My wife's uncle flew Hawker Huricanes Mk.1 with No.82 squadron RAF,during the battle of France(1939-May 1940).Sadly he was killed during the Battle of Britain flying a Hurricane.It may be of interest for you to know that the first Mk 1's had a two blade propeller which were not replaced by a three bladed prop. until early 1940.
If I recall the story correctly, the Air Ministry initially declined to purchase any Hurricanes. Convinced that war was coming (their engineers didn't believe that the German aircraft they'd seen displayed at air shows were ever really meant to be passenger planes), the Hawker company put them into production anyway, without any Government contracts. Had they not done that, Great Britain would have fought the Battle of Britain mostly with biplanes. By the end of the war the Hawker Hurricane had accounted for more kills than any other British-made fighter, including the Supermarine Spitfire.