This pair didn't quite fit the timeline of the
1920s/1930s GB or Between the Wars Group Build.
--
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?board=98.0Top A Hawker
Harbinger Mk.Ia(T) advanced trainer assigned to 5 OTU at Aston Down in the Cotswolds. This aircraft was lost on a training mission on 23 July 1940. Through fuel starvation (or contamination?), the
Harbinger was put down into a field just southwest of Stroud. Unfortunately, an unseen drainage ditch tore the main undercarriage from the aircraft. The wreck was recovered but was written off as unrepairable after inspection at Aston Down.
During the June 1940 invasion scare, bomb racks were built for the
Harbinger trainers by Gloster Aircraft. Trucked 20 miles south by road, Gloster technicians installed these racks at Aston Down. By the end of 1940, the
Harbinger trainers had been replaced at OTUs by single-seat
Hurricanes. The older aircraft, having become maintenance intensive and troublesome, were not missed.
Bottom A Hawker
Harrier Mk.II of 1 (Fighter) Squadron, South African Air Force, Kenya, August 1940. Flown by Lt. B. Ronald Dimmock, this fighter was based at Wajir airfield, only 60 flying miles from the Italian Somaliland boundary. Refurbished by Glosters before delivery to South Africa, this
Harrier has been repainted in sand-and-stone camouflage with fresh markings. Fuselage roundels would not be modified into Type A1s until very late in 1940.
The victory markings on
Harrier '404' are a bit of a mystery. The black
fasces probably represents the Caproni Ca.133 bomber (8ª Squadriglia, 25° Gruppo) claimed on 03 August 1940 (a 'kill' shared with Lieutenants Blake and Rushmere). The white
fasces may indicate a 'probable'. [1] The SAAF's 1 (Fighter) Squadron had been deployed to Mombasa by ship in late May 1940.
The SAAF received six refurbished
Harriers in September 1939 (along with four early-production Hawker
Hurricanes). This was intended to bolster and modernize the South Africa force while allowing the SAAF's surviving half-dozen Hawker
Fury biplanes to assume a fighter-bomber role. [2] This restructuring paid dividends in East Africa where the
Harrier could, at will, break off combat with Italian C.R.32 biplane fighters.
___________________________________________
[1] Possible the Fiat C.R.32 fighter claimed as a 'probable' and shared with squadron CO, Major Noël Niblock-Stuart.
[2] The refurbished
Harriers were all fitted with 640 hp
Kestrel VI powerplants to match the engines of the SAAF's
Fury fleet.