This totally unique title is the very first film profile of the Hawker Typhoon - the planned replacement for the Hawker Hurricane which was designed as a fighter-interceptor but which ultimately proved to be a first rate ground attack aircraft. Initially armed with twelve .303 Browning machine guns, the Typhoon went on to be fitted with four cannons, 500lb bombs under the wings or a lethal array of rockets. Towards the end of the war, it even dropped napalm. On D Day Typhoons were one of the first aircraft over the Normandy beaches. Then during the Allies relentless march through Europe it was the Typhoon that blasted anything from tanks, trains, radar sites to ammunition dumps. THE TYPHOON AT WAR features extensive archive footage, newly released by the Imperial War Museum and unseen for 60 years. It includes very early 1b footage, early bom and ditching tests, air to air film of Typhoons, shoot-down footage from German camera crews and extensive Typhoon gun camera film. There are also exclusive interviews with no less than four surviving Typhoon pilots - Sir Alec Atkinson, Flt Ltnt Richard Dickie Armstrong, Squadron Leader Rik Dupre and Sir Kenneth Ada -, who provide vivid, first hand accounts of what it was like to fly and fight in the aircraft. Expert commentary is provided by Kev Darling, author of many books on fighter aircraft and perhaps the definitive book on the Typhoon. |