Hurricane Mk.IV

Steven,

drop me a pm with your e-mail address and I’ll e-mail the full res photo’s to you.

Regards,

TMN

By coincidence, we were at ‘Thinktank’ in Birmingham to have a look at their Spitfire IX and Hurricane IV.
Hope these photo’s help!

Fantastic, thanks for posting the photos. First time I have seen images of Thinktank’s Hurricane!! Any chance you could email me higher resolution versions of the images?

I see the radiator doesn’t have it’s armor plating. The ply-wood(?) strips suggest that the armor was simply installed over top of the radiator and perhaps could be removed and installed as needed?

Great to see the mounting points for the 40mm Cannon. The maintenance manual talks about stowing these mountings inside the wing somehow, if I read it correctly.

Thanks.

Regards,

By coincidence, we were at ‘Thinktank’ in Birmingham to have a look at their Spitfire IX and Hurricane IV.
Hope these photo’s help!

Wow! Great photos! Not often you find stuff like that.

So what can we make of the Canuck Hurris with the rockets? Canadian XII’s were essentially Hurricane II’s with the 1,300-hp Merlin 29 were they not?

Were these Hurris using rockets opertionally against the Germans or was this just for training?

The RCAF Hurricanes were basically IIs with Packard built Merlins. (not sure of the exact Merlin type.) The rockets used at 1 OTU were just for training.

Jim

Wow! Great photos! Not often you find stuff like that.

So what can we make of the Canuck Hurris with the rockets? Canadian XII’s were essentially Hurricane II’s with the 1,300-hp Merlin 29 were they not?

Were these Hurris using rockets opertionally against the Germans or was this just for training?

XIIs carried rockets for training purposes with 1 OTU. See about half way down here for a picture:

Excellent photos!!! Thanks for posting the link.

Regards,

Thanks for those Jim, my dad worked on the Hurricane MkXIIs at Scudouc NB during the war. I had never seen actual operations pictures from this period. Its interesting that 5447 that we are restoring had the number 71 on the nose in the same fashion as 69 in the photos. I’ll have to check to see if it was at Bagotville.

XIIs carried rockets for training purposes with 1 OTU. See about half way down here for a picture:

http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/airfields/bagotville.html

HTH,

Jim

Oh, I know about the P-38 (which used mostly the 20-mm Hispano) and the P-39 (used the 20-mm Hispano early on before switching to the 37-mm T4), so I wasn’t just asking about fighters with big guns. We could go on all day about those. 🙂

I was just wondering about that specific 40-mm weapon used by the Hurricane.

I’m asking if other types carried the 40-mm guns….as in something other than a Hurricane.

Be surprised if you get an answer to this question since it’s burried so deep in this Hurricane MkIV thread.

A quick search suggests that the some variants of the P-38 and also the P-39 had 37mm(?) cannon.

www.mossie.org indicates that the FB.XVIII Fighter bomber. The ‘Tsetse’. Developed from the FB.VI with the nose modified to take a six-pounder (57mm)

I always thought the Beaufighter had +40mm cannon but is seems that is had 4-20mm cannon.

Surprising that not more aircraft had +40mm Cannon. Make’s it more impressive that the Hurricane could be modified to do this!!!!

I’m not much help to you without access to my full book collection (sigh…).

I’m asking if other types carried the 40-mm guns….as in something other than a Hurricane.

I ran accross this photo of what I believe is a MkIV.

Where did the photo come from? I haven’t see in before and if it’s in a Hurricane book I would like to add to my collection?

Was the Hurricane IID and IV the only airborne application for the 40-mm guns in that photo? Any other types use them?

Not quite sure what you mean. As far as I know the MkIID and MkIV were the only Hurricanes to have 40mm cannons.

I still havn’t been able to find and MkIIB’s or MkIIC’s which had rockets. I was checking Mason’s 1987 book “The Hawker Hurricane” and it indicates on p95 in a section called Rockets and Tank-busters that:
“Later in 1941…..a Hurricane IIA Series 2 (with “universal” wings), Z2415 (picture on p 98), was fitted with three rocket launcher rails under each wing…. This and two further aircraft, similarly modified, were delivered to Boscombe Down later that year….Although the rocket trials with the Hurricane were concluded quickly and successfully (probably as early as May 1942), no immediate call was make to equip Hurricane squadrons engaged in offensive sweeps with rockets; indeed the weapon did not come into widespread use until 1943

A later section then goes on to say that trials of the prototype MkIV started on 14 March 1943.

So- still haven’t been able to confirm if MkIIB’s and MkIIC’s ever carried rockets. It’s looking unlikely though.

Was the Hurricane IID and IV the only airborne application for the 40-mm guns in that photo? Any other types use them?

I ran accross this photo of what I believe is a MkIV.

Sure looks like a MkIV according to the armor plating on the radiator. You would think that with all the books I have on Hurricanes that there would be tonnes of MkIV photos clearly showing the radiator armor- these photos are tough to come by.

Thanks for posting the picture. Wonder what the two horizontal stripes on the underside of each wing outboard of the cannon are? Maybe they are sealant tape from when it was carrying rockets?

I ran accross this photo of what I believe is a MkIV.

I’m pretty certain that the more powerful Merlin 27 engine is what enabled them to put all that extra armor on the IV. I would assume they were built that way from the beginning.

Yes, I am referring to Canadian built XII. The pictures that spring to mind are of series of shots taken of a public rocket firing demonstration that was put on in 1945 by Canadian ace Bert Houle.

Great to know that MkXII’s carried rockets, wonder if this was this an experiment or done operationally?
I looked at two more references last night, I found a photograph of a MkIIB which was converted to a MkIV carrying rockets but no MkII B or C’s.
The same MkIV photograph also showed the armor around the radiator, another question I have is whether MkIV’s always had this extra armor?

At some point the wings were found in India and added to the project.

Thanks for the background on KZ321’s wings- interesting.

Steve
Great to see these used to go to the Hamilton Airshow years ago. Actually some of the most enjoyable events I have been to lately weren’t airshows either. The VWoC open houses are the same, I marshall so don’t get to take pictures. What a rush though being on the tarmac with the Lanc, two Hurricanes and two Spits all running at the same time.
Here are a few a friend took at this years BoB open house at VWoC. I encourage him to show some of us marshallers in his shots ;>? The CWH and Russell Group are a great bunch a lot of fun being involved.
Steve M

Excellent shots, Steve.

Daz/K225–

Couple more angles on last year’s CWH FlyFest…for an event that isn’t technically an airshow it’s getting downright good the last couple years!

A very unusual five-plane vic thunders overhead…

…in not too many years, theoretically this sort of formation at the same venue could involve the Lanc, four each Spits/Huris, and a Mosquito…

Here’s the CWH museum building and part of the ramp seen from DC-3 C-GDAK flying a banked “museum pass”. As has been said, the lineup is one not often seen. Visible in this shot, Lanc (barely!), Hurricane, Spit x2, Me109, Sea Fury, Firefly, T-28, DHC Buffalo, several jets and several trainers; also present on the day, B-25, Canso, C-45 et cetera.

S.