Hurricane At War: The RAF’s Most Important Fighter of World War II

Drawing on a remarkable collection of first-hand testimony, Chaz Bowyer recreates the lived experience of serving in the cockpit of the Hawker Hurricane during the Second World War.

Despite being the world’s first operational eight-gun monoplane fighter and the first RAF aircraft to exceed three hundred miles per hour in level flight, the Hurricane’s achievements have long been eclipsed by the legend of the Spitfire.

Yet it was the Hurricane that bore the brunt of Britain’s air defence during the Battle of Britain, and which went on to serve in every major theatre of the war.

Through pilots’ recollections Bowyer traces the Hurricane’s story from its pre-war development to its combat service over France and Britain, and across Russia, Malta, Sicily, Greece, and even Burma.

These accounts reveal an aircraft of exceptional adaptability, employed as a day fighter, night-fighter, and even as the rugged ‘Hurri-bomber’, and cherished by the pilots and ground crews who flew and maintained it.

Hurricane at War is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the true operational heart of the RAF in the Second World War, and will appeal to all readers of military and aviation history.