white blob in the bottom right corner? Lighthouse? Boat?

Best wishes
Steve P

No trees on Malta so not there.

Looking above the port wing of the Hurricane on the left, it looks like a large pond or lake.

Seems unlikely on top of a cliff.

I’m not convinced that they are Sea Hurries – a bit too much contrast in the camouflage for me.

If nobody is buying Beachy Head, and the terrain on the photo looks pretty close to what is on my map of the area, how about Malta?

Best wishes
Steve P

Is that the white cliffs of Dover?

Are they definitely chalk cliffs? I agree at a glance it certainly looks like it, and I’m terrible at photographic analysis, but could it be dunes or a sandy seashore.

Looking at the top right of the pic, it appears to show a wood right up to the edge, which in my limited experience of cliffs is unusual, but trees presumably don’t grow in solid chalk.

Also, there’s very little cultivated land near the coast. I haven’t got a clue what the significance of that is but it must mean something.

Phil,

For what it’s worth, I don’t think they’re RAF because of:
(1) the codes, as previously surmised (one looks suspiciously like 7-L but that could be my terrible eyesight) and
(2) the camouflage on two of them (top and bottom centre) which looks to have the sky component going half way up the fuselage.
I’d go with the Sea Hurricane theory for the what.

Location? Chalk cliffs below so probably England, but there is a lot of ground disturbance just inland which makes me wonder if it’s somewhere further west than Sussex.

When? We’re looking at A1 fuselage roundels (I think) so sometime before the C1 was introduced.

Rob / Kansan

Good one steve, I think that’s as good as any guess we might guess.

I’ll hit a few map’s of coast line’s if I get bored, and see at the very big off chance, If I can match it.

Anyone else care to throw their hat in to the ring ?

Must crash now, melting off me chair again, M.S. is bitting hard as usual

” Gut Nacht ” all far and wide

I’ll go for RAF Hurries flying off Beachy Head.

Best wishes
Steve P

Maybe….like I say, a guess based on the code style rather than anything more substantive. Spread of Sea Hurris? Anywhere that Hurricane equipped carriers operated – which leaves it pretty wide open!

Interesting, Sea Hurra’s ya think Webpilot.

Just how wide spread did the Sea Hurra’s get to be, during the war ?

All four seem to have two letter codes, rather than a RAF three letter code, so I’d hazard a guess at a flock of Sea Hurricanes, but beyind that I have no idea!