RAF Hurricane Pic Battle of France May 1940. Important for SoW Devs?

[Crumpp]

Sure, but it's not impossible it's Norway, that's all I was saying, I didn't even know for sure Hurricanes were lost there until today.

It is not impossible at all. I just thought there might have been some definitive feature that pinned it at Norway.

I am still looking for the definitive detail that pins it as the Battle of France.

[SlipBall]

Placing the aircraft's location would be impossible, but it is an interesting photo

[Crumpp]

it is an interesting photo

It is an interesting photo. I would love to learn more about it, especially the propeller.

I wonder where the original poster is at??

[Zorin]

This actually doesn't look like the plane ditched there. You can see the grass in the background is perfectly alright, no sign of a swath being cut through it.

Additionally, there is no evident combat damage. It rather looks like an abandoned plane that has been set to the outskirt of a makeshift airfield to be stripped off vital parts (armament).

Therefor I'd say it was ferried to France, but before it could receive unit designations the airfield was run over and the crew took out anything they could use for spares and left it lying in the field.

[Crumpp]

The probability of survival is directly proportional to the angle of arrival......AND speed.


There is not necessarily going to be a ditch behind the airplane. It has clearly made a gear up landing as evidenced by the propeller and it looks like the aircraft has rotated ~120 degrees which is common when the gear collapses / wing drag occurs.

You can set one down gear up and off runway with surprisingly little ground damage. Friend of mine did it about 4 months ago in his Bonanza....

[Crumpp]

The pilot of this Spitfire was over Upottery field when he had problems changing from one fuel tank to another. He landed wheels down but when he realised he was going to collide with some parked C-47’s he pulled his landing gear up and slid safely to a stop.

No big ditches here either...

http://www.southwestairfields.com/page14.html

Airplanes are funny like that when ditched. Sometimes they will plough up the pavement or like my friends Bo, barely break a few grass stalks.

[JVM]

I think this A/C may have been shot down.
Nothing lets think it was abandoned; other abandoned A/C usually show as at least a little bit burnt-out wrecks due to standing order to destroy whatever is left behind...and they were usually on their wheels!

Nothing like that here:

- thoroughly sawed-off propeller blades
- everything easily removable removed (access panels, covers, spinner...)
- identification marks supporting surfaces removed, not absent! on the rear fuselage one can clearly see the tubular structure because someone removed the canvas...

All this means souvenir hunters, german ones in this case...This was typical of the time (1940) and of the curiosity of advancing troops when seeing a shot down aircraft!

Beside I believe the half black+ half light green or blue underwing colors have been used on England-based aircraft, not French-based, but I would not be certain about this.

JV