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Posted on 01/26/2005 9:31:54 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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Although the relative merits of the two World War II aircraft continue to be debated, the dissimilar stablemates complemented one another in combat and together saved a country.  Which is better, the Supermarine Spitfire or the Hawker Hurricane? That question has been asked by pilots, historians and air enthusiasts since 1940. It does not have a definitive answer, however, each aircraft had its strong points and its disadvantages. Although both aircraft played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain they could not have been more different from one another. Each was created under a completely different set of circumstances and came from totally different backgrounds and antecedents. The Spitfire owed its famous graceful lines and speed to its early ancestors, evolving as a fighter from a series of extremely successful racing seaplanes that were designed in the 1920s--and 1930s. All of those racers were built by the firm of Supermarine Ltd. and were designed by one man--Reginald J. Mitchell. The innovative Mitchell has been called one of the most brilliant designers Britain has ever produced. His designs really were ahead of their time. In 1925, when he began building racing airplanes, streamlining was considered more a theoretical exercise than an engineering possibility. But Mitchell made engineering theories more than just possibilities; he turned them into brilliant successes.  Reginald J. Mitchell Mitchell's efforts at streamlining produced aircraft that were not only graceful but also among the fastest in the world. In 1927, his S.5 racer won the Schneider Trophy with a speed of 281.65 mph. Four years later, his elegant S.6B captured the Schneider Trophy outright for Britain with a speed of 340.08. Later, on September 29, 1931, his S.6B, fitted with a special "Sprint" engine with its horsepower upgraded to 2,550, pushed the world speed record to 407.5 mph.  Supermarine S.5 During that time, Britain's Air Ministry began looking for a replacement for the Royal Air Force's (RAF) standard fighters, the Bristol Bulldog and Gloster Gladiator, both of which were biplanes. Knowing he had the experience and the reputation he acquired by designing his Schneider Trophy winners going for him, Mitchell decided to make a bid for the Air Ministry's contract to design this new fighter. The Supermarine firm had been taken over by the industrial giant Vickers by this time; the new corporation was known as Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd.  Supermarine F.7/30 The first prototype of the aircraft that would become known as the Spitfire was an odd-looking affair. Officially designated the F.7/30, it was a gull-winged monoplane with an open cockpit and spatted undercarriage. It looked more like a German Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber than the Battle of Britain fighter. Mitchell was not satisfied with his F.7/30 for a number of reasons. For one thing, it was underpowered--its Rolls-Royce Goshawk II engine gave it a speed of only 238 mph. So he began to experiment. He added a larger engine, enclosed the cockpit, and gave his new fighter a retractable undercarriage with smaller, thinner wings. These thin, elliptically shaped wings would become the fighter's most recognizable feature. Mitchell continued to modify his design in 1933 and 1934. The larger engine he had in mind was supplied by Rolls-Royce--a new, 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled power plant called simply the PV-12. Rolls-Royce would rename this engine the Merlin--a name that would become legend among aircraft power plants. The new fighter, now designated the F.10/35, developed into a low-wing interceptor with retractable undercarriage, flaps, enclosed cockpit, and oxygen for the pilot. The Merlin engine promised to give it all the speed Mitchell wanted and the Air Ministry would require. For armament, he gave his fighter four wing-mounted .303-caliber machine guns. Air Vice Marshal Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding, Air Member for Supply and Research, had been in charge of the RAF's technical development since 1930. He was favorably impressed by Mitchell's F.10/35 except for one item-he wanted eight machine guns. Recent tests had shown that the minimum firepower needed to shoot down an enemy bomber was six or, preferably, eight guns, each capable of firing 1,000 rounds per minute. With that armament, it was estimated that a pilot would need only two seconds to destroy an enemy bomber in the air-the time during which a fighter pilot would be able to keep the enemy in his sights, it was thought.  Dowding had the future in mind. He knew that the German Luftwaffe was expanding and that Adolf Hitler's ambition would probably lead to an armed conflict between Britain and Germany. His farsightedness would pay off eight years later, in 1940, when he was chief of RAF Fighter Command.  Because of his aircraft's elliptical wings, Mitchell was able to fit four Browning .303 caliber machine guns into each wing without increasing drag or radically altering the design. With that armament, along with the RollsRoyce Merlin engine and the other features he had designed, Mitchell knew that his fighter would be a match for any aircraft the Luftwaffe might produce. Now all he had to do was convince the Air Ministry.  Mitchell's fighter first took to the air on March 5, 1936. It had been given a name-the Spitfire-by Vickers and made official by the Air Ministry. (Mitchell himself did not like the name very much; he called it "a bloody silly name.") This Spitfire was flown by J. "Mutt" Summers, chief test pilot for Vickers and Supermarine, out of the Eastleigh airport in Hampshire. It was unarmed and fitted with a fixed-pitch wooden propeller. After landing from his test flight, Summers told his ground crew, "I don't want anything touched." Although some alterations would be made, he realized from just one flight that the Spitfire was an outstanding fighter.  Following some persuasive arguments from Air Vice Marshal Dowding, the Air Ministry agreed with Summers' assessment. With a maximum speed of 342 mph, the plane was classed as the fastest military aircraft in the world. Less than three months after Summers' test flight, on June 3, 1936, a contract was placed with Supermarine for 300 Spitfires. Six hundred more were ordered the next year. By the time Britain went to war with Germany on September 3, 1939, the war that Air Vice Marshal Dowding had foreseen, 2,160 Spitfires were on order for the RAF. But R.J. Mitchell never lived to see the success of his creation. In 1937, at the age of 42, he died of cancer.  Sir Sidney Camm Although the Spitfire was the product of one man's imagination, the Hawker Hurricane did not owe its origins to any single individual. It was the result of an evolutionary process that began with the fabric-covered biplanes of World War I. Revolutionary for its time-it was the RAF's first monoplane fighter and its first fighter to exceed 300 mph-the Hurricane was still a wood-and-fabric airplane. It was once referred to as "a halfway house between the old biplanes and the new Spitfires." Sidney Camm, Hawker Aircraft's chief designer, was the leading force behind the Hurricane's development. In the early 1930s, when the Air Ministry began looking to replace its biplanes with a more modem fighter, Camm already had a design for what he called his Fury monoplane, a modification of the graceful and highly maneuverable Fury biplane. The Fury was the direct descendant of Sopwith's Pup, Triplane, Camel, Dolphin and Snipe-fighters of World War I. Hawker Aircraft Ltd. had begun its life as Sopwith Ltd.  RollsRoyce's PV-12 (Merlin) Apart from the fact that the Hurricane was a monoplane, its major differences from the Fury were its power plant and armament. The Fury was powered by the Rolls-Royce Kestrel, which gave it a maximum speed of 184 mph. But the Kestrel was much too small for the Hurricane. When Camm heard about RollsRoyce's PV-12 engine, the Merlin, he modified his new monoplane to accommodate it.
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Morning alfa6.
Morning E.G.C.
Less fog this morning. We got to see some sun yesterday afternoon.
Good morning..lots of beautiful sunshine this morning
Good Morning...Sam
Good morning SAM and snippy.
Excellent read, thanks!
Cheers!
It's a shame, I noticed that in the Catholic Church. I call it "Religion Lite", seems even the Church is afraid to speak out against the world's evils.
Nice photos! Some of the sharpest pics I've seen.
Morning GailA.
I don't think we'll be seeing any sunshine until late in the day. :-(
Morning shield.
Morning SZonian
I like that and it's right on the money..
If the church had done it's job over the years we wouldn't be where we are today.
That statement is all inclusive not just the catholic.
Described in "Fighter Aces of the USA" by Toliver and Constable, as "A distinguished American fighter ace who epitomized perhaps more than any other American airman the wartime accords between Britain and the United States".
Lance Wade was born in Broaddus, Texas, in 1915. He joined RAF in Canada in Dec. 1940. Arrived in Egypt as a Hurricane I pilot September 1941, and was posted to 33 Sqn. His first kills were 2 Fiat CR-42s 18 Nov. Made ace 24 Nov. He Began flying Hurricane Mk IIs in Apr 1942, when he was awarded the DFC. His had 13 victories as of September 1942.
He spent the next several months back in US on various RAF projects including evaluating some American fighters at Wright Field.
He returned to combat as a Flight Leader in 145 Sqn with a bar to his DFC, flying Spitfire Mk.Vs. Promoted to Sqdn. Ldr., he had a busy 60+ days, as by end of April his score was 21, by then flying Spitfire Mk. IXs. Sqn moved to Italy, and Wade got 2 FW190s as a Spitfire VIII pilot 2 Oct, and his last claims were 3 FW190s damaged 3 Nov.
Wade became a Wing Cdr and joined the staff of the Desert Air Force but was there only briefly, as he was killed in a flying accident 12 January 1944 at Foggia.
In 30 combats in which he made claims he was credited with 23 victories (including 2 shared), 1 probable, and 13 damaged. Also 1 dest. and 5 dmgd on the ground. All by age 28.
Wing Commander Wade usually is listed with 25 victories but official RAF records show that he had 22 solo victories and half each of two more for a total of 23.00, not counting one probable.
Whether his score is 25, or 23 victories, he is still the leading American fighter ace to serve exclusively in any foreign air force.
Since he never transferred to the USAAF, or any other American Air service, W/Cmdr. Wade never got the publicity that other American Aces received. In fact not many Americans know of his exploits. It is hoped that this little effort will help in rectifying that oversight.
There was something to be said for the old "Fire and Brimstone".
One This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on January 27:
1546 Joachim III Frederick elector (Brandenburg)
1556 Abbas I "the Great", shah of Persia (1587-1629)
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Austria, musical prodigy/composer (Figaro)
1808 David F Strauss Germany, theologist (Jesus' Life)
1822 Thomas Leiper Kane Brevet Major General (Union volunteers),died in 1883
1826 Richard Taylor Lieutenant-General (Confederate Army), died in 1879
1828 Samuel Allen Rice Brigadier General (Union volunteers), died in 1864
1830 William Henry Fitzhugh Payne Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
1832 Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], author (Alice in Wonderland)
1834 Robert Sanford Foster Brevet Major General (Union volunteers)
1850 Samuel Gompers (labor union leader: 1st president of the American Federation of Labor [AFL])
1859 Kaiser Wilhelm II Potsdam, German emperor (1888-1918)
1885 Jerome Kern New York City NY, Broadway composer (Showboat, Roberta)
1900 Hyman G Rickover US Admiral (father of modern nuclear navy)
1901 Art Rooney NFL team owner (Pittsburgh Steelers)
1908 William Randolph Hearst Jr newspaper publisher (Hearst Publishing)
1918 Elmore James musician (Dust My Broom)
1919 David Seville [Ross Bagdasarian], Fresno CA, (Alvin & Chipmunks)
1921 Donna Reed Denison IA, actress (From Here to Eternity, Wonderful Life)
1930 Bobby "Blue" Bland Rosemark TN, blues singer
1934 Julian Ogilvie Thompson CEO (De Beers)
1936 Troy Donahue New York City NY, actor (Surfside Six, Cockfighter, Hawaiian Eye)
1940 Brian T O'Leary Boston MA, astronaut
1945 Mairead Corrigan-Maguire North Irish peace activist (Nobel 1976)
1964 Bridget Fonda Los Angeles CA, actress (Scandal, Single White Female)
1981 Jon "Kid Jonny" Lang Fargo ND, blues musician
I recall some drag racers using them.
Our ISP is contuining to experience problems with it's primary database server. Once again for the second morning in a row during my first trip to the Internet, the computer stopped opening webpages.
Five minutes later I tried logging back in and wound up getting "Error Message 718".
This kept up until around 7:30 AM CST when Finally I was able to get back on.
Hopefully will have this issue resolved soon.
How's it going, Snippy?
That really illustrates the steep curve of warplane development, or of aviation in general. Hard to fathom these days that there were men who began in biplanes & finished in 747s.
Morning PE.
Sad and yet still stirring Flag-O-Gram.
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