Typhoon Attack: The Legendary British Fighter in Combat in WWII (Stackpole Military History Series)

The Hawker Typhoon, or 'Tiffy', as it was affectionately known, was not an easy aircraft to fly As fighter ace Desmond Scott described it: "Whereas the Spitfire always behaved like a well-mannered thoroughbred on first acquaintance, the Typhoon always reminded me of a low-bred carthorse whose pedigree had received a sharp infusion of hot-headed sprinter's blood." Norman Franks has talked to the men who piloted this powerful seven-ton rocket-firing fighter in World War 11, and from his interviews has emerged a very personal, often colourful and dramatic, view of what it was really like to fly over Holland or France at low level, seeking out hostile aircraft or targets on the ground; to roll over at 12,000 feet, then upside down, roar down into an inferno of flak to dive bomb an enemy position; to attack trains, ships, flak posts, tanks; to fire lethal 60-Ib high explosive rockets into enemy trucks, radar or V1 sites; and also to undergo the mind-numbing experience of crash-landing a shot-up Tiffy. It is a lively, action-packed story of conflict in the air. By 1944, with the Typhoon now legendary and firmly established within the ranks of the Second Tactical Air Force, and playing a pivotal role in the victory in the air and on the ground, the author follows the fortunes of the pilots and ground crews in the heated battles over the Normandy beach-head, the break-out into France, the triumph at Falaise, operations from Holland, in the Ardennes and finally into Germany itself.