HAWKER SEA HURRICANE DEVELOPMENT
CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY
Successful stopgap
The Hawker Sea Hurricane was unsuitable in many ways for the role it was shoehorned into, and at times it seemed that no-one wanted the Hurricane to go to sea. During the first years of the war the RAF was unwilling to allow the Royal Navy to have any Hurricanes, and many in the navy were sceptical as to their value. When the type eventually became a naval fighter, however, it made an immediate impression, appearing just in time to play a pivotal role in crucial strategic maritime battlegrounds.