‘I’dflyina Spitfirebut fightina Hurricane’

the sky before he managed to leap from his own burning aircraft.

During the final stage of his descent by parachute, he was fired at by a Home Guardsman with an antiquated airgun, some of the pellets lodging in his backside. But once he had come down on an open field, his ordeal was over.

After a stay in hospital and a lengthy period of convalescence, he recovered sufficiently to go back on active service.

For his astonishing bravery, Nicholson was awarded the Victoria Cross, the only pilot to be honoured with this medal during the Battle of Britain.

But it was telling that his plane in this heroic action should be a Hawker Hurricane, the rugged aerial warrior that was the backbone of Fighter Command in 1940.

In the public imagination, most of the credit for the RAF’s triumph in the Battle of Britain went to the more glamorous Spitfire, but the Hurricane was the real victor. Without it, the struggle would probably have been lost, since Spitfires were not available in sufficient numbers during those crucial months when the fate of the nation hung in the balance.

The Hurricane dominated the RAF’s defences in mid1940, equipping 29 squadrons in Fighter Command compared with 19 squadrons of Spitfires. Within the Command’s crucial No 11 group, which covered the South East of England and bore the brunt of the fighting, the difference was even more marked, with 17 squadrons of Hurricanes compared with eight of Spitfires.

THAT gap was also reflected in the German losses. According to the Air Ministry’s figures, for every two Luftwaffe planes brought down by Spitfires, three were destroyed by Hurricanes. When Churchill famously referred to ‘the Few’ in his inspirational tribute to the RAF in August 1940, it was the Hurricane airmen who deserved the lion’s share of the prime minister’s accolade.

Yet the fighter never received the credit it deserved. All the glory went to the Spitfire. When the RAF held a mass victory flypast over London in September 1945, not a single Hurricane was included in the formation.

Even during the war, Flight magazine complained that the Hurricane received ‘far less than its due attention from a somewhat fickle public’.

This was largely because the Spitfire, with its greater elegance, charisma and speed, was a more potent emblem of Britain’s war effort in 1940, especially for propaganda purposes. In addition, the Spitfire had much greater capacity for technological development than the Hurricane, whose origins lay in the fabriccovered biplanes of the Twenties.

Yet the Hawker machine had its own qualities that made it a vital weapon in 1940. Despite its bullish appearance, it was highly manoeuvrable, with a turning circle tighter than the Spitfire’s. Battle of Britain pilot Ray Holmes, of 504 Squadron, recalled: ‘She handled so beautifully. To bank the Hurricane was as easy as turning a car’s steering wheel. Slow rolls, barrel rolls, rolls off the top of the loop all came so easily.’

The Hurricane’s wide undercarriage made her easy to land, while thick wings also made her a much more stable gun platform than the Spitfire. ‘ The plane remained rock steady when you fired,’ said the renowned legless pilot Douglas Bader, who felt that in contrast the ‘recoil effect’ on the Spitfire was ‘noticeable’.

Just as importantly, the Hurricane was a masterpiece of strength and resilience, partly because the fabric covering on her fuselage meant that enemy bullets often passed through her airframe.

Ben Bowring, of 111 Squadron, claimed the Hurricane would ‘keep flying almost after it was destroyed’. On one occasion Bowring had the wings of his plane almost ripped apart in combat, yet still landed. ‘That aircraft’s a bloody miracle,’ he said as he jumped out.

‘Ginger’ Lacey, one of the top RAF fighter aces of World War II, once said: ‘I’d rather fly in a Spitfire but fight in a Hurricane — because the Hurricane was made of nonessential parts. I had them all shot off at one time or another, and it still flew just as well without them.’

The durability of the plane meant that it was easy to repair — no fewer than 60 per cent of all