“If you had the height,
you controlled the battle. If you came out of the sun, the enemy
could not see you.
If you held your fire until you were very close, you seldom missed”.
These three basic rules
contibuted to the prowess in aerial combat of some of the most
successful fighter pilots in history and seldom were they more
valuable than when outnumbered. Between July and October 1940
the brave young pilots of RAF Fighter Command were under intense
pressure from the constant attacks of the Luftwaffe, and the
Hawker Hurricane was the machine of the Battle of Britain,
accounting for 80 percent of RAF victories.
Shown here are Hurricanes of 32 Sqn climbing high into the morning
sky, gaining Height and Sun in an attempt to gain the advantage
over the onslaught of enemy fighters - August, 1940. |