Hurricane: Hawker's Fighter Legend by John Dibbs & Tony Holmes & Gordon Riley

Author:John Dibbs & Tony Holmes & Gordon Riley [Dibbs, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, pdf
ISBN: 9781472822963
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

Although the Hurricane units on Malta had managed to effectively protect the islands from attacks by Italian aircraft for much of 1941, Luftwaffe units began returning to Sicily in December after an absence of more than six months. Ju 88s quickly started to appear over Malta, escorted by Bf 109Fs from JG 53, and by the end of December ten Hurricane pilots had been killed – four of them on the 29th alone. Nevertheless, No 126 Sqn still claimed the odd success over German bombers if its pilots managed to avoid being intercepted by the fighter escorts. Amongst those to achieve a rare kill during this period of increasing hardship was Flight Lieutenant ‘Chips’ Carpenter, who downed a Ju 88 from Stab II./KG 77 to become a Malta Hurricane ace on 27 December:

While leading Wing at 24,000 ft for 40 minutes we were given a vector of 045 degrees. The cloud was ten-tenths at 7,000 ft, and we spotted aircraft against it flying at around 16,000 ft. There were four or five Ju 88s in loose formation, with some 109s a little above them. I dived down on the last bomber and opened fired at 300 yards from a beam attack, turning to line astern. I closed right up till there was a risk of collision and broke away down and to the left. In the quarter attack that followed, an engine was hit by de Wilde [incendiary ammunition] and began smoking. The Ju 88 kept on a straight course during the attacks, but turned around soon after. He dived for cloud cover and I managed to get in another two attacks from astern before he got to it. His engine was on fire and I did not get any return fire from the rear gunners.

By February 1942 the rate of attrition amongst the fighter units on Malta was so bad that all airworthy Hurricanes had to be consolidated within one unit, with squadrons at Ta Kali or Hal Far flying them on alternate days. February ended with Nos 242 and 605 Sqns being absorbed into Nos 126 and 185 Sqns, respectively. The bad situation for the depleted Hurricane units got immeasurably worse in March, as Malta’s battering at the hands of superior Axis forces continued unabated. Amongst the seven Hurricane pilots killed in action that month was Australian Sergeant John Mayall of No 126 Sqn, who was shot down in combat-weary Z5140 on 10 March. Records suggest that he was the 19th, and last, victim of Battle of Britain ace Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Krahl, Kommandeur of Bf 109F-equipped II./JG 3. Krahl himself perished exactly five weeks later when he fell victim to an AA battery whilst strafing Luqa airfield.

Three days prior to Z5140’s demise, the first Spitfires had at last reached Malta. More and more of them would be flown in from carriers in the Western Mediterranean during the course of 1942, allowing the few surviving Hurricanes to be quietly retired. Fittingly, one of the final two victories credited to

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