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Questions about Hurricane post war service


upnorth

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Hello all,

I'm doing a bit of research into the Hawker Hurricane's post WWII service and was wondering if anyone could confirm a few things I came across in the research I've already done.

The post war users of the Hurricane I can find listed are: Great Britain, Iran, Ireland, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Were there any other post war users of it?

It seems the last military Hurricanes were retired around 1952, with Portugal and Yugoslavia being the last users of the type. Was that the case and, if so, what version was Portugal using? I can find a couple of sources that say Yugoslavia was using reconnaissance versions at the end.

The last RAF Hurricanes served in Palestine with 6 Squadron and were replaced with Spitfires in 1946 or 1947. Correct?

The last Hurricane, PZ865, spent a bit of time painted up as an air racer and took second place in the 1950 King's Cup Air Race. Did any other Hurricanes get used as racers, or just that one?

Thanks very much in advance

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I think the Belgians may have used the Hurricane after WW2 in a silver scheme - it appears on this decal set: http://flightdecs.ca/images_a_kitatwar/DDK4810.jpg

There's also some information about these Hurricanes here: http://www.belgian-wings.be/webpages/navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Hawker%20Hurricane%20IIB-C/Hawker%20Hurricane%20IIB-C%20Frontpage.htm

Edited by Hypnobear
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Hello `upnorth'

I think that Ireland might have flown its Hurricane Mk.IIc`s until 1947 when the Seafire Mk.III`s arrived?

The Indian AF may have flown some Hurricane`s in the Advanced Training role too?

France also used Hurricane`s in North Africa in the Advanced Training role.

As mentioned above Belgium flew the Hurricane too and yes Portugal flew the Mk.IIc version.

Persia also had Hurricane Mk.IIc`s plus the well known two seat trainer variant. Turkey may also have flown some of its Hurri`s after the war?

Mk.I, V7476 lingered on in the RAAF until 1949-50,.....although at least some of this was spent in storage prior to scrapping.

The RAF retained a number of Hurricane`s as senior officers runabouts after the war such as LF363 which was flown by AVM Sir Stanley Vincent DFC, AFC who was SASO, Fighter Command during 1947-48 and it continued to fly as a runabout until 1950 when it was selected for preservation.

518 Sqn flew Hurricane Mk.IIc`s in the Met Recce role from Aldrgrove until 1946-47 and some Hurri`s were used as maintenance training airframes into the late 1950`s.

All the best

Tony

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There's a lot of good information on the Portugues Hurricanes in Mario Canongia Lopes " Spitfires e Hurricanes em Portugal", a book that I can unconditionally recommend to anyone interested in the service of both fighters in that country.

Portugal received 97 Hurricanes in 1943-44 and another 45 in 1947. The aircrafts were both Mk.IIb and IIc with only 1 IIb delivered as part of the post-war contract. The IIb were mainly concentrated in the TY Squadron

Postwar the Hurricanes served in 4 and later 3 operational units and with a training squadron.

A total of 23 Hurricanes were still in service at the beginning of 1954, the year when the type was retired. The last flight of a Hurricane was by Nr.615 on June 5th 1954. At the end of August the type was officially withdrawn from operation

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Cheers for confirming the Irish Mk.IIc`s,......I`ll have to model one of these soon,.....were they really MSG/DG?

Thanks very much, guys.

Tony, that's a really good run down and quite helpful. V7476 was the only Hurricane to make it to Australia, was it not?

No worries,.......Yup,.....it was the only one and it ended up in an overall silver scheme with blue and white RAAF markings and the RAF serial applied.

Cheers

Tony

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I asked about Turkish planes a while back, as I assume this is post war

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/63039-hurricane-in-post-war-turkish-camo-3-colour-topside/

A while ago I found this picture,

hurricaneturkishcamo.jpg


what I found most interesting was that this has been repainted in what I assume are Turkish colours, post war? Certainly not based on any RAF scheme I have ever seen, or the remains of one either. Appears to be a IIC with no cannon fitted. No serial visible.
the highly deflected aileron and slightly dropped flaps are unusual.
Possibly non operational? note long uncrushed grass and shabby upperwing marking.

Now, most pics of Turkish planes I have seen (and I have not looked through the links below) seem to retain the suppliers camouflage, eg desert finish Hurricanes and Spitfires, 74/75/76 greys on the Fw190's, where this looks a like complete repaint.
the site listed on the pic is no longer there.

Anyone know what these colours are?

The site below says the TuAF received 47 MkIIC, 38 MkIIB and 44 MkIIC/R, being replaced in 1947 by the P-47. (as well as 35 MkI earlier, nice pic of a mkI here

Hurricane in Turkish AF


which has photos of
PZL 24, FW 44, FW 58K, Monospar, Blenheim, Heinkel HE 111, Vultee, Walrus, Koolhoven, Spitfire, MS 406, Hurricane, Westland Lysander, Fairey Battle, Henriot H182, Avro Anson, Curtiss CW22, Miles Magister, B 24, Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, FW 190, Miles Master, Beaufort, DH 89, Martin 187, C 47, Airspeed Oxford, Mosquito, Beechcraft D18S, Beaufighter, AT 11, B 26, P 47, T-6........... something for everyone?

plus a load more pre war types..., i couldn't be bothered to edit the list down too. usefully it also lists serial numbers...

Turkish AF group build anyone....

cheers
T

never got any response on the camo though...

One Hurricane IV ended up in Argetina post war as well.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234911258-hawker-hurricane-mkiv-in-argentina-af-use/

Seen photos of this.

HawkerHurricaneargentino.jpg

Interestingly retaining armoured radiator.

LF363 was the last serving RAF Hurricane, interesting information in this post

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963507-all-the-hurricane-questions-you-want-to-ask-here/page-16#entry1904725

I received the following from Gordon Riley (the author of the Hurricane Survivors book which will be published later on in the year), on the colour scheme:

You might want to tell the Britmodeller group that the colour shown in the photo was applied in June 1949 and was ‘Ice Blue’ with a red spinner, together with an Air Vice Marshall’s pennant and the crest of 11 Group, Fighter Command, carried below the cockpit. It was the personal aircraft of Air Vice Marshall Sir Stanley Vincent, the only pilot known to have flown operationally in both WWI and WW2 and to have claimed aircraft shot down in both conflicts. He flew a Hurricane during the Battle of Britain whilst Station Commander at Northolt!

Upper surface roundels can just be seen in this scan of a tiny print I bought off eBay.

Image from Gordon Riley:

IMG_0863_zps6xh07wm0.jpg

A few machines served for a little while post war in Rhodesia, where they had been used in training role, and I think there may have been some also in South Africa.

one oddity, served post war with the Soviets

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/lendlease/hurricane2seat/2seat%20in%20service/2seathurricane.htm

Meteorological reconaissance Hurricanes in Soviet Union

According to V. Kotelnikov, disarmed Hurricanes were converted into meteorological reconnaissance airplanes after the war for the Main Directorate of Hydro-Meteorological Service (GUGMS) departmental air service. Their Hurricanes were marked with the fuselage codes starting with letter "M". More than 150 planes were transferred to this service. For this purpose the planes were equipped with special equipment. To make fling through the clouds easier, some planes were equipped with radio-compasses. Photography was usually done by two-seaters - former trainers.
The use of these planes ceased in early 1950, after the number was reduced to 10 due to accidents and failures.

radar.jpg
This image, from "Hurricane in Foreign Service" by Miroslaw Wawrzynsk, shows a two seater with antenas on the wings; according to the source, the photo was probably taken in 1946, so it's likely a meteo reconaissance plane of the GUGMS.
It looks like a MkIIC with only two cannons, According to some hypothesis, they could be simple supports for the antenna and other scientific equipments.
The paint scheme looks very weathered white over the remains of a British camouflage (brown/green?), with black fuselage undersurface, white/black underwing roots and wings from another plane (possibly with grey/green base camo and grey undersurfaces).
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