In the words of my great uncle, Kenneth James Sharman (Royal Engineers) who landed in Normandy on D-Day +1, “the Tiffy was a real friend.” The Hawker Typhoon – designed by Sir Sydney Camm whose rugged workhorse the Hawker Hurricane had, alongside the Supermarine Spitfire, valiantly defended the skies of southern England during the Battle of Britain – was a robust, heavily armed beast of a fighter-bomber. Despite a series of often-dangerous growing pains, which in part led to the development of the improved Hawker Tempest, the Typhoon was nevertheless an extremely welcomed sight for troops fighting on the Normandy beaches during the Allied Invasion of commencing June 6, 1944.
(Image: RAF; Hawker Typhoons on a forward operating base in France after D-Day)
So often do we focus on the plight of the men on the ground (and with good reason) that it’s easy to forget the bravery of those above, offering air support to the troops in the face of intense anti-aircraft fire while wrestling a machine which, though well-suited for the job, nevertheless presented its own challenges. It is, therefore, surprising and rather shocking to consider that only one complete Hawker Typhoon survives today, at the RAF Museum in Hendon. A full scale replica, meanwhile, can be seen suspended dramatically from the ceiling of the Memorial de la Paix at Caen, France, not far from the bloody Allied landing grounds of Gold, Juno, Sword, Omaha and Utah beaches.
The video (top) is an excerpt from a documentary made for the Typhoon Pilot’s 60th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion, recounting the history of the aircraft, its strengths and weaknesses, and interviews with those who flew it. (For the full version, see the messages at the end of the film.)
(Image: Dapi89; Typhoon MN235 at the RAF Museum, London)
Above, the world’s only surviving Hawker Typhoon can be seen on display at Hendon, London, alongside other iconic warplanes of the past century. A handful of other Typhoon components exist in various museums and other collections, but this aircraft, serial number MN235, is the only intact example.
(Image: Urban~commonswiki; Typhoon replica in Normandy)
The full scale mock-up, meanwhile, makes for an impressive exhibit at Caen, appearing as it would have done over the beaches of Normandy in June 1944 – nose down, cannons armed, poised for combat.
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