File:Full-scale Mock-up of Hawker Hurricane I ‘P2970 US-X’ “Little Willie” (BAPC291) (51638920561).jpg

This is a full-scale mock-up of the 56 squadron Hurricane Mk.I in which Flying Office Geoffrey Page was shot down on 12th August 1940. It is allocated the British Aircraft Preservation Council identity BAPC291 and is on display as part of the National Battle of Britain Memorial. Capel-le-Ferne, Kent, UK. 29th July 2021

The following information on ‘P2970’ is from the Battle of Britain Memorial’s excellent website:-

“The Hawker Hurricane Mk l replica US-X was generously donated to the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust by the Tory Family Foundation. It represents as precisely as possible the No 56 Squadron aircraft in which 20 year-old Pilot Officer Geoffrey Page was shot down and terribly burned on 12 August 1940. The Hurricane fighter had been designed under the control of Hawker’s Chief Designer Sydney Camm. The first flight took place on 6 November 1935 and the first operational examples joined No 111 Squadron at Northolt at the end of 1937. During the Battle of Britain there were more Hurricanes in service with Fighter Command than Spitfires and they shot down far more enemy aircraft. In the later years of the war, the Hurricane achieved further fame in its “tank buster” role and it was not until 1947 that the type left squadron service with the RAF. Geoffrey Page developed a fascination with aircraft and flying as a child, but his ambition to attend the RAF College, Cranwell, was thwarted by his father’s opposition. Instead Geoffrey went to Imperial College, London University, and learned to fly at Northolt with the University Air Squadron. Called up in September 1939, Geoffrey served briefly with No 66 Squadron in 1940 before moving to No56 Squadron. The squadron was operating from North Weald on 12 August when, following a late afternoon scramble, an attack was made on a German formation reported as “70 plus”. Geoffrey’s Hurricane was hit by return fire. In his book Shot Down in Flames (originally published as Tales of a Guinea Pig), Geoffrey described the struggle to leave the burning cockpit and then to open his parachute despite the agony of his burns. “Realising that pain or no pain the ripcord had to be pulled, the brain overcame the reaction of the raw nerve endings and forced the mutilated fingers to grasp the ring and pull firmly,” he wrote. Rescued from the sea by a tender, which transferred him to the Margate lifeboat, Geoffrey became a founder member of the Guinea Pig Club for RAF personnel who underwent plastic surgery at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead. Geoffrey eventually returned to operations and became a wing leader before being badly injured again in 1944. In later years Geoffrey developed a determination that the heroism of his comrades in 1940 should be marked by a national memorial. The construction of the Memorial at Capel-le-Ferne, and its unveiling by Her Late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 9 July 1993, was largely his achievement.