laststandonzombieisland

Official wartime caption, some 80 years ago this month in the recently liberated Belgium:

“(Hawker) Typhoon IBs undergoing maintenance and repair at Melsbroek (B-58), near Brussels, 10 September 1944. An aircraft from No 247 Squadron RAF (foreground) and a No 181 Squadron machine are parked in front of an elaborately camouflaged hangar at the former Luftwaffe bomber base. The Germans had gone to great lengths to disguise the airfield, fabricating fake houses, shops, and even a chateau, all of which had failed to protect it from air attack.”

Note the behemoth Napier Sabre H-24 engine exposed on the foremost Typhoon.

One of the most powerful inline piston aircraft engines in the world, it was only used in the Typhoon and its derivative, the Hawker Tempest. Little wonder Tempest became the go-to V-1 killer as it was the fastest of Allied fighters at low level (the P-51 beat it at altitude) and the Tempest knocked down at least 20 Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbes.

For the record, No. 247 Squadron RAF– which flew everything from Felixstowe F2A flying boats to Gladiators and Hurricanes to Vampires and Hunters– disbanded in 1963. Ironically No. 181 Squadron had a much shorter run despite its lower squadron number, only existing from August 1942 until September 1945, running first Hurricanes and then Typhoons.