RUSSIAN AIRMEN USE HURRICANES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 44, 15 November 1941, Page 9

RUSSIAN AIRMEN USE HURRICANES

Hundreds Being Assembled

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 13. The first Russian to fly a Hurricane in the Russian war zone is a 40-year-old major-general commanding the northern air arm of the Red Fleet. A Hurricane bearing the Soviet reCL star on its wings In place of the red, white, and blue roundels was presented to the general. After brief instruction from one of the R.A.F. pilots, he took off. Hundreds of Hurricanes are now being assembled for service on various parts of the front, and the personnel of the R.AF. wing are engaged in instructing the Russian pilots. The armament and serviceableness of the Hurricane fighters are much admired by the Russian pilots, who are on the average older than the R.A.F. pilots. “Our pilots,” states the Air Ministry news service, “have been greatly impressed by the determination of the Soviet pilots. Recently a Soviet pilot returning from a raid rammed an enemy aircraft and escaped by parachute. The enemy air crew also baled out, aud they were promptly engaged on the ground by the Russian pilot. In hand-to-hand fighting he killed them all, and then walked five miles, over snowcovered tracks and hills, to his base. ' “Though the aerodromes will be snowcovered throughout the winter the Hurricanes will not need to have skis fitted to the undercarriage. Experience has already shown that they can land easily on aerodromes that are rolled regularly.” The R.A.F. wing has been elated by the arrival of the first letters from home since they arrived in Russia.