While the Hawker Tempest may not have enjoyed the kind of fame won by its older sister the Hurricane, it proved a vital instrument of warfare in the latter stages of World War Two.The first Tempest wing flew a few missions over Normandy following the June 1944 invasion before becoming Britain's first line of defence against the infamous V-1 flying bomb. The German campaign against London and southern England began shortly after D-Day, and lasted until early September, when the Allied armies finally overran the launch sites in northern France and Belgium. By that time there were two active Tempest wings, Wg Cdr Roland Beamont's 150 Wing (comprising 486, 3 and 65 squadrons at Newchurch, Kent) and Wg Cdr John Wray's Manston Wing with 274 and 80 squadrons.
展开▼
