Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB

Hawker Hurricane Mk IIB     BG827   RS-W
30 Squadron, P/O Jimmy Whalen RCAF, The Battle of Ceylon, April 5th 1942.

In February 1942, 30 Squadron was dispatched at short notice from the Western Desert to Ratmalana in Ceylon, to reinforce the air defenses around the strategic naval base at Colombo. The Squadron was equipped with the Hurricane Mk IIB armed with twelve 0.303" machine guns. On the morning of April 5th, 125 Japanese aircraft attacked Colombo. The 30 Squadron pilots scrambled to meet the enemy. However, with no early warning most only got airborne while the airfield was under attack. The Hurricanes entered cloud shortly after take-off and, unable to form up as a wing, fought a series of courageous individual actions. At the end of the day, only 7 of the Squadron's 24 Hurricanes remained airworthy. Five pilots had been killed - Pilot Officers Caswell and Geffene, Flight Sergeant Ovens, and Sergeants Paxton and Browne. They fought well and downed a number of Japanese planes. While the Japanese raids had been successful, they lost about 70 of their most experienced aircrew which was to prove crucial in the subsequent battles of the Coral Sea and Midway.
The Hurricane Mk llB BG827 'RS-W' was one of the aircraft flown by 30 Squadron on 5 April 1942. It was flown by Plt Off Jimmy Whalen, RCAF who claimed two Type 97 bombers and one Zero shot down in less than 30 minutes.