Curtiss P-40, Part 1 | The Most Underrated Fighter of WW2?
foreign the Warhawk the tomahawk and the Kitty Hawk these were all names given to one aircraft the Curtis P40 behind the P-51 Mustang and the P-47 Thunderbolt it was the third most produced American fighter of the second world war over 13 700 were produced between 1939 and 1944 and they came in a multitude of variants this aircraft played a crucial role in the first half of the war as America was not directly involved until the end of 1941 many of the early p-40s Saw Service with foreign countries particularly those of the
British Commonwealth these were the toughest days for Britain and her allies and the p-40s brought much needed Relief by the middle of 1942 p-40s would be serving in the Middle East Africa India Burma China the Southwest Pacific and the Soviet Union but its absence over the Skies of Western Europe often denied it the glory enjoyed by its younger cousins the P-47 and the P-51 the P40 did not perform well at high altitudes and Western Europe was one of the few places where aerial combat routinely took place above 20 thousand feet
because of this deficiency and partly due to some inaccurate post-war bias the P40 has often been labeled as mediocre but this was certainly not the case the P40 proved to be a remarkably competent fighter when operated to its strengths and the fact that over 200 Allied Pilots became aces in the P-40 is certainly a testament to this the P40 also earned an excellent reputation for its survivability it was at by far one of the most durable single-sea fighters of the war and this allowed it to adapt to other roles when
its time as a Frontline fighter had finally come to an end today we’re going to take a closer look at the remarkable history of this often underappreciated fighter but to truly do it justice to understand its strengths and weaknesses we need to understand its Origins and this means taking a quick look at the p40s ancestors the Curtis Hawks the Curtis Hawks were some of the most successful fighter aircraft from the interwar period between 1924 and 1938 Curtis produced over 700 Hawk biplanes these were built in six different models
with over 30 variants between them serving as interceptors carrier fighters fighter bombers trainers and some were even used as highly experimental airship-based Scout aircraft the Hawks were incredibly successful both domestically and overseas Hawk biplanes were operated to buy over a dozen different countries and the constant supply of orders helped Curtis survive the worst of the Great Depression the merger with right aeronautical in 1929 also helped with the newly formed Curtis Wright becoming the largest manufacturer
of aircraft and era engines in the United States in the mid-1930s Curtis writer modernized their Hawks with the development of the model 75 an all-metal monoplane fighter which became known as the p-36 this was a huge leap forward over the old biplanes it was highly maneuverable easy to maintain and it was significantly faster once again it proved to be popular at home and abroad securing multiple orders from overseas customers and like the biplane Hawks it was shaping up to enjoy a long and fruitful service life ironically its
successor the P40 which became notorious for its lack of high altitude performance can trace’s Origins back to an aircraft that was designed with this very thing in mind in mid-1937 before the first production contract for the p-36 had even been signed its designer Donovan Berlin was already seeking a way to dramatically increase its performance he had gotten wind of the new prototypes that were emerging in Europe the super Marine Spitfire and the messersmith bf-109 and he realized that American fighter aircraft were about to be
considerably outclassed the U.S Army Air corps had no desire to fall behind and they were not without options the Allison v1710 a powerful liquid-called V12 was now becoming available albeit after a slow start courtesy of the Great Depression this engine was intended to power many of America’s newest combat aircraft but in 1937 none of these were yet available indeed many of these only existed on the drawing board but there was one exception in a moment of foresight Donovan Berlin had designed his P36 so that it could be easily
modified to take newer more powerful engines and he submitted a proposal to fit the Allison V12 to the original Hawk 75 prototype this was known as the hawk 75i a design that looked more like a 1930s racing craft rather than a Pursuit fighter it kept to the wings from landing gear and most of the tale of the original Hawk 75 but drastic changes were made to the fuselage and the nose to maintain performance at high altitude the Allison V12 was turbocharged and this necessitated the lengthening of the fuselage to not only fit the engine but
also its radiators and the intercooler this pushed the center of gravity further forward and to correct this the cockpit was moved further back the result was a very Sleek airframe that promised much speed but also one that offered pretty atrocious visibility as the pilots had over 20 feet of plane in front of him despite concerns overset visibility the estimated performance of the design was good enough that the Army Air core ordered a test aircraft to be built under the designation of xp-37 though it seemed simple enough on paper
converting the hawk prototype to this new configuration proved to be a challenge and an expensive one at that when the xb37 was completed and the build cost had topped out at just over one hundred and four thousand dollars which is about 2 million in today’s money considering the production model of the P36 only cost twenty three thousand dollars this was a worrying development the aircraft made its made in Flight in April of 1937 and the test pilots immediately complained about poor visibility especially during taxiing
when the nose and Wing completely blocked forward Vision but the xp-37 did achieve a top speed of 340 miles an hour during its trials and it promised to go even faster as a result of its promising performance the U.S army ordered 13 test aircraft as the yp37 unfortunately the xb37 was let down by its turbocharger as the development of multi-gear superchargers was somewhat behind those being developed in Europe turbocharging was viewed as the easiest way to get high altitude performance but Donovan Berlin and Curtis had
underestimated the developments required to make such a high power unit reliable Metallurgy had not yet Advanced enough to make a turbine wheel that could withstand the high RPMs required and to these early turbochargers had manual controls that had to be operated by the pilot which was not exactly ideal for combat aircraft as a result of these problems the xb37 project would ultimately fail but lessons taken from this expensive experiment directly contributed to the p40s development in 1938 while the yp37s were busy
blowing up their turbochargers the Army Air corps announced a new competition for the development of a brand new Pursuit fighter with bids to be received in January of 1939. by this point Global tensions had become a considerably more heated the sino-japanese war had escalated leading to a sharp decline in relations between the US and Japan and Europe was becoming equally spicy with increased Italian aggression and the recent German ashless of Austria in response to this the U.
S Congress approved funds for a major buildup of the nation’s military strength and this included the acquisition of modern Pursuit and bombing aircraft Next Generation aircraft are seldom produced overnight the development of the Spitfire and the bf-109 being Prime examples of this but the Army needed something that could compete with the vast Fighters coming out of Europe and the rumored ones being developed by Japan because of this they considered their initial specification as one for a stop Gap fight better one that could be
produced quickly and by time for more advanced models to be developed the Army specifications certainly reflected this line of thinking but it also portrayed a lack of appreciation for what constituted an effective Pursuit Fighter the specification called for a fighter with a top speed of 310 to 370 miles an hour which was just enough to be competitive but it only required this top performance to be achieved at fifteen thousand feet this was anathema to the prevailing line of thought over in Europe where high altitude
performance was King but this was not surprising when the potential military use of such an aircraft is considered at the time when the specifications were drawn up the US did not consider a bombing attack on its own territory to be a major threat after all the major powers that could be considered a threat were well beyond the range of conventional bombers and it would be many years before that would change the presumed task of the fighter arm of the Air corps was to patrol America’s vast coastlines and this meant an emphasis on
range and reliability rather than high altitude performance there was also the consideration that many senior officers in the Air corps were advocates for the bomber rather than the fighter they believed that fast heavy high altitude bombers bristling with defensive guns would be the main weapon of war in the future and these aircraft would not require escorts this line of thinking also appears to have not considered Foreign Service even though the Curtis P36 was already receiving export orders for European nations few paused to
consider that this new fighter might benefit from higher altitude performance and if they did they were in the minority and so when Donovan Berlin submitted his design plans for a new fighter one that would become the P-40 its greatest weakness ironically would be viewed with approval once again he based his design on the airframe of the p-36 and once again he made use of the Allison V12 but to this time owing to the modest altitude requirements he did away with the complicated turbocharger and selected a single stage supercharger
instead like the xp-37 it looked fast when compared to the more Compact and stubbier looking p-36 but there were some significant changes the most eye-catching was the fitting of the coolant radiator to the underside of the fuselage just after the wingtrailing edge a look that would later be replicated in the P51 the liquid cooling unit itself was installed underneath the fuselage rather than within and this combined with the lack of a bulky intercooler meant that the pilot and the engine were once again within the same postcode this design was
submitted as the model 75p and once again its estimated performance was impressive enough for the Army to order a prototype as the xp-40 a contract was signed at the end of April 1938 authorizing Berlin to take the 10th production p-36a and convert it to this new specification the Prototype had made its Maiden flight on the 4th of October 1938 with test pilot Edward Elliott at the controls initial tests of the xb40 were disappointing it proved to be unstable during takeoff owing to the long nose and a narrow undercarriage and
its rate of climb was almost a third slower than that of the old p-36 even more troubling was the top speed as it barely managed to exceed 300 miles an hour at 12 000 feet following wind tunnel tests on scale models in November of 1938 the xb40 was quickly modified to a new configuration the air scope from the top of the cowling was removed and in its place the machine gun fairings were enlarged to double as air ducts these then merged further back before feeding into the carburettor the radiator was moved forward and
reinstalled under the nose changing the outline of the aircraft considerably and a two-pipe exhaust system was installed that gave a slight boost to engine power in this new guys the xp40 was ready just in time to compete in the competition trials which had been delayed until March the only other competing aircraft was the severski AP9 other more advanced aircraft were in development some utilizing turbocharged engines but none of these were far enough along in their development to Warrant full consideration though the xb40 had yet to
fully satis by the performance requirements it’s low cost and ease of production secured at the win the victory resulted in the largest order for fighter aircraft in the us at the time the US Army placed an order for 524 aircraft under the designation P-40 with the contract valued at 12.9 million dollars before production got underway further changes were made the xp-40 had outperformed its competitor but it was not to living up to its own performance expectations a top speed of 360 miles an hour had been promised but the Prototype
was barely managing 340 miles an hour even after all the modifications to improve its streamlining a subsequent tests showed that with some further modifications the required speed could be achieved a collection of minor changes were made to the airframe mostly focused around reshaping the radiator and the xb40 was then re-equipped with the more powerful Allison v1710-33 following these changes in December of 1940 it finally achieved a top speed of 366 miles an hour at 15 000 feet the Army was satisfied and 14 months and
many modifications after the xb40’s first flight the aircraft was officially put into production as the P-40 Warhawk known in-house as the model 81 the aircraft went into full production in March of 1940. as no service test aircraft had been ordered as the yp40 the first three p-40s from the production line were used for military evaluations with a top speed of just 357 miles an hour when fully fueled and armed the P40 didn’t meet the official speed goal set by the Army but it was close enough the Army was desperate for Fighters Curtis
was able to deliver said Fighters at least a year sooner than its competitors and there was always the promise of improvement additionally foreign orders were already piling up from Europe which meant that Curtis would be keeping up its production regardless so the Army might as well make use of it the P40 officially entered service with elements of the eighth Pursuit group based at Langley field in Virginia in June of 1940.
shortly after this the 20th Pursuit group in California received their p-40s and by the end of September over 200 had been delivered the last going to the 31st Pursuit group in Michigan for pilots who were upgrading from the old p-36 the P-40 often proved to be an initial disappointment though the P40 was faster its wing area had remained the same with the only change being the reinforcement of its internal structure because of this the wing loading had increased going from 22.
9 pounds per square foot on the P36 to just under 29 pounds per square foot on the P40 this of course had a detrimental effect on its handling that was not to say that the P40 handled poorly in fact it was comparatively Nimble compared to many other monoplane Fighters being built at the time it just had the misfortune of following an aircraft that was particularly well known for its responsiveness and thus was felt to be a bit heavy though the complaints from U.
S Pilots were Justified they were only experiencing the P40 in its raw first iteration and some of its greatest virtues would not become apparent until it saw actual combat moreover an improved version of the P40 was already on the way after accepting delivery of the first 200 p40s the Army aircore deferred to the rest of their order so that Curtis could complete an urgently needed batch for the French these were known as the h81-a and they featured several improvements over the original P40 changes included a redesigned landing gear where small
doors were added to provide a smooth fairing for the struts and a plate covered the wheel recess during flight to improve streamlining short curved exhaust Stacks replaced the manifold exhaust a dedicated carburetor intake was reintroduced allowing the blast tubes for the guns to be shortened and the oil and coolant radiators were redesigned and clustered together this increased the size of the p40s so-called chin further contributing to the outline that makes it so recognizable today originally the P40 came equipped with
four machine guns two 50 caliber machine guns in the nose and a 30 caliber machine gun in each Wing but the French Air Force believed it was undergunned they requested a redesign to have four Wing guns with the 30 cows being replaced with their own 7.5 millimeter FN brownings all of these changes represented a significant Improvement on the design and as such they would be applied to the US production models under the designation of p40b what would have been the p40a was most likely the configuration of the xb40 after winning
the pursuit competition but before it had been modified and seeing as that variant was never built the letter was skipped though it would be retroactively added to a single reconnaissance aircraft later on the French p40s was still being built in the factory when the country fell and the order was quickly taken over by the British equally desperate for aircraft who also placed their own order as well these were known as the tomahawk mark 1.
the RAF retained to the 50 caliber guns in the nose for most models but the wing mounted guns were exchanged for 303 caliber weapons and as they were easier to Source despite going on to serve with a distinction with British and Commonwealth forces later on the p-40s made a very poor impression when they were first delivered much of the batch still had French instrumentation and was thus in the heretical metric system and to the tomahawk lacked any of the protection expected in a Frontline fighter it had no armor plating no
bulletproof canopy and worst of all no self-sealing fuel tanks they also proved difficult to handle as the RAF Pilots were used to performing three-point Landings in their hurricanes and Spitfires a three-point Landing in the tomahawk was not advised as it would either lead to a collapsed landing gear or an equally unfun ground Loop this was because the landing gear of the P40 was somewhat of an outlier it retracted rearwards as opposed to those found on many other World War II aircraft which retracted laterally towards the fuselage
this was a legacy of the design of the P36 and it was something that would never be changed which made the P40 difficult to transition to for pilots who had flown other aircraft previously though the arrival of any additional Fighters was highly welcomed to the RAF at this critical juncture the Mark 1 tomahawks were not to use as Frontline fighters in Europe unwilling to have their pilots perforated or emulated due to a lack of protection the RAF used them predominantly as trainers additionally they had quickly realized
that the Allison Engine with its single stage supercharger lacked the High Altitude performance that was needed in this theater sorties often took place at 2025 or even 30 000 feet and the tomahawks engine started to struggle above 15 000. because of this the only combat operations intended for the tomahawk at this time would have been as close air support in the event of a German invasion during their early service some tomahawks received various upgrades or sometimes had their nose mounted 50 caliber guns swapped out by
303s and these were all covered under the generalized designation of the tomahawk Mark II because of this the next true iteration of the tomahawk was the mark 2A and it was a step in the right direction ostensibly a p40b it came with six machine guns as standard pilot armor armor plated fuel tanks a bullet resistant canopy and the provision for underwing bomb racks this last modification did have an impact on the overall top speed but the trade-off for ground strike capabilities was considered worth it all that being said
the RAF still felt it lacked the range and survivability to be used long term and they only placed a modest order for just 110 aircraft whilst Curtis worked on an improved version this came in the form of the p40c known in house as the model h81a-2 it inherited all the improvements made in the p40b and it also featured new radio equipment and most importantly it now came with an improved fuel system not only did this feature self-sealing fuel tanks as standard but it came with a provision of a 52 gallon drop tank
that greatly improved the aircraft’s range in Britain this version of the aircraft was known as the tomahawk Mark II B after an initial order of nine aircraft was received in early 1941 for testing and service evaluation the British quickly placed three more with 930 aircraft being ordered in total this would seem like a large order for an aircraft that was apparently useless in European Skies but these were not intended for Europe these were going to North Africa before we talk about the p40s remarkable service life I’d like to give a shout
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as well you might also bump into me as I play this game a lot when I actually get free time so don’t be afraid to say hello after you’ve casually blown me out of the sky once again thank you to War Thunder for sponsoring today’s video and to now let’s get back to the P4 team and its adventures in Africa by mid 1941 the raf’s main fighter in this theater the Hawker hurricane was beginning to struggle the arrival of later models of the messersmith bf-109e and some early models of the bf-109f had shifted the balance of power and the Hurricanes were
starting to take heavy losses worse still the Italians were taking delivery of their first Mackie c202s which would quickly prove to Be an Effective and deadly dogfighter as most of the combats over Africa took place at altitudes below 15 000 feet the tomahawk would not be hampered by its biggest defect and the RAF quickly tweaked onto the idea of using them to replace the hurricane approximately 300 Tomahawk Mark II bees were shipped to Africa in May of 1941 to serve with the newly formed Desert Air Force the first unit to receive them was
number 250 Squadron of the RAF who quickly relocated to Egypt to bolster the air defenses around Alexandria shortly after this tomahawks joined number three Squadron of the royal Australian Air Force and number two Squadron of the South African Air Force in June number 112 RAF Squadron who had been operating Gloucester Gladiators also exchanged into the tomahawks probably not without a sense of relief it was 250 Squadron that would finally give the P40 its combat debut on the 6th of June flying officer Jack Hamlin claimed to have shot down a cad
z1007 but the kill was not recognized as there were no Witnesses then on the 8th of June Hamlin shot down another z1007 and once again he was in danger of not getting the credits in truth he had set the bomber on fire and it had then been finished off by an anti-aircraft battery but as he had done most of the damage he was credited with the kill following their arrival and after a brief working up period the tomahawks found themselves getting very busy very quickly operation battle ax the new British offensive in
Egypt and operation exporter the Allied invasion of Vichy controlled territory in the Middle East had both been launched in June both campaigns saw tomahawks take part in their first major engagements and they did not disappoint Pilots quickly realized that the P-40 was not only excellent in a dive but it could take a a remarkable amount of damage this made them ideal for ambushing formations of lumbering bombers something Pilots quickly learned to do with the ease of a peregrine falcon chasing a pigeon interestingly
one of their first victims during operation exporter was a flight of American bombers on the 28th of June tomahawks from number three Squadron Savage the flight of Vichy operated in Martin marylands shooting down all six of them in a span of just a few minutes the tomahawk also had the occasional fight with the dawatin d520 which was considered by many to be the best fighter built by France up till that point but most were either destroyed on the ground or didn’t get a chance to fight before the local Armistice so
their combat capabilities against the P-40 are not fully known in both the Middle East and Africa the victory tallies quickly climbed and on the 7th of July Australian Pilots Clive Caldwell became the first Tomahawk Ace he would not be the last and he himself would go on to achieve much more Not only would he become the highest scoring P40 Ace from any air service but he would become the highest scoring Allied Ace in Africa and the highest scoring Australian pilot of the entire War it wasn’t long before the p-40s attracted the ire of German
pilots and soon enough there were multiple encounters with the bf-109es the P40 had three advantages over the bf-109e it was much faster in a dive it was more maneuverable in a dogfight and it had a much sturdier airframe conversely the bf-109e had three main advantages over the tomahawks it was much faster in a climb it had a much higher service ceiling and it was equipped with a pair of hard-hitting 20 millimeter cannons as the P40 performed best at lower altitudes Allied Pilots were often forced to give up the
initiative usually they would endure an initial attack from above thrust in the airframe to take the hit if they didn’t evade quickly enough and then turn into their opponents and bring their guns to bear in a head-on pass it was an incredibly risky tactic but when used correctly the tomahawk was able to hold its own against this German Foe and in the right hands it could give as much trouble as it received out of all its virtues it was the tomahawk’s ability to soak up damage that endeared at most to many Pilots as the fighting intensified
in the latter half of 1941. there are numerous accounts of p40s making it back to their airfields with countless bullet holes riddled throughout their airframe and one of the best examples of this involved Clive Caldwell on the 29th of August on that day he had The Misfortune of flying back to base alone when he was pounced upon by a pair of bf-109s one of these was flown by Verna sure a young German pilot he had recently scored his fifth kill making him an Ace and he intended to make Caldwell his Sith but Caldwell was having none of it despite
himself sustaining three separate wounds from shrapnel in the initial attack he turned his Tomahawk into the attacking measurements after a heated engagement in which Cardwell shot down the other 109 and damaged showers an unlucky hit set his Tomahawk on fire Ashoka broke off hoping to limp back to base and claim a kill but the fire aboard Caldwell’s P-40 put itself out just before he was about to bail despite being hit by more than 100 bullets and 5 20 millimeter cannon shells his Tomahawk carried him safely back to base and he
lived to fight another day this example of durability was one that was often repeated as the tomahawk bore the brunt of the fighting throughout the rest of 1941 and although their effectiveness received a notable check in October as the bf-109f became available on mass they continued to be vital tools in the Allied war effort though they were now significantly outclassed in one-on-one fights Tomahawk squadrons made the most of their advantages with attacks of opportunities and of course they were still Superior to many other aircraft
operating in this theater by this point they were a confirmed menace to axis bombers and heavy attack aircraft and they now had a look that matched their reputation in September tomahawks of number 112 Squadron started appearing with shark mouths painted on their nose this was not the first use of this paint Scheme and it was most likely inspired by the shark-mouthed bf-110s encountered over the Mediterranean but it was the p-40s that became the first Allied aircraft to feature this paint Scheme on a regular basis this quickly caught on
with other air units and by the end of the year it’s become a Hallmark of the tomahawks in Africa the last major operation of 1941 operation Crusader saw some of the tomahawk’s greatest exploits but it would also signal the beginning of the end as the campaign to reach and break The Siege to Brook rapidly evolved the use of fighter bomber tactics quickly took on an important role tomahawks and hurricanes flew ahead of the ground forces to attack rommel’s lines of supply and communication at the rear typical missions would involve two
squadrons one providing top cover while the other sought out enemy columns truck convoys and Supply dumps these were strafing missions the aircraft didn’t usually carry many bombs but they still proved to be moderately effective other missions included fighter sweeps and bomber escorts with large air battles occurring on a regular basis owing to the low altitude of the strafing runs and the presence of superior enemy Fighters losses were heavy no few other the 9 aircraft were lost on one day alone in November but the tomahawks also
scored some of their greatest victories during these final bloody weeks on the 25th of November 15 tomahawks from numbers 3 and 112 squadrons encountered no fewer than 70 aircraft during a sweep this formation included bf-110s ju-87s ju-88s and even some Italian cr-42 biplanes all escorted by bf-109s providing top cover despite being outnumbered by the escorts the tomahawks attacked with success 112 Squadron claimed two destroyed and two probables for the loss of one aircraft and number three Squadron claimed seven destroyed
one probable and eight damaged again for the loss of just one fighter on the 5th of December another huge Air Battle occurred when 22 tomahawks from 250 Squadron encountered a formation of 40 ju-87s escorted by German and Italian Fighters 14 stickers were shot down with Clive Cardwell himself claiming no fewer than five and the escorting Fighters only shot down five tomahawks giving 250 Squadron a victory ratio of three to one combats continued throughout the month but time was running out for the tomahawks their numbers dwindled with
each combat loss and the surviving aircraft were logging combat Towers at an alarming rate what is more operations in desert conditions caused considerable wear on the engines at times less than half of the tomahawk force was combat ready as the rest were grounded for various mechanical reasons usually involving heat and or sand their numbers could not be replenished the last Tomahawk had been delivered in August after which production has ceased but this was not the end of the p40s involvement in Africa or indeed with
Commonwealth Forces in general the tomahawks production was only terminated because Curtis had begun producing a newer more powerful version of the P40 one that would become known by many as the Kitty Hawk but we’re not quite ready to discuss that yet the tomahawks active violent but successful service life with Commonwealth forces contrasted sharply with the experiences of those operated by the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor the Warhawk as it was known in the United States had enjoyed a relaxed service
life as the US was not yet at War Curtis had prioritized deliveries to the British and as a result not a huge number of early warhawks had entered U.S service there were the 200 of the original P-40 order which had since been upgraded with better protection and fuel tanks then there were the 131 p40bs and then 193 of the p-40cs not considering training accidents and the like this meant the U.
S had just over 500 warhawks on strength by the end of 1941. some were stationed on the continental United States for Coastal Patrol but the majority went to various spaces in Hawaii the Caribbean Panama and the Philippines Hawaii was considered an especially cushy deployment with short work days comfortable accommodation and plenty of fun to be had when off duty Pilots were trained in their tomahawks but it was the kind of off-hand training conducted by a country that wasn’t expecting to go to war for some time if at all and certainly not by the end of
1941 while the tomahawks were flying combat duties over the Sands of Libya the closest thing the warhawks had to active service were a series of passive missions the first deployments of USB 40s outside routine Patrol work was in August p-40s of the 33rd Pursuit Squadron were deployed to Iceland via the carrier USS Wasp their mission was to enforce the neutrality of Iceland by denying its use to the warring Powers thus showing the public back at home that America was maintaining its policy of isil relation of course they were in
fact denying its use to the Axis powers only and allowing the Allies for use but that was kept under wraps for as long as possible and despite being the most advanced fighter in the US inventory the first six months of the p40s at wartime service with America was nothing short of disastrous something that greatly soured its reputation in the eyes of both the public and the service members who had yet to appreciate its qualities the p40s poor service record was not due to some inherent design defect that made
it unsuitable for the Pacific but it was rather due to a combination of Japanese aggressiveness poor pilot training and nipped Military leadership and one unhealthy dose of bad luck the combat debut of the Warhawk if you could call such a disaster as such was of course the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor despite having a Defense Force of 231 Fighters 115 of which were p-40s or late model p-36s only a handful survived to get off the ground of these five were p40s flown by pilots from the 44th and 47th Pursuit squadrons none of these
were based at Wheeler Field and were thus spared the first wave of the attack but despite the warning signs that war was coming The Defenders of Pearl Harbor were so caught unawares that some of their p-40s took off without ammunition loaded in their guns nevertheless by day’s end the P40 had claimed its first six kills at the hands of American Pilots for the loss of just two the pilots credited were second lieutenants John Danes Kenneth Taylor and George Welch Taylor and Welch tend to get most of the fame with Danes being unfairly
left out this might have been because he had the least combat time of the three that day but it was more likely because he was shot down and killed by a friendly anti-aircraft battery and this of course would spoil the romantic story of the Valiant Defenders of Pearl Harbor Defenders who were placed against insurmountable odds mostly As a result of complacent leadership following shortly after Pearl Harbor the p-40s stationed in the Philippines fared even worse on paper the defending Air Force was considerable the 24th Pursuit group had
approximately 227 Fighters including 100 p-40s and many of these were the newer p40es which we will come to later but in practice it was another matter entirely many of the pilots were fresh out of flight school and those that had flight experience had mostly practiced the basics and did not have a firm grasp of combat tactics many of them were unfamiliar with the p40s and the newer p40es were still presenting teething problems additionally much of the 24th Pursuit group was still flying the obsolete P36 some of which had been in service for
over two years and were thoroughly worn out in direct contrast to this was the overwhelming Japanese aerial assault Force the combined strength of Army and Navy air units totaled some 541 aircraft and this included at least 100 of the formidable A6 M2 zeros unlike their opponents many of the men who flew these aircraft were already veterans from combat over China and they had been brought to a high state of training despite ample warnings of impending attack the air units in the Philippines were orbit wiped out on December the 8th
unlike Pearl Harbor this was not a complete result of poor planning by The Defenders but rather the intervention of poor luck and poor weather that morning heavy fog had delayed the takeoff of the Japanese strike forces by several hours the US air units were unaware of this they took off as planned performed their patrols encountered no Japanese aircraft to their surprise exhausted their fuel supplies and returned to base just in time to be caught on the ground by the delayed Japanese assault this Factor was of course unknown to the
general American public and the decimation of the p-40s at both Pearl Harbor and the Philippines left a permanent scar on the aircraft’s reputation but this unhappy start was quickly offset by the exploits of another American unit flying p40s this was the first American volunteer group who began flying alongside Pilots of the Chinese Air Force in late 1941.
but by the spring of 1942 the newspapers had given them a new name the Flying Tigers contrary to some popular opinions the Flying Tigers did not see combat before America’s entry into the war the latter half of 1941 saw them going through a period of intense training as they got to know their aircraft these were 100 Tomahawk Mark II bees that had been diverted from their original British delivery to be shipped to Burma based in Southwest China the AVG commenced operations on the 10th of December the third Pursuit Squadron was sent south to
take part in the defense of Rangoon meanwhile the first and second Pursuit squadrons were stationed further north to defend Khan Ming one of the key points along the Burma Road Japanese Fighters presented A new challenge for the P-40 and a decidedly different set of tactics were employed compared to those used in Africa its main opponents the key 27 and the more advanced keyboard E3 were far more maneuverable at lower speeds so the p40s now employed the same boom and zoom tactics that they themselves had defended against when
fighting the bf-109s over Libya the Flying Tigers got their nickname for two things the painted shark knows that adorned almost all their Fighters and the extreme aggressiveness in which they engage their opponents so long as they didn’t get dragged into a protracted dogfight they frequently came out as the victors in most engagements the Japanese Fighters were slower in a straight line and their light airframes lacked the endurance for high-speed Dives be it for attack or defense and they were of course far more susceptible to damage
compared to the sturdy P40 during the seven months of operations from the 10th of December 1941 to the 15th of July 1942 the Flying Tigers claimed the destruction of 297 enemy aircraft 229 of these were destroyed in air-to-air combat for the reported loss of just four p40s that was the official US record though nowadays multiple researchers believe this number to be considerably inflated but although the true figures may never be known the AVG did dominate the skies above Burma which was a stark contrast to the disastrous
situation on the ground July did not Mark The End Of The Flying Tigers the AVG was reorganized to form the nucleus of the 23rd Fighter Group and they would continue to establish and maintain air superiority throughout the region for the rest of the war but by this point they were using the p40e a thoroughly different Beast and the time of the original P-40 Warhawk had long passed these original p40s which were based on the Curtis model 81 spent most of their time fighting for the British and Commonwealth forces by the time they saw
action in the hands of American Pilots they were old and outclassed in many respects and indeed they were technically obsolete airframes they had been a product of necessity as much of their airframe was based on the old p-36 they could be designed and built at a faster rate and at a cheaper price than the other aircraft that were being proposed to the Army Air corps in 1939 this became a matter of great importance as Europe went to war and the export orders started flooding in but it also meant that the P40 inherited some
weaknesses but by the middle of 1940 long before the first tomahawks flew over Africa Curtis was already hard at work on correcting the biggest weakness that held the P-40 back its underpowered engine though this problem was never fully solved it did result in the development of a newer version of the P40 under a new model designation as the hawk 87.
from late to 1941 these would begin to appear in greater and greater numbers forming the bulk of the p40s total production run like the first generation p40s these would serve in most major theaters of the second world war and it is because of this that I am splitting this video into two parts not only does it keep things simple but it gives me a chance to give my poor voice some time to recover as I’m still dealing with all of the fun that is long covid you will notice that I have omitted the p40s that were operated in this Soviet Union the vast majority of
these were later models with only about 10 being the p40cs or p40bs because of this I will combine the summary of their operations in the second part of the video to keep things from getting complicated so don’t panic I have not forgotten them I am hoping to release these as back-to-back videos but depending on how long the editing takes and how my lungs feel there may be a video in between them either way part 2 is coming out soon and there won’t be the sort of long delay that we had with the Wellington video once again thank
you to War Thunder for sponsoring today’s video don’t forget to click on the link below to sign up for free and claim your free premium benefits and thank you all so so much for watching a big thank you as always goes out to the wonderful people over on patreon with a special shout out to the wing commanders the Channel’s top tier supporters hopefully I haven’t missed anyone who may have signed up this week but I’ll be sure to get the list updated for part two thank you all so much and I’ll catch you all next time goodbye
