Douglas Bader's Hawker Hurricane Mk.I

In April 1933 Douglas Bader was invalided out of the service having lost his legs on 14 December 1931 when he crashed doing some ill advised low level aerobatics, prematurely ending his RAF career. With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, however, the RAF hierarchy - desperate for pilots - decided that this pilot, albeit with no legs, was indeed fit for operational flying.

On 7 February 1940, Flying Officer Bader was posted to 19 (Fighter) Squadron at Duxford. It was equipped with Supermarine Spitfire Mk1 fighters, and its commanding officer was one of the men who had taken off alongside him on that fateful afternoon, eight years and just under two months earlier; his old friend, Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson. Bader saw little action during the so called phoney war  until 28 May, when his squadron was ordered to fly their Spitfires down to Martlesham, an airfield near the coast a few miles to the east of Ipswich, following which the order was simple and consisted of just four words: ‘Patrol Dunkirk, 12,000 feet.’ Bader finally opened his score of enemy aircraft destroyed on a 1 June when he shot down a Messerschmitt 109. 

A nimble Douglas Bader leaps from his Hurricane Mk.I

On 24 June 1940, the now Acting Squadron Leader Bader assume command of No. 242 squadron, part of Leigh-Mallory's 12 group, at Coltishall, near Norwich. Freshly back from the bitter fighting in France, the squadron's mainly Canadian air and ground crews had escaped with little more than the clothes they stood up in. While the squadron was fully up to strength, with 18 brand-new Hurricanes, it was doubtful whether they could be kept flying for very long as all the spare parts and tools had been lost in France, and repeated requisition demands for replacements had produced no result. With equipment and moral of the squadron in equal short supply, the initial reaction to the arrival of their new commander, with no legs, was close to being the last straw. After putting on one of Bader's breathtaking flying displays for the pilots, he then drafted a signal to both Group and Fighter Command Headquarters: ‘242 Squadron now operational as regards pilots but non-operational repeat non-operational as regards equipment.’ This caused more than a little stir up to Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, the C-in-C Fighter Command, but it had the desired result. The required supplies arrived and one of the Canadian pilot's was soon then to report ‘Legs or no legs, I’ve never seen such a God-damn mobile fireball as that guy.’!

There was, however, little work for 12 Group until on 30 August, Douglas at last got the call for his squadron to fly south, to Duxford. Here in the south, the offensive against the RAF airfields had been relentless and the squadrons of Park's 11 Group were almost exhausted, their airfields mercilessly battered and it was time for Dowding to bring in his first reserve, 242 Squadron. Bader was instrumental in perfecting attack formation and strategy, suggesting even the idea of pulling together multiple wings to intercept attacking aircraft en masse. However, while 12 Group may have been able to have formed up in time, 11 Group  were far too close to the coast to receive sufficient prior warning to join them.

Not convinced by these Ammo MIG paints, too bright!

Then, on 7 September, came the German high command decision that dumbfounded every Luftwaffe combat leader. From the highest level - that is to say, from the Fuhrer’s Headquarters - came a directive ordering the Luftwaffe to switch its priority from the British fighter airfields to London. This then placed the attackers within range of both 11 and 12 Group and Bader's 'Big Wing' theory could finally be put to the test. With the Hurricanes of 242 and 310 (Czech) Squadrons and the Spitfires of 19 Squadron the plan of action was simple enough. The wing would be scrambled from Duxford as soon as radar detected the enemy force building up over the Pas de Calais, and by the time the Germans set course over the Channel the British fighters would be waiting for them over the Thames estuary, with the two Hurricane squadrons at twenty thousand feet and the Spitfires about five thousand feet higher. The battle would be joined over eastern Kent, with the Spitfires taking on the enemy fighter escort while the Hurricanes went for the bomber formations, breaking them up and generally hampering their progress, buying just a little time for the 11 Group squadrons to get to altitude and attack in turn; by which time, if all went to plan, the enemy would have completely lost their cohesion.

The nose art that No. 242 Squadron’s aircraft carried .. i.e. a cartoon showing a boot kicking Hitler. I believe the boot may have originally been marked “242”, though this decal does not have this .. the decal instructions also had it positioned lower and further forward than in the original picture. 

By mid-September, Leigh-Mallory was totally committed to the big wing idea, and he assigned five squadrons to Duxford with Douglas Bader as wing leader. As well as the three original units (242, 310 and 19) there were now two more, 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron with Spitfires and 302 (Poznan Polish) Squadron with Hurricanes. Together, the squadrons were known semi-officially as the 12 Group Wing. On 13 September, Douglas learned that he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Order. The following morning, the five squadrons of the 12 Group Wing assembled at Duxford for the first time, and twice in the course of the day Bader led the sixty fighters into the air to patrol the northern outskirts of London.

The Battle of Britain was effectively over by the end of October and the squadrons of Fighter Command returned to more or less routine convoy patrol work, with just the occasional skirmishes with packs of enemy fighters. For the most part, German bombers were now coming by night but with the science of night-fighting still very much in its infancy, the day fighters were ill-equipped to deal with these night-raiders. 

The Airfix Kit .. it's 2020 new decals I never used 

Late in 1940 Bader's  242 Squadron began to receive more modern Mk.2 Hurricanes. Powered by a two-stage super-charged Rolls-Royce Merlin XX engine and fitted with a Rotol constant-speed three-blade propeller, the Mk.II had a top speed of 342 mph at 15,200 feet and a much better rate of climb than the Mk.I.

On 16 December, 242's Hurricanes were moved east to Martlesham Heath, where the squadron joined 11 Group. Douglas now had a DFC to add to his DSO, while the squadron’s pilots had also earned nine DFCs since he took over in June. Between then and the end of the year, No. 242 had claimed the destruction of 67 enemy aircraft for the loss of six of its own pilots, of whom one had been killed accidentally while diving out of a cloud.

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The Model:

Brand: Airfix
Title: Hawker Hurricane Mk.I
Number: A01010A
Scale: 1:72
Type: Full kit
Released: 2020 | Rebox (Changed decals)