The Hawker Hurricane 1939 to 1945

in RAF, Commonwealth and FAA Service
Combat Colours Number 2
By H. C. Bridgwater
Guideline Publications, ©2001
ISBN 0-9539040-4-0
Softbound, 56 pages

Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl

This is the second title in a new series being put out by Scale Aircraft Modelling.  Unlike the first title, which covered only the Bf 109E, this one covers just about all marks of the Hurricane, providing text, photos and illustrations.  No foreign operators or included in this title, though, so if you're looking for those you'll have to look elsewhere.

What you do get, though, are some great photos and a well-written text, coupled with lots of color illustrations.  The book is broken down into four sections, covering the European Theatre, Middle Eastern Theatre, Far Eastern Theatre, and FAA Hurricanes.  While many of the photos have been seen in other Hurricane books, there are some new ones to me, and the text on each section is very well written and does a good job of following the history of this famous fighter.

If there's a weak spot in this title it would have to be in the illustrations, and this really isn't a very big weak spot.  For the most part they do an accurate job of showing the camouflage pattern, however I have noticed a few that differed from photos.  Since all of the illustrations aren't duplicated in the photos, picking out which ones are accurate and which ones aren't will require a large Hurricane reference library.  If you're planning on using one of the illustrations as a reference for a model, I would strongly recommend backing it up by finding a photo, but for use as a general reference they do quite nicely.

Overall this is a nice title covering British Hurricanes and hopefully there will be a follow-on book covering foreign operators.