The Hurricane

Heroes Remember

The Hurricane

Transcript

Hurricane was easy to fly. You could get spoiled very quick because it was that easy to fly and you didn’t have to be precise like you would in a Harvard even. But it was still an operational air plane. It was going fast and it had lots of weight and it had guns. So, from that point of view, it was operational. But it was not difficult. Interviewer: It was much more powerful than a Harvard? Oh, yes. Yeah. Interviewer: You made the adjustment fairly smoothly? I think so. With glee, almost. Delight. I must say though, once...initially, once you opened that throttle, there’s a few seconds before you’re airborne. You’re off the ground. You’re gone, see. And then up, wheels up, whatever. But if you don’t keep track of where you took off from, and the thing keeps climbing, see. It’s not just wallowing along, it’s climbing, going up to three, four-thousand feet. You lose your base because in England, everything looks the same. There’s houses everywhere. Where did I come from? So you could get lost very quickly.

Description

Mr. Edwards describes the joy and difficulty of flying a Hurricane fighter plane.

James Francis Edwards

Mr. Edwards was born on a farm near Lockwood, Saskatchewan on June 5th 1921. His father, a First World War Veteran, kept horses until the depression forced him to move the family to Battleford where he became an insurance salesman. His mother had been a nurse during the First World War. In June 1940, Mr. Edwards enlisted in the Air Force. He was sent to the Brandon, Manitoba to do his Initial Training, then to Edmonton, Alberta for Flying School. After completing Flying School, Mr. Edwards was sent to overseas. He was assigned to 55 Operational Training Unit in Osworth, England where he flew Hurricanes. From there he was posted to Africa to take part in the Desert Campaign. Among many battles and operations, he took part in the El Alamein Battle (Egypt) and the Tunisian Campaign. In Egypt, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. After a period in Cairo running a gunnery school, he was called back to combat in Italy. There he fought in the Battle of Ortona and Anzio and he was given his own squadron, the RAF 274. He was shot down on his first flight as squadron commander. Surviving, he and his crew were sent back to England to take part in D-Day. He would also fight in Holland and Germany. In total, Mr. Edwards served two tours of duty, flying over 360 missions. He had more than 19 confirmed kills. After the war was over he returned to Canada and continued service with the air force retiring as a wing commander.

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