Hawker Typhoon RB396 - Resurrecting a Forgotten Legend and WWII veteran stories

[Music] thank you pure and simple we need your support the chief Credit in smashing the enemy spearhead however must go to the rocket firing typhoon aircraft of the second Tactical Air Force the result of the strafing was that the enemy attack was effectively brought to a halt and a threat was turned into a great victory foreign [Music] the hurricane was the most successful aircraft in the Battle of Britain but by 1941 Germany had made significant technical advances and both the hurricane and the Spitfire were now outclassed nicknamed The Butcher bird the focker wolf 190 was Superior in speed maneuverability and Firepower and by the Autumn of 1941 the RAF was suffering significant losses Britain was at risk of losing the air superiority it had fought so hard for the previous year unable to catch the 190 on its penetrating raids the battle for the air was tipping the wrong way Britain needed a new hero in 1937 even before the production of the hurricane got underway the designer Sydney cam had started work on its successor the hugely ambitious Hawker typhoon but four years on partly due to the decision to concentrate resources on the production of other aircraft the typhoon was still a long way from being operationally ready when the first were delivered in late 1941. this haste was costly with several aircraft being lost and the typhoon project was almost abandoned but despite airframe engine and carbon monoxide issues they continued developing the aircraft throughout 1942 until most of the problems with the advanced technology had been resolved in the period between October 1942 and July 1943 the typhoon halted the of wolf raids shooting down over a score of 190s along with several other aircraft the typhoon had arrived and the Kilts were mounting by mid-1943 the Spitfire had evolved into what many believed to be the best pure fighter aircraft of the second world war but at low level the typhoon had also evolved into a new role a role that would cement its place in history as one of the most successful aircraft of the second world war a role that was to make the typhoon a D-Day Legend the typhoon showed an ability for ground attack when it was first fitted with bombs but it wasn't until September 1943 that the aircraft reached full potential when 60 pound rp3 Rockets were fitted with a punch the equivalent of a destroyer broadside the psychological impact of the typhoon was devastating we had four tiger tanks and three Panther tanks we were convinced that we would gain another Victory here that we would smash the enemy forces but then typhoons dropped these rockets on our tanks and shot all seven tibits and we cried we would see two black dots in the sky and that always meant Rockets then the Rockets would hit the tanks which would burn by the end of that year over 200 rocket equipped typhoons were the primary ground attack capability of the newly formed second Tactical Air Force and by June 1944 in preparation for the Normandy Landings the typhoon proved itself to be the most effective tactical strike aircraft hitting communication and transport targets deep into Northwest Europe but on D-Day itself the typhoons were The Cutting Edge of a new tactic Forward Air Control fitted with the same VHF radios as the tanks rocket equipped typhoons cued like cabs at the edge of the battle ready to strike targets as directed by troops on the ground although precise numbers of ground kills are lost in the fog of War both the physical and psychological impact of the hard-hitting Hawker typhoon is Undisputed and in the closing stages of the biggest stunned bloodiest conflict the world has ever known Sydney Cam's vision of a hero became a legend the Hawker typhoon wrote the blueprint for a long line of fighter bombers that followed from the typhoon 2 that became the Tempest right up to its eurofighter namesake of today 3317 Hawker typhoons were built but the last one flew in 1946. we all owe a debt to this difficult child that was born and grew up so quickly In the Heat of battle and we say thank you to the thousands of people that made the typhoon possible but for the 666 typhoon Pilots that died we remember you and we honor all of you in this project [Music] Spitfire is a fantastic hurricanes are fantastic Mustangs are fantastic but the typhoon is missing and because it's missing its story is missing and it's not told and that's what we're trying to do with this project [Music] what you can see here and what we've got exhibited today is probably half of the parts that make up the project there's a lot more that it just wasn't possible to lay out so rb396 is the donor aircraft it's what gives this project its identity and the eyes of CAA it is a provable aircraft it's not 100 of that aircraft of course but it is a provable aircraft so that when it's finished it can carry that serial number and you can point at that aircraft and say that is rb396 that was built at the end of 1944. uh delivered by a Polish ATA pilot analesca it was then delivered over to the continent early 1945 I think the sixth or seventh of January but the records are a little bit sketchy there and then it flew with the Squadron 174 Squadron until the first of April 1945 so a month before the end of the war uh its main pilot was a Canadian guy called Frank Johnson we've seen his log books spoken actually spoke to him before he passed away a few years ago and we found out in that conversation that he had his then Partners named Sheila painted on the port cowling which is uh really nice we wouldn't have known that otherwise on the 28th of March it uh he flew it in the morning and then a new pilot to the Squadron a guy called Sydney Russell Smith nicknamed Junior because he looks about 12 flew it in the afternoon and uh he got hit by Flack that was one of 18 times that the aircraft was hit by Flack enough to Warrant repairs so that caused the aircraft to be grounded for a couple of days so on the 30th of March Frank Johnson then didn't have an airplane so he flew another aircraft got shot down hit by hit by flat shot down Force land it became a prisoner until the end of the war lucky for him he only had a month to wait in that time Sydney had been posted to 184 Squadron which actually is the Squadron my grandfather was attached to and then so the pilot on the 1st of April was a guy called Chris house it's the one and only time that he flew the aircraft he got hit by Flack so much so that he was forced down he forced landed in a field near Dana camp in the Netherlands his Squadron mates thought he was a prisoner they saw him land but they didn't see him come back to base so they assumed he was captured he turned up four days later on a bicycle that he'd borrowed from a local farmer and that's that's sort of the end of rb396's story for about 70 years really it was recovered from the battlefield at the end of the war the the rear fuselage section is the main surviving section that is complete that was recovered sold for scrap it was sold to a chemical Merchant they never used it they just laid around and it ended up passing through various museums until it was uh purchased by The Collector I spoke about who was collecting typhoon Parts From Here There and Everywhere really just as a personal Hobby and he brought it back to the UK and then a few years later we spoke the charity was formed around that section it's a provable history it is rb396 the rear fuselage is the first section undergoing work to be rebuilt and it is due to be finished at the end of this year 2023 and when that's finished that will be the first section of an airworthy typhoon built anywhere in the world since World War II when it came here it'll be two years this summer I had three to four months dismantling structure to uh to see what parts we'd got before we could then start manufacturing we had a lot of drawings parts we haven't got uh drawings for we've got good patterns so we can get the drawings done and it was a process then of obtaining the tubing and getting parts manufactured yeah the pork typhoon is a different Cutler fish for us in the way that the construction of the fuselage uh it's a heavy old airplane um big engine at the front and yeah it's it would be exciting to work on so in 2016 um Cranfield University actually gifted us this engine so the Napier saber engine is incredibly rare and this engine is widely regarded as the best Contender for a return to flight project it's factory inhibited so it's had the correct fluids put in it's been sealed to the elements it's effectively been in store inside for 70 80 years so when we take that apart it's it's very likely to be an absolute gold mine the Napier saber is an h24 so imagine a capital H on its side you've got rows of six cylinders horizontally opposed feeding into two crankshafts um four bladed propeller the book figure was 2 200 horsepower and the reason I say that is because a lot of people who know what they're talking about considerably more than me say look in the book The Napier book in 1940 this is what it said and they knew full well that our friends over the channel had a copy of that book so they didn't want to give away all the secrets they were tested later in the war up to an in excess of four and a half thousand horsepower without much modification so actually you probably certainly two and a half thousand horsepower maybe three thousand no one really knows an absolute monster of an engine it was a very very pleasant sounding engine altogether they're quite smooth running and quite a good Roar to it when you opened up the throttle and get full power and we didn't always use full power for takeoff so if we had reasonable room Runway event I only use partial power for takeoff it was quite enough unless we had a full load of bombs or something on board whatever you'll say about it you couldn't say the typhoon was good looking could it it was a lumpy old hunk of a thing but it was a delight to fly and I I enjoyed it it was easy airplane to fly really it was very stable I found the uh the controls very evenly balanced the typhoon was a good stable gun platform but it was heavy on the controls I mean you needed strength to go into a tight turn we were just employed on a ground attack and also bombing the railway launched through Holland where the Germans were taking up the V1 and V2 all of those up to the Dutch Coast to fire them across the channel to to London two aircraft would take off and do what they call a rhubarb it was a code name for an operation where you planned a route which took you in a more or less circular route round the territory and you shot up anything that appeared on the way there were quite a few of these done and we did loads of people while they were doing it low-level attacks weren't really the safest thing low level we used to carry to 250 pound bombs one another out of the wing for the dive bombing we used to have a 500 pound bombs with a typhoon very quickly built up to over 500 miles an hour the limiting speed I think was 527 above which we were not supposed to go although quite frequently in the dive on the targets I I saw my airspeed indicator was indicating about 550 miles an hour the airplane seemed to stand it I didn't worry the Germans had four 20 millimeter cannon grouped in a turret and there was a pretty formidable anti-aircraft far from that all of the early operations were faced with that return fire of course we had four and 20 millimeter cannon in the wings so we retaliated and I didn't really think about the dangers I just did the job [Music] thank you [Music] oh I'd love to see it and hear it is it's a oven in fact I'd love to fly it but I don't suppose they'll let me do that [Music] thank you foreign was really the first Battlefield air interdictor it was the first airplane that could go Behind Enemy Lines and disrupt the lines of communication which is a role that is now starting to come back into favor it played an incredibly important part second world war which most people just don't know about the Battle of Britain was primarily fought by spit bows and hurricanes and they rightly received a massive amount of recognition but typhoon's received almost no recognition in comparison and it was actually a war-changing airplane for me it's it's really important I've been a ground attack pilot in the Royal Air Force and so ground attack to me is how you deliver air power host the D-Day Landings the typhoon played a massive role in the air to ground rules supporting the Allied Forces but this was the lead element for that this is what started the whole of the role the machine that is such a monster to fly but such an effective combat airplane a very important airplane and very sad that it's you know there weren't any kept after the second world war the fighting spirit that the typhoon brought and the typhoon Pilots brought is as clear to us today as it was then when you look at the bits and pieces that are here today in this Hangar a bit like a jigsaw well jigsaw is a little bit of a metaphor for the typhoon because it's a missing piece of the jigsaw why so lots of Spitfires and hurricanes and pretty much every other World War Two airplane there's no flying typhoon and there needs to be one foreign [Music] the Hawker typhoons while you guys are here today as I said very grateful for you to be here pure and simple we need your support the typhoon was an incredibly important aircraft in the Second World War it first flew in 1940. uh before the Battle of Britain and at that time it had over a thousand horsepower more and was a hundred miles per hour faster than the front line Spitfires and hurricanes of the time it's an incredible technological leap they suffered initially from a few teething problems brought about mainly by that huge technological leap they were saved from being withdrawn because at the time they were the only aircraft that could catch the new focker Wolf 190. the only one that could get anywhere near it the Spitfire Mark V couldn't get anywhere near it and they were countering the hit and run raids on the south coast they went on to become the most successful ground attack aircraft of the war Bar None historians have credited to the aircraft was shortening the war Allied and German generals have credited the typhoon with the reason that the Allies were able to win the Battle of Normandy and if it wasn't for the typhoon D-Day perhaps wouldn't have happened when it did but low-level ground attack flying through walls of light Flack which is anything but light against heavily defended targets was incredibly dangerous work uh so dangerous in fact that 56 percent of the pilots that did it were killed 666 Pilots killed so the men knew this and they still went they went day in day out sometimes five or six times a day at men like Bernard who flew 71 combat operations in the typhoon and all he has to say about it is I was just doing my job [Applause] Our intention with this project is to build the memorial that these Brave Crews deserve when it flies and it will um it'll fly in the memory of everyone who played a part in the typhoon in its story but this aircraft will tell this story and it will ensure that it's Rewritten into the history books because it has largely been forgotten and to do this we need your support so the rear fuselage large was chosen as the first section to be rebuilt because it's it's our identity it's the section that makes this aircraft rb396 it carries those markings from the wall geek fact it's actually the the side of the fuselage one side is the only example of second Tactical Air Force paint known to exist anywhere in the world uh you'll notice a large gap in the typhoon that section is the section that's being rebuilt the picture board over there the timeline of the rear fuselage the reason it can't be here today is because it is tantalizingly close to being finished how quickly of course that happens depends on how much support we can we can Garner but it will be complete this year when it is that will be the first um section of an airworthy typhoon that's been built anywhere in the world since the second world war so that's quite a significant step very grateful to have had over the years the support of a number of um fantastic very generous organizations our first major boost actually was the engine the the the one exhibited on the aircraft over there in November 2016 that engine was gifted to us from Cranfield University and subsequently since then we've had major support from here from John remain uh and Co at the aircraft Restoration company incredibly grateful but today part of this event is to announce uh future Partnerships and collaborations which we've been working on and we are always working on uh one of those is airfix you can see over in the back corner there the guys who come down there an official um brand partner now we're going to be sharing information they're going to be following the rebuild and also for the modelers out there and I know there are many following this project um they're going to be releasing a special rb396 edition airfix kit in the uh not too distant future so it's really great to have them on board and we've been supported over the years by a number of individuals as well that have really helped out so our Patron Cliff very delighted to a welcome cliff on board in 2020 um almost certainly you will all know who Cliff is retired Air Marshall extremely experienced uh pilot person and warbird pilot as well I'm very grateful to Cliff and today very grateful to Mark Greenfield CEO of ultimate High down at Goodwood for stepping up and becoming our fourth Ambassador so delighted to announce that today and I thank him and everyone for their support so to see these companies and individuals coming on board lending their name to us supporting us to get to where we need to be is a real boost and I think just serves to highlight how much confidence there is out there now growing in this project as as we're starting it really feels like we're really starting to build that momentum and thinking of the future and today we're joined by a couple of uh Representatives uh and sort of friends of mine as well from three Squadron uh they're flying the Euro Fighter typhoon today and also we'd uh delighted to be joined by uh this year's and next year's Euro Fighter typhoon uh display Pilots uh from 29 Squadron so I think you can see now that this is not really a dream anymore this project we're making it a reality this could be completed and flying in four to five years and when it is men like Bernard will finally have the memorial that they deserve so uh thank you very much one thing we were doing which I will just touch upon and it was going to be a surprise for Bernard uh who is 101 in five days time so I think with that's worthy of uh uh Bernard flew the typhoon as I said 71 combat operations uh he also flew the hurricane in training prior to that but what we're going to do and what we have arranged and uh for Bernard is to fly in the hurricane once more thanks to uh hurricane Heritage in that hurricane there which is quite aptly marked in 174 Squadron colors are typhoons Squadron colors uh but we're going to send Bernard up all being well in the hurricane uh we believe that is uh almost certainly a world record for the oldest person to fly no disrespect but the oldest person to fly in a hurricane at a 100 and 360 days old and the reason for that is to say thank you to Bernard for your support of our project and to wish you a very happy 101st birthday by flying in Hawk hurricane thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] often Fades into the background we have the unique opportunity to bring a piece of our Collective past back to life the Hawker typhoon this legendary aircraft a symbol of courage and Innovation played a pivotal role in securing Freedom during World War II today we are reaching out to you to help us preserve and honor this iconic warbird by supporting our charity you're not only contributing to the restoration of the Hawker typhoon but also ensuring that its Legacy lives on your generosity will enable us to educate future Generations about the immense sacrifices made by the brave pilots who flew this remarkable aircraft and the skilled Engineers who designed it as the mighty typhoon takes to the skies once more it'll serve as a living Monument to the past and the Beacon of Hope for the future join us in our mission to let the Hawker typhoon fly again and become part of a movement that safeguards our shared history Foster's understanding and inspires generations to come

Channel: Hawker Typhoon RB396

Views: 76,616

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Id: 47-sKojq8NU

Length: 30min 4sec (1804 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023