Willie McKnight Hurricane photos needed

[Dave Hadfield]

Our Mk XII is being completed -- covid slowed us down but we should be flying it in the spring.

http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/ ... -Peek.aspx

It would be very useful if anyone could point us to an actual WWII photo of 242 Sqn LE-A, P2961 that showed the wing guns. We don't need any photos of McKnight's grim-reaper or Hitler-kicker, or general paint scheme. We've got all that.

But we'd like to get the armament right, and there was quite a mix-and-match of Hurricane wings and gun sets in early 1941. Sometimes it varied within a squadron.

What we're looking for is a photo of P2961 from the front. Or proof of its gun configuration from period documents. If anyone has discovered that sort of evidence, we'd sure appreciate knowing about it, and would credit the discoverer.

Thanks,

Dave

[LysanderUK]

Hi Dave,

I don't have any photographic evidence unfortunately, but being as P2961 was built as a Mk.1 in 1940 I would suggest the "A" wing eight gun layout. As far as I'm aware, the armament variations on RAF Hurricanes only started on the Mk.II, the Mk.IIb having the twelve gun wing, IIc with four 20mm Hispano, and the IId the ground attack/tankbuster wing. There were a couple of cannon-armed "specials" during the Battle of Britain, but that's another story.

Just to confuse things, the Royal Navy did use Mk.1 SeaHurricanes with the different wing layouts, so you do see SeaHurricane Mk.1a's, b's and even Mk.1c's, but these were exclusively RN.

The blend of armament layouts within a squadron could be due to the squadron flying a mixture of Mk.Ia's and Mk.IIa's and b's.

[mike furline]

You may want to contact these sites and see if the have a high-rez photo.
http://aircrewremembered.com/vaughan-arthur.html
https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Hurricane/R ... 41-01.html

The fourth aircraft back is LE-A, but may or may not be P2961. It kind of looks like it has 20mm cannons. If accurate, photo dated June 41.

Last edited by mike furline on Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

[LysanderUK]

The LE-A pictured above has to be a different aircraft, both because of the 20mm cannon and the fact that the identifiable serial numbers on the two aircraft nearest the camera show them to be Hawker-built Mk.IIa's from a batch that began to be delivered after the date of McKnight's loss.

Production data from Hurricane: The Illustrated History by P.J. Birtles show's the first deliveries from the batch began on Jan 14th 1941, McKnight was lost on the 12th.

[K225]

Dave
I assume you have already seen Harold Skaarup's site lots of photos many from Squadron 242 but not necessarily LE-A. Also War History on Line has a typical Mk1 shot however not LE-A. Interesting how few shots of the "pointy end".

http://silverhawkauthor.com/canadian-wa ... rsion=true

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/guest- ... art-1.html

Steve

[Dave Hadfield]

Thanks for the replies. I think they add the information I was looking for.

Another question: does his logbook exist?

Thanks,

Dave

[K225]

Hi Dave
Ran accross this article on Bader's logbook entry, wonder if they would know anything about Willie's?
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/blog/posts ... s-logbook/

[Dave Hadfield]

It turns out that McKnight's logbook is a tangled sordid story. It was stolen at one point, somewhat mangled, and does not exist as an ordinary logbook. However I have found a lead to a scanned copy which might result in success.

Thanks for the info.