Sqdn. Ldr. Robert Stanford-Tuck's' Hawker Hurricane--single figure and plane
$339.00

King & Country

Item Number: RAF099

Sqdn. Ldr. Robert Stanford-Tuck's' Hawker Hurricane

Robert Stanford Tuck DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (1916-1987) was another British fighter pilot during WWII who joined the Royal Air Force in 1935, and saw his first combat over France in mid 1940.  His success in action saw him soon promoted to command No. 257 Squadron in September 1940.  This particular Hurricane squadron was called 'The Burma Squadron', because all of its aircraft had been paid for by the Colonial Government of Burma at the beginning of the war. 

The King & Country version of Stanford-Tuck's aircraft has the squadron codes 'DTA' on both sides of the fuselage plus a long row of 'swastikas' on the port side under the cockpit while on the starboard side below the cockpit is the painted flag of British administered 'Burma'.  A standing figure 'Bob' Stanford-Tuck seen next to the 1:30 scale model is also included.

By July 1941 Stanford-Tuck was promoted, once more, to acting Wing Commander and was leading fighter sweeps over norther France.  It was there, in late January 1942, when he was shot down by a local German flak unit and forced to crash-land near Boulogne.  He was soon captured by German troops and sent to the famous Stalag Luft III in Poland, where he took part in some of the early preparatory stages of what became known as 'The Great Escape'.  In February 1945, Stanford-Tuck and a Polish pilot officer managed to escape from a 'forced-march' as the Germans retreated westwards just ahead of the powerful Red Army.  The two remained hidden in an isolated and deserted farm building before surrendering to some advancing, front-line Russians.  Several months later they finally, as the war had finished, boarded a ship heading for Southampton in the UK and... freedom.

During his wartime flying career before being shot down, Bob Stanford-Tuck's score card had him with 27 'kills', two 'shared' with six 'probables' and another six 'damaged'.  

LATER LIFE After RAF service, Bob Stanford-Tuck flew as a 'Test Pilot' on the English Electric 'Canberra' jet fighter bomber during the 1950s.  Much later, in 1969, he was one of the 'technical advisers' on the epic "Battle of Britain" film alongside an old wartime opponent who had become a cherished peacetime friend, Adolph Galland.  Both men very much enjoyed each other's company, with Stanford-Tuck becoming godfather to Adolph Galland's son Hubertus.  Robert Stanford-Tuck died on 5 May 1987 at the age of 70.

‘Hurricane Summer’  

By June 1940, Britain was in a perilous situation.  France had fallen… the British Army, or at least a large part of it, had escaped, by the skin of its teeth, back from Dunkirk, having left behind almost all of its transport, armour, and artillery behind.    Virtually the whole of Western Europe, from northern Norway down to the southern borders between France and Spain, now lay under the Nazi jackboot!  Britain’s stood defiantly alone.  

Hitler and his generals now looked across the English Channel and began to plan an invasion to which they gave the name… ‘Operation Sealion’.  At the same time they recognized that two major obstacles stood in their way – The Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.  At the time, Britain possessed the largest and most powerful navy in the world… definitely a hard nut to crack!  

The British Air Force, by comparison, was much smaller and had already suffered at the hands of the Luftwaffe in France.  

Hitler’s Luftwaffe chief, Reichsmarschal Herman Goering, confidently assured the Fuhrer that his all-conquering fighter pilots and bomber crews could and would ‘sweep the Royal Air Force from the skies’ in just a few weeks, before turning their full attention towards the British fleet.  

What Goering and his Luftwaffe failed to understand was that Britain possessed a growing band of fighter pilots from all over its small island and many others from around its far-flung Empire and elsewhere.  

The British also had two superb modern, mono wing fighter aircraft that became legendary:  The swift, sleek ‘Supermarine Spitfire’ and the rugged, hard-working ‘Hawker Hurricane’.  

The Hawker Hurricane has long been a favourite of K&C Royal Air Force collectors.  

Over the years, we have produced no less than four different versions of this classic British ‘Warbird’ in mixed-media (polystone, resin and white metal) as well as a number of all-wood, hand-painted special edition Hurricanes for individual collectors.

These two latest mixed-media Hawker Hurricanes are both brand-new sculpts with much more detail and painted to represent two different, but equally famous aircraft, flown by two of the best known RAF ‘aces’ of The Battle of Britain:  Squadron Leaders Douglas Bader and Robert Stanford-Tuck.

This new Hawker Hurricane includes a standing pilot representing the actual flyer of the aircraft.  In addition, this model comes in a handsome, full-colour presentation box with just 200 pieces of aircraft being produced.

Due to be released in JANUARY 2025.