Typhoon Attack

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 hotheaded sprinter's blood." Norman Franks has talked to the men who piloted this powerful seven-ton rocket-firing fighter in World War II, and from his interviews has emerged a very personal, often colorful 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-lb 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 beachhead, the breakout into France, the triumph at Fallacies, operations from Holland, in the Ardennes and finally into Germany itself.