I am reading “Messerschmit Roulette” an autobigraphical account of a Recon pilot in the Western Desert 1941-1942. Here’s the rub…in a passage recounting a time in the mid to late summer of '41 the author writes about training a new pilot on the use of “long range tanks”.
When exactly or what Mark of the Hurricane did extra fuel tanks become available? The author comments consistently that they were operating Mark I’s at this time. Could they have been an in-theatre modification?
Next issue; the photo plates show specific aircraft, quite handy. However, these pics. do not show any squadron identification letters. I chalked it up to wartime censorship. Then thought a little bit (I know working without tools is as dangerous as working with the wrong tool) some of these photos came from private collections. So I am thinking it would be correct to leave the squadron identifiers off and just make sure my serial numbers are correct.
By the by if any one is interested in the book it is a good read.
“Messerschmitt Roulette”
by Wing Comander Geoffrey Morley-Mower, DFC, AFC
published by Phalanx Press
Joe, I’m not an expert on the Hurricane, but I believe the first that could be equipped with long range fuel tanks was the Mk IIB. Originally, the tanks were fixed on the bomb pylons & were non-jettisonable. Later tanks were fully combat capable & each held 44 gallons of fuel. Others may have more or better information, but I hope this helps.
Regards, Rick
I’m building a 1/48 Hurricane IId right now (having replaced my Incredible Disintigrating Hurricane – thanks a lot, Hasegawa, because I’m gonna remember this – with another IId courtesy of Mikey and his apparently endless Magical Model Cave) and since almost all of the IId’s were used in the desert for tank busting, I’ve had to research that theater up, down, front and back. Early on, big squadron and plane-in-squadron letters were prominent on Hurricanes in the desert scheme. Then, by sometime in 1941-42 the letter codes began to disappear completely, and the only marking (other than the rare personal marking, roundels and fin flash) is the small a/c no. in black just forward of the horizontal stab. I’m doing “Our John” and it is marked this way. Earlier desert Hurricanes had the gray two-letter unit code and the large red aircraft ID letter. Then they changed to all three letters in gray, and then the letters disappeared. Meanwhile, the dark earth, middlestone, azure scheme A or B remained the same.
Of course, you can’t make all these assertions without throwing it the caveat: it was wartime. There were exceptions everywhere.
TOM