The Navy's here. And flying hurricanes

[825]

58 Fleet Air Arm pilots were seconded to the RAF during the Battle of Britain, 12 of them shot down at least one aircraft, five became aces, seven were killed and two wounded.

Two of them, Dickie Cork and Jimmy Gardner flew with 242 Squadron RAF.

On 1 July 1940, Dickie Cork and two other naval pilots joined the Hawker Hurricane equipped No. 242 Squadron under the command of Squadron Leader Douglas Bader; Cork was assigned to become Bader's wingman.[4][5] On 30 August, he was involved in his first combat action with No. 242 Squadron. The unit claimed 12 aircraft destroyed, and Cork was credited with a Messerschmitt Bf 110 destroyed and a share in a second. By 13 September he had shot down five aircraft and became a fighter ace.[For his exploits he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on 18 October, which at the insistence of the Admiralty was exchanged for a Distinguished Service Cross (DSC).

Cork returned to the Fleet Air Arm after the battle and was posted to 880 Naval Air Squadron. The unit was equipped with the Grumman Martlet, which were exchanged for Hawker Sea Hurricanes by mid-1941. The squadron then joined HMS Furious for attacks on Petsamo and Kirkenes in Arctic Norway. 880 Squadron joined the newly built fleet carrier HMS Indomitable in October 1941, and Cork was promoted to Lieutenant the following month. The squadron was involved with the attack on Vichy French gun positions during the landings at Diego Suarez, Madagascar on 6 May 1942. During these operations Cork claimed three Morane-Saulnier M.S.406s and four Potez 63s, all destroyed on the ground.[12] On 12 August 1942, during Operation Pedestal, he became the only Royal Navy pilot to shoot down five aircraft in one day, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order(DSO). Flying a Sea Hurricane, he shot down a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 over the convoy. Then, flying off the coast of Tunisia, he shot down a Junkers Ju 88 and shared in the destruction of another. Later in the day he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and another Savoia-Marchetti SM.79.

In 1944, Cork was given command of the 15th Naval Fighter Wing, comprising three squadrons of Vought F4U Corsairs, on board HMS Victorious. The carrier sailed for the Indian Ocean to join the British Pacific Fleet. After arriving Cork was killed in a flying accident over China Bay, Ceylon on 14 August 1944. His final score was nine destroyed, two shared, one probable, four damaged and seven destroyed on the ground. He was fifth on the table of Royal Navy Second World War aces. He was buried in Tincomolee War Cemetery.

Another FAA pilot who joined 242 was Sub/Lt. r E "Jimmy" Gardner. In June 1940 Gardner went to No 7 Operational Training Unit at RAF Hawarden, in north Wales, for an intensive two-week course in flying Spitfires and Hurricanes. Early in July, he and two other naval pilots, Sub Lt Dickie Cork and Midshipman Peter Patterson - neither of whom who also did not survived the war - joined 242 Squadron RAF, flying Hurricanes under the celebrated Douglas Bader. Gardner had an early success on July 10 when 242 were patrolling off Lowestoft. Gardner shared a Dornier Do17 on August 21 and shot down another on September 7. His best day was September 18 when he shot down two Do17s over the Thames Estuary and was credited with a was credited with a "probable". Gardner had the flag hoist of Nelson's "England Expects" signal at Trafalgar painted on the side of his Hurricane.

In December he joined 252 Squadron, Coastal Command at Chivenor, north Devon and flew with them until April 1941 when he returned to the Navy, joining 807 naval air squadron flying Fairey Fulmars from the carrier Ark Royal in the Mediterranean. Gardner made four sorties on May 8, sharing an Italian Savoia SM79 and shooting down two Ju87 Stukas. His Fulmar was badly damaged but once again he managed to struggle back and crash-land on Ark Royal. He was awarded the DSC for his service in Tiger.

Gardner's final tally as a fighter pilot was six destroyed, four shared and one "probable".

After Ark Royal was sunk in November 1941, 807 joined the carrier Argos for convoy duties in the western Mediterranean. In April 1942, Gardner was appointed as an instructor to 760 Squadron, part of the Fleet Fighter School, at HMS Heron Yeovilton. In July 1942, Gardner was CO of 899 squadron flying Fulmars from HMS Greve at Dekheila near Alexandria for Canal Zone Defence. Gardner's long experience as a fighter pilot was now much in demand. In May 1943 he was appointed as CO of 736 Squadron, flying Seafires from Yeovilton at the School of Air Combat, teaching the latest air combat techniques to experienced naval fighter pilots.

In September, 736 moved to HMS Vulture St Merryn, Cornwall, to become the Fighter Combat School element of the School of Naval Air Warfare. Gardner remained Chief Fighter Instructor for the School of Naval Warfare until he left the Navy in March 1946. He died at the age of 84.

This is my tribute to these brave men and others who fought for our freedom

[825]

I found that transfers for both these pilots' Hurricanes were on the Xtradecal Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary sheet Part 2 which is all hurricanes. I got two Airfix Mk1's, the transfers and a couple of masks.

Only then did I discover that the Airfix aircraft have fabric wings and the aircraft these gents flew were metal winged. So the first job is convert the wings.

Edited July 28, 2015 by 825

[Col.]

Excellent choice of subjects and a great bit of background to those choices

[Bodmin]

A great account and tribute to the sometimes forgotten members of the other services. Look forward to your build.

[825]

First thing is choice of converting the wings. Two choices, liberal use of filler and move the landing lights or Tony O'Toole's transplant of outer wings method. I wasn't keen on butchering two kits for the latter option although I have an Airfix Sea Hurricane and older MkIV (I think) in the stash. Also the Scot in me abhors wasting money. So the filler was the method of choice.

Started with masking off the bits to keep. And by two remember.

I left them on the spruce for the moment to keep a firm base when applying the filler. The masking didn't take long. Not like this Blenheim which took over two hours. (And I missed one pane). Decided to leave the turret till later.

Then a liberal application of Green Stuff

I know the ammo hatches are a different shape but left them for now as a datum for later.

[stevej60]

This will be very interesting,great stuff!

[825]

Now attacked the Green Stuff with grades of Wet and Dry. And quite a bit of vim and vigour.

And this is the result

A little tender polishing tidies up further. Both wings will need some more tenderness and a priming with some fine surface filler. I have a Tamiya rattle can somewhere.

[Hockeyboy76]

Enjoying your work & taking notes for when I do my metal wing conversion.

[825]

Masking tape off and the wings assembled. More tape to pin them together. The fit is great in parts but there seems to be a slight wingspan difference and a tendency to part. So more tape. I'll wait till the modification work is finished - filling old landing lights and creating new, rescribing the ammo bays and rescribing the wing, before final polishing. Thankfully the metal wing hurricane is quite smooth and doesn't have many obvious panel lines.

In between I have started painting the other parts in preparation for the wings being ready.

Here are the wings now with the landing lights filled. Chunks of spruce, liberal amounts of Tamiya Extra Thin and more Green Stuff. And those pesky wing tips filled.

And the landing lights in a close up. You can see the main surface still needs some polishing

Edited July 30, 2015 by 825

[825]

Enjoying your work & taking notes for when I do my metal wing conversion.

Thanks but do wait till they look presentable. Scribing is not my finest skill.

[825]

Here are the wing inserts sanded down and smoothed in. Once the reconstruction work is complete there will inevitably be a need for some more tidying up and finishing off but we are still a bit off from there.

[tonyot]

Looking good but you will need to change the shape of the gun bay access doors too as those on the metal wing were totally different to the fabric wing. When you get to it you`ll have to change the windscreen too,...just to warn you. The kit includes two versions of the early windscreen with curved side panels and lower joint,....but the metal winged aircraft had the later standard windscreen with flat sides, additional bracing and a flat lower joint,....sorry! I only know because I converted the same kit into a metal winged one a few months ago!

Dicky Cork was killed on the runway when two Corsairs were cleared to take off at the same time from opposite ends of the runway without knowing that the other was there as the ends of the runway were not visible,......ending in a flaming pyre in which both pilots were killed,......a stupid tragedy.

Keep up the great work,

Tony

[Mottlemaster]

Have just read your very intresting introduction to this project . Will be following your progress through the green stuff

[rob85]

Nice work levelling out the wings! I look forward to seeing what you do when it comes to rescribe.

Cheers

Rob

[825]

Looking good but you will need to change the shape of the gun bay access doors too as those on the metal wing were totally different to the fabric wing. When you get to it you`ll have to change the windscreen too,...just to warn you. The kit includes two versions of the early windscreen with curved side panels and lower joint,....but the metal winged aircraft had the later standard windscreen with flat sides, additional bracing and a flat lower joint,....sorry! I only know because I converted the same kit into a metal winged one a few months ago!

Dicky Cork was killed on the runway when two Corsairs were cleared to take off at the same time from opposite ends of the runway without knowing that the other was there as the ends of the runway were not visible,......ending in a flaming pyre in which both pilots were killed,......a stupid tragedy.

Keep up the great work,

Tony

Thanks, I know about the gun bay doors but kept them on for the moment to give me a datum when I start scribing. With all the sanding and filling it would be easy to lose them. The doors are a bit odd with a diamond sort of shape at the rear. Thanks for the info on the windscreen. I'll check out yours when I get there.

Sad story about Dickie Cork's death, especially when he had seen quite a bit of action.

Edited July 31, 2015 by 825

[825]

Been busy at work and with other things so not much done until this morning when I started on the rescribing panel lines. Photos seem to show that metal winged Hurricanes were pretty smooth so only the major lines were done. The ammo bay doors are not finished yet. They will take a bit of care and time as well as some filling. Used a Tamiya scriber and this brilliant flexible ruler which I got from Hannants a while back.

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/chris825/media/image.jpg1_zpsycvs0tgk.jpg.html

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/chris825/media/image.jpg3_zpsn3gqejbx.jpg.html

A little bit of filling to be done and tidying up. The mat everything is sitting on is a non slip mat which is brilliant. We got a few years back in Canada as a set of place mats (great for eating outside/BBQs) but you can buy them in pound shops these days. When scribing it is so much better than a cutting mat where the wings slide all over the place.

[heloman1]

An interesting build and all the more so for your intro. Have you considered thin foil for the gun bay covers? You can cut it easilly with scissors and then attatch it with CA.

Colin

[825]

An interesting build and all the more so for your intro. Have you considered thin foil for the gun bay covers? You can cut it easilly with scissors and then attatch it with CA.

Colin

Thanks for the tip Colin. I had thought of thin plastic card but thought it might be too thick. I'll have a go once I finish scribing and sanding. There are a couple of repairs as well as the new landing light positions to do. It seems like I've been on the wings forever.

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning 825

Very good job

Such a pity Airfix didn't produce a metal wing Hurricane in 1/72 this year ..

Patrice

[825]

Good morning 825

Very good job

Such a pity Airfix didn't produce a metal wing Hurricane in 1/72 this year ..

Patrice

Thanks Patrice. And I definitely agree that a metal winged Hurricane would have saved a lot of work. I know Murphy's Law will apply and Airfix will release one not long after I finish.

[BerndM]

Amazing work, this kit has much more potential, than i thought

[825]

I've finally finished the scribing on the wings. The ammo bays took quite a bit of time. I did play about with aluminium foil. Although easy to cut it didn't really get flat and smooth. I was also worried that it would tear if I went near it with a sanding or polishing stick.

Here are the wings now

Now all that has to be done is cut out and frame the new landing lights. And the wings will be nigh on ready for finishing off and I can put the rest of these little beauties together.

[sean]

Great results thus far, looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

Sean

[825]

And now the new landing light positions cut out. Will line them with plastic strip and leave to harden before trimming and tidying up.

[825]

Sides boxed in and I will leave these to dry for 24-48 hours to let the Tamya Extra Thin to fully cure. Then I'll trim and sand to shape as well as fill any gaps, scratches, etc..

Sorry it's not the best photo but shows where I am.

Edited August 12, 2015 by 825