Product Details
A RELIC .303 AERIAL MACHINE GUN BY BROWNING, no visible serial number,
circa 1939, formerly comprising part of the main armament of a British Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft and retaining its barrel with partial flash-hider and cooling jacket, the majority of its receiver and some internal parts, TOGETHER WITH a display board with applied plaque reading '.303 BROWNING MACHINE GUN FROM HURRICANE P3708 OF 257 SQUADRON, DEBDEN. SHOT DOWN BY Bf110 IN COMBAT OVER THE THAMES ESTUARY AND CRASHED AT NAZEWICK FARM, FOULNESS ISLAND, ON SUNDAY AUGUST 18th, 1940, AT 6.00PM. SEARGENT A.G. GIRDWOOD BALED OUT, WOUNDED IN THE FOOT, AND WAS ADMITTED TO FOULNESS HOSPITAL. AIRCRAFT WAS WRITTEN OFF' and some map fragments from the same excavation
Provenance: This interesting artifact was recovered from the crash site of Hawker Hurricane P3708 which carried the markings DT-E. She was being flown in combat by Sgt. Alex Girdwood of 257 Sqn. when he was forced to bale out on 18th August 1940, shortly before the height of the Battle of Britain.
Girdwood had flown the aeroplane five times already that day, which started at 05.20 when he made the short hop from Debden to Martlesham Heath (257's operating base). It was then followed by three stints of convoy patrol which lasted a total of four hours and provided much-needed protection for British shipping as it moved through the southern North Sea and Dover Straits. At 15.00, after a 45 minute rest, the squadron were scrambled on a 30 minute sortie, but without contact with the Luftwaffe. Finally the last flight of the day, and another scramble. This sortie lasted about an hour (for this particular Hurricane anyway), from 17.00 until the time when Girdwood gently floated down onto Foulness Island, a military firing range just off the Essex coast, and P3708 slammed considerably less gently into the ground nearby at Nazewick Farm. Here it was totally buried in the soft ground by the force of the impact.
Sgt. Girdwood's combat report reads as follows:
"I was Red 3. While following Red Leader at a height of about 12,000ft, we came upon a section of HE111S flying in a big bomber formation. Red 1 (Flt/Lt Beresford) made an astern attack on one of the HE111S. When he broke off firing, I closed in and fired until it started to smoke and go down. As I broke away bullets entered my cockpit which exploded and caught fire. After a struggle I managed to bale out and as I fell I succeeded in pulling the ripcord and untwisting the lines which wound round my legs. A toe of my right foot was fractured by a bolt, which was forced into it by a bullet. I received some burns and bruises. Subsequently I found that the HE111 had crashed near Foulness just beside my own plane. Two of the wounded German airmen were brought to the same hospital at Foulness as myself."
In 1990 when the crash site was first investigated, several local eye-witnesses agreed that the Hurricane had disappeared into the ground leaving just a crater. This was never filled in, just ploughed around until over the years the hole filled up naturally. Once the impact point was established and excavation begun, it became clear that the first parts of the aircraft recovered were burnt and badly corroded, having been subjected to intense heat as it burnt underground. The wing remains and one undercarriage Oleo leg were amongst this. Once a depth of 5ft. had been reached it became clear that the fire hadn't reached any lower down and pieces of wooden stringer with the canvas covering were found. What was left of the aeroplane was predictably smashed with some parts beyond recognition. However, identifiable parts recovered from the site included the fin; tailwheel leg and wheel; oxygen and compressed air bottles; this .303 Browning; both Oleo legs; the hydraulic cylinder for the undercarriage and flaps; radio; the seat complete with its armour plating and Sutton harness; the blind (IMC) flying panel which had been folded around the spade-grip (with the firing button set to 'fire') and several smaller items from the cockpit including four bullet-holed maps of southern England (fragments of which accompany this Lot). The R-R Merlin engine was also recovered but was badly smashed, with the largest surviving piece being the crankshaft.
Sgt. Alex Girdwood was tragically killed only two months later. The Germans had mounted a low-level raid on R.A.F. North Weald and 257 were scrambled as the airfield was being bombed. Girdwood's aircraft, Hurricane V6852, was caught in a bomb blast as it took off, crashed hard and caught fire immediately.
Other Notes: The .303 Browning machine gun was a British variant of the highly-successful and ubiquitous .30 calibre M1919 that was used in many theatres of war in the 20th Century by various armies, navies and air forces. It was designed and developed by John Moses Browning and the later .50 calibre version is still in use today with the U.S. Army.
The Browning .303 Mk.II was adopted by the R.A.F. and re-worked to suit both offensive (fixed-mount) and defensive (swivel-mount) use. It was essentially the 1930 Pattern belt-fed Colt-Browning machine gun with a few minor modifications, such as firing from an open bolt. In its wing-mounted offensive guise it had a rate of fire of 1,150 rounds per minute.
Estimate £300-400