Hurricane Mk1 V6629

[brokenlink]

Having trawled t'internet for several evening I have not been able to find diddly squat about the above aircraft other than the production details. Friend of mine is interested to know whether it served with 80 Sqn possibly in Greece. Any Ppruners out there able to point me in the right direction for some info please? I used to have a book listing Hurricanes and the service histories but cannot locate it.
Any help greatly appreciated.

BL

[Pypard]

I'd suggest taking a look at the 80 Sqn ORB at the National Archives; individual aircraft are often listed.

[megan]

One record has V6629 as a 33 Squadron aircraft, from Wiki,With the exception of a time in Greece and Crete in 1941, 33 Sqn remained in the Middle East for most of World War II. Equipped initially with the Gloster Gladiators they had used in Palestine, the Squadron claimed its first victories of the Second World War on 14 June 1940, while supporting the British capture of Fort Capuzzo, when the squadron shot down an Italian Caproni Ca 310 and a Fiat CR.32. It suffered its first losses of the war five days later in a combat with Fiat CR.42 Falcos, with one Gladiator being shot down in exchange for two Fiats. The squadron re-equipped with Hurricanes in October 1940, allowing it to intercept the Italian SM.79 bombers, which were faster than the Gladiator.It was withdrawn from the desert fighting in January 1941, in order to help resist the Italian invasion of Greece. From 12 March, Pat Pattle, the leading Commonwealth flying ace, was in command until he was killed in action on 20 April. The squadron was involved in heavy fighting following the German intervention, and had to be withdrawn to Crete on 27 April. Due to continuing heavy losses, the squadron had to amalgamate with No. 80 Squadron RAF and the ground personnel fought hand-to-hand with German paratroopers to protect the airfield. The remnants of 33 Squadron retired to Egypt by the end of May after the Battle of Crete. The Squadron participated in the returned to support the Army in the Western Desert, including at the Battle of El Alamein, trading its Hurricanes for Supermarine Spitfires in December 1943.

Returning to the UK in 1944 for Operation Overlord (the Allied invasion of Normandy), the squadron flew the Spitfire IX F from RAF Lympne in Air Defence of Great Britain, though under the operational control of RAF Second Tactical Air Force (2nd TAF). It flew fighter support on D-Day (6 June 1944), then moved to France with 2nd TAF in October 1944, when it concentrated on ground-attack operations. It re-equipped with the Hawker Tempest in December, returning to action from Gilze-Rijen in February 1945, flying fighter sweeps in North West Europe. The squadron remained in Germany until 1949.From rafweb re 33 Sqdn,Hurricanes arrived in September 1940, with the last Gladiator leaving in October and then in January 1941 the squadron was earmarked for operations in Greece. These began the following months with escort sorties being carried out over Albania and Bulgaria. With the collapse of Greece the squadron's four remaining Hurricanes evacuated to Crete, where they joined No 80 Squadron in the defence of the island. On 19 May the single remaining Hurricane was flown back to Egypt and although the ground crews were captured, they succeeded in escaping and were eventually evacuated to Egypt.

The lost aircraft were replaced and the squadron resumed operations over the Western Desert in June 1941. Tomahawks started to arrive in February 1942 but this plan was halted and Hurricane IIBs arrived instead. Fighter patrols over the Western Desert now became the order of the day until after El Alamain when it moved over to convoy and coastal patrols along the Libyan coast. It remained in North Africa until April 1944, when it was transferred back to the UK. Having started to receive Spitfires in June 1943 it was December before the squadron was fully equipped.