Published 20 January 2023 - Media Release
An eagerly awaited warbird has arrived in the hangar of the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society (MAPSL) Ltd on Rochester Airport. Hawker Hurricane IIB BH238 was originally manufactured by Gloster Aircraft Company at Brockworth in Gloucestershire in early 1942, as part of a batch numbered BH215 to BH264.
First delivered to No. 52 Maintenance Unit (MU) at Pengham Moors, Cardiff, it was dismantled ready for packing before transportation to Russia. Leaving the UK on 26 January 1942 it may have travelled to Russia via Arctic convoy PQ9 or PQ11 arriving at Murmansk in February 1942.
No information is available relating to its Russian service but the skeletal remains of the aircraft arrived back in the UK and taken to Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight around 2000. It went on display at the now closed Frontline Aviation Museum on the island before arriving in the workshop of MAPSL where it will undergo restoration before going on display at an unknown destination.
1,884 Hurricane Mk.IIBs were sent or handed over to Russia but before this the Hawker Hurricane was the mainstay aircraft in the Battle of Britain, there being more squadrons of this type than the Spitfire. Its construction of metal, wood and canvas allowed it to take more punishment than the Spitfire and although slower in speed, many pilots preferred to fly this type in combat.
After the Battle of Britain a change of policy at the Air Ministry dictated that the Spitfire was to be the main attacking aircraft for the Luftwaffe escort Messerschmitt 109s whilst the Hurricane was to attack the enemy bomber formations.
A dedicated team of MAPSL will now begin the task of making sure that this icon of the Second World War and of the war in Russia will take its place in the history of the Royal Air Force.
Robin J Brooks. PR-Medway Aircraft Preservation Society (MAPSL) Ltd.
