On April 22, the RAF Typhoon Display Team unveiled the new British solo display Eurofighter for this year’s airshow season. In keeping with the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy in Second World War the design is reminiscent of D-Day.
Like its black predecessor from 2023, the Typhoon FGR4 with the RAF number ZJ913 is a Tranche-1. It first flew on December 21, 2004 and entered service with the 29th Squadron in Coningsby on April 1, 2005. Before the Tranche-1s (in the UK all up to ZJ943) are scheduled to be decommissioned next year, it will now be given its final honors at air shows.
The design consists of a camouflage pattern of green and gray on the upper side and a light blue underside, with so-called “invasion stripes” on the fuselage and wings. The latter were applied at the time – for their own air defense on the thousands of ships – as a clearly visible distinction from any German aircraft (of which only two appeared on June 6 due to a lack of fuel).
In honor of all those who fought in this campaign, the team decided to replicate the camouflage pattern of a Hawker Typhoon fighter-bomber of 257 Squadron, which was deployed in June 1944. The aircraft bears the letters FM-G – hand-painted on the ZJ913 replica – FM was the RAF 257 Squadron code and was flown by squadron commander Denzil Jenkins.
The Typhoons with their 24-cylinder engines had played a decisive role in supporting the ground battles during the Normandy campaign. Armed with unguided rockets, they were particularly responsible for preventing the German elite armored divisions from reaching the coast in full combat strength in the decisive days after the landing, where they might have been able to throw the Allies back into the sea.
Due to the threat posed by the Typhoons, the German forces could only march at night – by rail or by road – and could only assemble to a limited extent. This is also perfectly illustrated in a piece of “Aviation Art” by A. Tooby, which is on display in several museums (see picture above). Other targets included marshalling yards and trains, canal shipping, bridges, gun emplacements, airfields, radar stations, castles used as headquarters and tunnels housing railroad guns.
The dangerous missions at very low altitudes also took their toll in the form of ground contact and light 2-centimetre and 3.7-centimetre anti-aircraft fire: 151 Typhoon pilots fell, starting with the preparations for the landing in May 1944 until the end of the Battle of Normandy in August 1944. In Noyers Bocage between Villers Bocage and Caen, the author visited a memorial (see video above) erected in 1994 especially for these men (the loss rate was 56 percent!). And as is “usual” in England, there is also a charity restoration project for an airworthy Hawker Typhoon.
