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This second entry in the Aircraft of the Aces series devoted to the Hawker Hurricane looks at years after the Hurricane ceased to be a front line fighter really capable of holding its own against the best German fighters.
This was a period in which the Hurricane did its best work against the Italians in the Mediterranean and over the Western Desert, before being slowly outclassed when more modern German aircraft reached those theatres, and also the Hurricane's long career in the Far East. Like just about every other Allied aircraft, the Hurricane suffered badly during the disastrous fighting in Malaya, the East Indies and Burma, but the Hurricane squadrons fought back, and played a major role in the fighting in the Arakan in 1942-43.
As a result this book falls into three very different sections, starting with the Hurricane's last months as a front line fighter in Britain, then moving to the Mediterranean, and finishing over the jungles of Burma. Each of these sections has a different feel - of an aircraft on the brink of being replaced in Britain, a final burst of glory in North Africa and a desperate fight against the odds and the conditions in the Far East. As with the best of these books, there is a good mix of the individual story and the wider picture, giving some idea of what it was like to be caught up in these momentous events.
As always the book is well illustrated, with a wide range of contemporary photographs, a good set of plans and ten pages of colour plates illustrating the camouflage schemes (more varied than in the 1939-40 book, including all black night fighter paint schemes,
Chapters
Offence and Defence
Mediterranean Battles
Above the Desert
Jungle Fighters
Epilogue
Author: Andrew Thomas
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 96
Publisher: Osprey
Year: 2003
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