RAF099
King & Country
Not yet released - expected in mid-January.
Robert Stanford Tuck DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (1916-1987) was another British fighter pilot during WW2 who joined the Royal Air Force in 1935 and saw his first combat over France in mid 1940. His success in action saw him soon promoted to command No. 257 Squadron in September 1940. This particular Hurricane squadron was called ‘The Burma Squadron’ because all of its aircraft had been paid for by the Colonial Government of Burma at the beginning of the war.
The King & Country version of Stanford-Tuck’s aircraft has the squadron codes ‘DTA’ on both sides of the fuselage plus a long row of ‘swastikas’ on the port side under the cockpit while on the starboard side below the cockpit is the painted flag of British administered ‘Burma’. A standing figure ‘Bob’ Stanford-Tuck seen next to the 1:30 scale model is also included.
By July 1941 Stanford-Tuck was promoted, once more, to acting Wing Commander and was leading fighter sweeps over norther France. It was there, in late January 1942, when he was shot down by a local German flak unit and forced to crash-land near Boulogne. He was soon captured by German troops and sent to the famous Stalag Luft Ⅲ in Poland where he took part in some of the early preparatory stages of what became known as ‘The Great Escape’.
In February 1945, Stanford-Tuck and a Polish pilot officer managed to escape from a ‘forced-march’ as the Germans retreated westwards just ahead of the powerful Red Army. The two remained hidden in an isolated and deserted farm building before surrendering to some advancing, front-line Russians. Several months later they finally, as the war had finished, boarded a ship heading for Southampton in the UK and… freedom.
During his wartime flying career before being shot down, Bob Stanford-Tuck’s score card had him with 27 ‘kills’, two ‘shared’ with six ‘probables’ and another six ‘damaged’.
LATER LIFE
After RAF service, Bob Stanford-Tuck flew as a ‘Test Pilot’ on the English Electric ‘Canberra’ jet fighter bomber during the 1950s. Much later, in 1969 he was one of the ‘technical advisers’ on the epic “Battle of Britain” film alongside an old wartime opponent who had become a cherished peacetime friend, Adolph Galland. Both men very much enjoyed each other’s company with Stanford-Tuck becoming godfather to Adolph Galland’s son Hubertus.
Robert Stanford – Tuck died on 5 May 1987 at the age of 70.
Special Note: Both of these new Hawker Hurricanes include a standing pilot representing the actual flyer of each aircraft. In addition, each model comes in a handsome, full-colour presentation box with just 200 pieces of each aircraft being produced.