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Continued from above... 2
broke out, the P-40 was the only fighter available in quantity to the U.S.A.A.F.,
it being the first American single-seat plane to be manufactured in the U.S. on
a mass production basis. By the end of the war, over 14,000 planes had been
delivered to fighting theatres. It was amenable to adaptation
and it was available when most sorely needed.
The belief in the "ascendancy of bombardment over pursuit" was rife in 1937 when
the Curtiss P-40 was first envisaged, and it is a sobering thought that, with
the Bell P-39 Airacobra this product of such a school of thought constituted
more than half the strength of all USAAF fighters until July 1943. Prior to
September of that year the P-39 and P-40 also comprised more than half the USAAF
fighters committed overseas. However, by July 1945 only one P-40 group remained
operational.
The prototype P-40 took to the air in the autumn of 1938, and production was
initiated in the following year. Performance of the first version of this
single-seat fighter had not really come up to expectations, but as several air
forces were desperate for new aircraft, the type was welcomed into service. The
US had delayed modernizing its Army Air Service until the last minute, so P-40s
made up a large part of their equipment during the first years of war. Britain
and France also ordered P-40s to contend with the German Luftwaffe, but in the
case of France, deliveries came too late and their P-40s were diverted to the
Royal Air Force - to be known as Tomahawks. Similarly, the Soviet Union's
outdated air force had fared badly at the hands of the Germans, and P-40s were
also sent there.
The P-40 was initially designed around the Allison V-1710 liquid-cooled inline
engine which offered better streamlining, more power per unit of frontal area,
and better specific fuel consumption than did air-cooled radials of comparable
power. Unfortunately, the rated altitude of the Allison engine was only some
12,000 feet, rendering combat above 15,000 feet a completely impracticable
proposition. The P-40's ancestry dated back as far as 1924; the famed Curtiss
Hawk fighters being in the forefront of all US warplanes. But its development
was hindered from the start. The overall limitations of its design were such
that the addition of multi-speed superchargers was considered inadvisable in
view of the pending production of superior fighter designs. The achievements of
the P-40 were therefore all the more creditable.
The P-40 was a relatively clean design, and was unusual for its time
in having a fully retractable tail wheel. The Curtiss P-40 served
during most of the Second World War with one air force or another,
and under several different names including Tomahawk and Kittyhawk
in Britain and carried two .303 in. Browning machine-guns in place
of the 0.30in.-calibre guns fitted in USAAF machines. It retained
the standard synchronized armament of two 0.5 in.-caliber
machine-guns in the top nose decking.The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is
one of the best-liked airplanes of World War II, even though its
performance was not quite up to that of its opponents. Its strong
construction, heavy firepower, and ability to dive enabled it to
compete with enemy fighters.
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One of the most rugged fighters ever built, the Curtiss
P-40 was the Army Air Forces' front-line fighter at the start of World
War II. The P-40 is among the top five aircraft in US history in terms
of number of aircraft produced and was eventually flown by 28 countries. |
The Flying Tigers
Many US volunteer pilots flew on behalf of Britain, the Soviet Union and
China before the United States entered the war. A group of them,
equipped with P-40s, went to help the Chinese in their struggle against
the Japanese in 1942, where they became known as the 'Flying Tigers'
because of their uniquely painted aircraft. This group later became part
of the USAAF proper, and P-40s were thereafter used widely in the
Pacific.
In the middle of 1941 General Claire Chennault began recruiting for his
Volunteer Group--better known as the Flying Tigers--to fight the
Japanese from China, for which 100 P40s were ordered for purchase
through a loan from the US Government. Ninety aircraft, mostly P-40Bs,
were actually delivered, sufficient for three squadrons, plus a few
spares. At the time of the USA's entry into the war there were eighty
American pilots in the Volunteer Group, and shortly after arriving at
Kunming the P-40s drew first blood, six out of ten attacking Japanese
bombers being destroyed by two of the AVG squadrons on December 20.
There were no American casualties on this occasion, but the third
squadron, left behind at Mingaladon, Burma, was less fortunate, and lost
two pilots on their first interception, on December 23,1941. The
American pilots had underestimated the maneuverability of the lightly
built Japanese Zero fighters, and failed to utilize their superior speed
and diving ability to advantage. It was soon the cardinal rule that a
P-40 should always avoid mixing it individually with a Japanese fighter,
owing to the Curtiss machine's inferior climb rate and maneuverability,
but the P-40 substantiated a reputation for ruggedness that it was
already acquiring with the RAF in the Middle East, and its armor
protection saved many AVG pilots in subsequent combat. |
Joel Paris was a P-40 ace with the 49th Fighter Group in the
Southwest Pacific, he relates his opinion of the P-40:
I never felt that I was a second-class citizen in a P-40. In many
ways I thought the P-40 was better than the more modern fighters. I
had a hell of a lot of time in a P-40, probably close to a thousand
hours. I could make it sit up and talk. It was an unforgiving
airplane. It had vicious stall characteristics. ...
If you knew what you were doing, you could fight a Jap on even
terms, but you had to make him fight your way. He could outturn you
at slow speed. You could outturn him at high speed. When you got
into a turning fight with him, you dropped your nose down so you
kept your airspeed up, you could outturn him. At low speed he could
outroll you because of those big ailerons. They looked like barn
doors on the Zero. If your speed was up over 275, you could outroll
it. His big ailerons didn't have the strength to make high speed
rolls ...
You could push things, too. Because you knew one thing: If you
decided to go home, you could go home. He couldn't because you could
outrun him. He couldn't leave the fight because you were faster.
That left you in control of the fight. Mind you: The P-40 was a fine
combat airplane.
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Some indication of the Curtiss P-40's capabilities in resolute hands
is given by the fact that from its inception in December 1941 until July
4, 1942, when it was absorbed by the USAAF, the AVG was officially
credited with the destruction of 286 Japanese aircraft for the loss of
eight pilots killed in action, two pilots and one crew chief killed
during ground attack, and four pilots missing. The top-scoring AVG
pilot, Robert H. Neale, was credited with the destruction of sixteen
enemy aircraft while flying the P-40, and eight other pilots claimed ten
or more victories.
By March 1942, when some thirty P-40Es were ferried to China by air from
Accra, in Africa. The improved performance offered by these more potent
P-40s was found to be extremely valuable against the Mitsubishi A6M
Zero-Sen fighters which, first introduced in the Chinese theatre in
1940, were becoming increasingly numerous. The ground-attack potential
of the P-40E was also much superior. The AVG pilots had resorted to
carrying 30-lb. incendiary and fragmentation bombs in the flare chutes
of their P-40Bs, but it was questionable whether this was not more
hazardous to the attackers than to the attacked. |
Fact File:
Curtiss P-40 Hawk
Tomahawk, Kittyhawk, Warhawk
The Curtiss P-40 served with the USAAF and other Allied air forces in every
operational theatre of World War II; it was built in considerable numbers and
proved to be highly adaptable to a variety of tasks. The P-40 Hawk was built to
operate at low altitudes, to support ground action, and to attack enemy rear
columns and depots. An order for 140 P-40 aircraft for the French government was
in 1940 diverted to the RAF, who named the machine Tomahawk I. Most of these
Tomahawks, as well as the IIA version, later received, were sent to the Middle
East or to Army Co-operation units. During this period prior to Pearl Harbor,
Curtiss supplied one hundred P-40Bs to Chennault's American Volunteer Group in
China.
In the dogfights in the Middle East and in the early months of the
Pacific War, when the P-40 fared badly against the more maneuverable
Messerschmitt and Zeros, Chennault in China championed the machine. He taught
his pilots to fly the shark-nosed P-40s in elements of two, wing to wing,
pouncing with guns blazing on Zero squadrons, immediately withdrawing to avoid a fight. Two more wing guns, making six guns in all, characterized
the P-40C (Tomahawk IIB). The first substantial redesign appeared in the P-40D
of 1941, which had an Allison V-l 710-39 engine. The four wing guns were raised
to 0.50 inch in caliber, and provision existed for bombs to be carried beneath
the fuselage and wings.
In the Pacific the P-40D (Kittyhawk) bombed enemy bases and then engaged
their fighters. Named Kittyhawk I by the RAF, the aircraft was used for similar
purposes against Rommel's supply lines. Several new versions of the P-40 were
developed but it was the last of the series, the Warhawk, that was the most
famous. Its armament included six or more .50-inch caliber machine-guns mounted
on the wings outside the propeller arc. The Allison engine was replaced by the
Rolls-Royce Merlin, which increased the aircraft's speed to 375 mph (603 kph).
The Warhawk, especially when flying in pairs, was a great success against both
Japanese and Germans, the RAF preserving the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk's identity as
the Kittyhawk.
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