AN EXCELLENT REPLICA OF “ONE ARMED MAC’S HURRICANE

Posted by Bruce on 6th May 2024

James MacLachlan was one of the RAF’s most famous pilots in the 1940-1943 time frame. After losing his left arm as a result of air to air combat over Malta, MacLachlan quickly demonstrated he could still fly with an artificial arm. He re-mustered as a night intruder pilot and squadron commander flying dangerous low level night missions over occupied Europe in the Hurricane depicted by this model. By the end of 1942 he had added five night kills to his daylight total of eleven. After a 6-month goodwill tour in the USA, MacLachlan was reassigned to the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) and , accompanied by Geoffrey Page, a Battle of Britain pilot who was shot down and badly burned in 1940, flew low level “Rhubarb” sorties in the early model Allison Engined Mustang. It was on such a Rhubarb, accompanied by Page, that MacLachlan met his end.

An excellent biography, of MacLachlan, “One-Armed Mac” by Brian Cull & Roland Simon’s was published by Grub Street in 2003 and should be available on AZN. A good description of MacLachlan’s last flight can be found in Geoffrey Page’s Book “Tale of a Guinea Pig”.