HAWKER HUNTER – THE OPERATIONAL RECORD

This well-researched book is a history of the Hawker Hunter, one of the most elegant- and effective - jet fighters of its era. The author, Robert Jackson, working closely with the Air Historical Branch of the Ministry of Defence, has drawn extensively on the Operational Records of the RAF Hunter squadrons to paint a vivid picture of the Hunter in action. We see the Hunter from its service debut in the RAF Fighter Command to action in the Far East and Middle East: the confrontation with Indonesia in the early 1960s, when British forces were sent to help protect the newly- formed Malaysia from hostile Indonesian incursions; and the operations against dissident Yemen-backed tribesmen in Radfan, an area just north of Aden, then a British Protectorate.

Most of the material is hitherto unpublished, and key questions about the Hunter are answered: for example, how did it fare in simulated combat against the RAF's V-Bombers, the Vulcan and Victor, and against much more advanced missile- armed fighters such as the Lightning. Also covered, in a detailed day-by-day account of the Indo-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, are Indian Air Force Hunter operations against Pakistan's F-86, MiG-19 and Mirage jets, and the author provides in-depth coverage of Hunter operations with every other air force to use the type - Oman, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Switzerland and many others. The book brings the story of the Hunter right up to date in 1989, for the Hawker fighter's graceful shape still operates in many foreign skies.