Hawker Hurricane Mk.I, P2902, G-ROBT at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford on 9 November 2023, being prepared for Pilot Dave Puleston to fly it to Sywell.
P2902 was built in 1939 by Gloster Aircraft who by then were part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Ltd.
P2902 was one of 2750 Hurricanes built by Gloster's. It was taken on charge by the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 13 May 1940 and was lost after only 8 hours of flying time, at Dunkirk, France operating with 245 Squadron on 31 May 1940.
245 Squadron was formed at RAF Leconfield, Yorkshire on 30 October 1939, as a Blenheim squadron. It became part of 13 Group, Fighter Command.
P/O Kenneth Butterworth 'Mac' McGlashan, joined the squadron at Leconfield on 6 November 1939.
By the end of January 1940 the squadron had received only 7 of its 16 Blenheims, as well as 3 Magisters, a Tutor and an unserviceable Hawker Hart.
On 26 January it was allocated 3 Fairey Battles for training prior to re-equipping with Hawker Hurricanes.
245 Squadron got their first 3 Hurricanes on 7th March, but none had radio or armament and no spares were supplied, quickly leading to two of them becoming unserviceable. 9 more Hurricanes followed on 15 March, only 4 of which had guns and radio. 4 more were collected on 22 March and the squadron was declared fully operational.
On 12 May the Squadron transferred from RAF Leconfield to RAF Drem in Scotland.
On 16 May 'A' Flight was ordered to France. 'B' Flight remained at RAF Drem. 'A' flight returned from France, over 21 to 24 May.
On 28 May, the squadron was sent to RAF Hawkinge, Kent to give air cover for Operation Dynamo - the British, French and Belgian armies sea evacuation from Dunkirk. They replaced 605 Squadron, who were sent to Drem. 245 Squadron took 16 Hurricanes, with 3 making forced landings on the way due to poor weather. A further 3 aircraft flew from Drem to Hawkinge on 29 May.
At 1223 hrs on 30 May, 9 Hurricanes of 245 Squadron took off from Hawkinge for an offensive patrol over Dunkirk. This was abandoned owing to extremely bad visibility, with no enemy aircraft sighted. 5 aircraft landed at Kenley and one at Lympne. The other 3 made forced landings owing to a shortage of fuel and were rendered unserviceable. The 6 diverted Hurricanes later returned to Hawkinge at 1906 hrs.
On 31 May 1940 9 of the squadron's Hurricanes left Hawkinge at 0737hrs for an offensive patrol over Dunkirk. They all returned at 0900 hrs with nothing unusual to report. At 1215 hrs the squadron again left Hawkinge for Dunkirk, with 9 Hurricanes. P/O McGlashen was with them this time, flying Hurricane P2902. This is the first time that P2902 appears in 245 Squadron's Operations record book, so it is likely to have been a replacement aircraft for losses over the previous few days. P2902 was wearing the 245 squadron letter codes 'DX-R'.
A formation of enemy ME109's was sighted at 11,000 ft, but not contacted. When the squadron returned to Hawkinge at 1240hrs, P/O McGlashen was missing. Unseen by his colleagues, he had been shot down.
P2902 was hit on its windscreen and in its cooling system. P/O McGlashen was slightly wounded and temporarily blinded by oil and glycol in his eyes. He put P2902 into a dive and by the time he could see again, he was very low. He force landed and was rescued from some French Colonial troops, who thought that he was German, by British soldiers. He returned to England via Margate on the Thames paddle steamer 'Golden Eagle' and returned to his squadron at Hawkinge.
He fought in the 'Battle of Britain' and throughout the war, which he survived.
Hurricane P2902 remained fairly intact on the beach, under mud and sand. It was recovered by Dunkerque Aero Club in 1989. In 1994 warbird operator Rick Roberts, acquired it from a French Museum in a trade for a Messerschmitt Bf109E. Several restorers were employed on P2902 before Hawker Restorations were contracted to return it to flight. It's been restored as it was on its last mission over Dunkirk, including flare mechanisms, parachute tubes, and a ‘short’ Merlin engine with small radiator. Its first post restoration flight was on 19 June 2017.
In May 2016 it was sold to Anglia Aircraft Restorations and in May 2022 transferred to related company, Fighter Aviation Engineering, for whom it is operated and looked after by Air Leasing.
During Operation Dynamo between 26 May and 3 June 1940, there were 14 Hurricane squadrons involved, credited with 108 air victories. A total of 27 Hurricane pilots became aces. 22 pilots were killed and three captured. The RAF carried out 171 reconnaissance, 651 bombing and 2,739 fighter sorties, losing 177 aircraft, including 106 fighters, bringing the number of fighters lost in the whole Battle of France campaign to 250. Losses over Dunkirk reduced the strength of Fighter Command to 280 Spitfires and 290 Hurricanes.
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