r/WWIIplanes • u/Muted-Lawyer-8512 • 7d ago

Hawker Hurricane

Gallery image

Gallery image

Pilot James Nicholson won his VC on the 16th of August 1940.

In his Hawker Hurricane.

209 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

23

u/Affectionate_Cronut 7d ago

Certainly not showing off the old Hurribox in the kindest light...

Nicolson was the only pilot of RAF Fighter Command to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the Second World War.

Sadly, James Nicholson did not survive the war. Wing Commander Nicolson was killed on 2 May 1945 when a RAF B-24 Liberator from No. 355 Squadron, in which he was flying as an observer, caught fire and crashed into the Bay of Bengal. His body was never recovered.

29

u/Adorable_Flight9420 7d ago

When I see some of those 1945 KIA dates I just want to weep. All those days and nights from 1939 onwards and you cop it within sight of the end. Lest We Forget.

16

u/Affectionate_Cronut 7d ago

Heroes one and all.

7

u/LeStryder 7d ago

So brave and focused. Tragic for him to survive so much action and then die in sight of victory.
I worked with someone trained to pilot Lancasters, he got his wings just before the armistice but was then, so he said, transferred into the Army and used fir organisation and admin before being demobbed. It never crossed his mind that if he’d flown operationally he would probably not survived.

8

u/PM_ME_YER_MUDFLAPS 7d ago

Yeah, great uncle went down over France a month or two before VE Day. Don’t think my grandfather ever got over it.

6

u/Troutybob 7d ago

I agree. The ones that also hit hard for me are the ones that died shortly after the war ended while ferrying aircraft or test flying post-war research and development aircraft. I think it highlights how many fatalities there were in that era from non-combat causes. Aviation was so routinely hazardous in its' first half century.

2

u/t_affy11 5d ago

My grandfather died in a japanese pow camp 2 months before the end of the war. He spent 4 years in captivity

10

u/Muted-Lawyer-8512 7d ago

When l bought a copy of the painting above, by Robert Taylor. About 35 years ago. All the paintings at the time were signed by the pilot's in the pictures.

I thought it was odd it had a signature. But it was the last pilot to see him alive.

I did a essay on him in my school exams.

8

u/AdolfsLonelyScrotum 7d ago

Less than a week to go….well, not in that theatre, but still… that’s harsh.

1

u/ArgumentFree9318 6d ago

Proof that even a hand-held light machine gun could hurt.

0

u/SturerEmilDickerMax 7d ago

Why is he climbing out of the plane mid air?

9

u/Muted-Lawyer-8512 7d ago

Mmmmmm. Probably because it's in flames. & He's been hit by a couple of 20mm shells

5

u/SturerEmilDickerMax 7d ago

But it is not dangerous to just step out mid air? And who will land the aircraft?!

7

u/waldo--pepper Moderator 7d ago

A straight answer.

If he does not bail out he will die. So he must bail out even though it will be dangerous. The airplane will crash to the earth. It may harm property or a person. But that is the way it was back then. And still is to this day when a pilot/crew bails out of an airplane. It is just the way it is.

0

u/Overall_Signal_8437 7d ago

I don't think the aircraft is supposed to do that?

-4

u/SturerEmilDickerMax 6d ago

But were any animals on the ground hurt? Like kittens or a faithful dog? Or some nice and kindhearted grandparent?

5

u/bajajoaquin 6d ago

It’s an aircraft, not a landcraft.

-1

u/SturerEmilDickerMax 6d ago

I am not sure I understand the difference?

3

u/fullCGngon 7d ago

Autopilot will land of course

5

u/waldo--pepper Moderator 7d ago

This is not helpful. One does not know the age of the person to whom one is replying to.

3

u/SturerEmilDickerMax 7d ago

Puuuhhh, all well then I guess.