Hi,
I am researching the pre-war Hurricane deliveries to Belgium as there seems to be some confusion on how many were delivered by the British authorities.
In Belgium the idea taken for granted is that only 15 were delivered (out of 20 ordered) and 5 supplementary aircraft were interned force landed RAF machines. I now follow the idea that 20 were delivered and 1 supplementary RAF Hurricane was given as compensation for a Fairey Fox shot down by an RAF Whitley during the “Drole de Guerre”.
Now my question; the serials run from H20 up to H39. However pictures show a Hurricane wearing H19 painted on a non standard way while being delivered. I recently discovered that there was also an “H2x” painted this way. Can anybody provide details about this out of sequence and non standard numbering done in the UK before delivery? I provide a picture of H-19 to illustrate.
Best regards
By: olympusman - 24th September 2006 at 06:57
Hello guy’s…can’t help !
By: DBX - 23rd September 2006 at 12:49
Interesting question – do you have more details of delivery dates, ferry pilots and where these Hurricanes were delivered from in the UK?
Hi,
I have the following information on the deliveries from Brookland through contract NĀ° B655029/37:
L1918/20 april 1939
L1993/97 June 1939
L2040/44 June 1939
L2105/11 19 November 1939
Unfortunately no names of delivery pilots are known to me exept for the last delivery which was done by Belgian pilots including Claert, Cluytens, Lieutenant (what’s in a name) and Van Damme.
This last delivery was taken from a Hurricane contract with Finland which was cancelled. I suppose that the last 7 (not 5 as always written) Hurricanes were indeed not delivered due to the urgent need to equip the RAF and when the Finnish opportunity came trough the remainder of the contract was delivered.
It is also said that serial H19 was a mistake by the builders and that the machine was renumbered. Another possibility also seen with the delivery of the Belgian Fairey Battles is that the “last two” of the RAF s/n were used, giving thus H18, H19, H20 as the first three delivered.
A lot of questions remain.
Regards,
DBx (and yes Fouga it’s me….)
www.baha.be
By: Fouga23 - 23rd September 2006 at 10:54
DBx, I wonder who that is š Welcome to the forum š
By: Charlielima5 - 23rd September 2006 at 09:20
Interesting question – do you have more details of delivery dates, ferry pilots and where these Hurricanes were delivered from in the UK?
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September 23, 2006 at 6:31 am