Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

World War Stories - World War 2 Fighter planes fought in every sky of  Europe and Pacific and the Curtiss P-40 witnessed the war with great pride. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entry into production and operational service.

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American P-40s first saw action at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Of the 99 P-40Bs stationed in Hawaii that day, only seven managed to get airborne during the attack. They shot down five Japanese planes, including four -- two Nakajima B5N2 torpedo bombers, a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter and an Aichi D3A1 dive bomber -- by 2nd Lt. George S. Welch of the 47th Squadron, 15th Pursuit Group. By the end of the day, however, only 25 P-40s remained operational. Three had been shot down, and the rest were destroyed on the ground.

In the Philippines, as in Hawaii, attrition was high -- 26 P-40s were destroyed on December 8, 1941, mostly because they were caught on the ground. Although initially shocked by the startling performance of the Zero fighters that faced them, the four squadrons of P-40s put up a gallant struggle against the Japanese invaders.
The first USAAC ace of World War II was 1st Lt. Boyd D. Wagner, a P-40E pilot of the 17th Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group, in the Philippines. During a surprise attack on the Japanese army's 50th Sentai, newly arrived at Aparri airfield on December 12, Wagner was attacked by four Nakajima Ki.27 fighters. He evaded two, then suddenly cut his throttle to make the other two overshoot him and shot down both. After strafing five to seven Japanese planes on the ground, Wagner was attacked by three more Ki.27s but managed to shoot down two of them and then escaped. He was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, as was 1st Lt. Russell M. Church, Jr., who was shot down in flames and killed by anti-aircraft fire in the course of the raid. Wagner repeated his performance at Vigan field on December 16, hitting eight enemy planes on the ground and shooting down a Ki.27 that managed to take off, for his fifth victory in as many days. By then, however, there were too few of the Curtiss fighters available to do more than delay the inevitable. Lacking spare parts and replacement aircraft, the Americans were overwhelmed by May 1942.

Thomas L. Hayes, who flew P-40Es with the 35th Pursuit Group, was originally supposed to go to Mindanao, but when his squadron was unable to reach the Philippines it was diverted to Java in mid-January 1942. "The water-cooled Allison...moved the center of gravity forward," Hayes recalled. "The P-40 was much heavier than the P-36, and visibility was somewhat restricted with that extended nose. The P-40 also had more difficult landing characteristics than the P-36 -- its greater weight, combined with the narrow landing gear and long nose, gave it a greater tendency to ground loop."
"The most serious deficiency in my training was gunnery," he added. "The only time I had squeezed the trigger was strafing an oil slick dropped in the Pacific. Tactics were a close second. We were indebted to our veterans, who told us, 'You're not going to turn and fight with a Zero -- you won't live to tell about it.' Tactics were hit and run -- if one had the altitude on a Zero, one could dive and get him. But engagements usually began with the Japanese above the P-40s -- they threw the first punch."

The P-40 initially proved quite effective against Axis aircraft and contributed to a slight shift of momentum in the Allied favor. The gradual replacement of Hurricanes by the Tomahawks and Kittyhawks led to the Luftwaffe accelerating retirement of the Bf 109E and introducing the newer Bf 109F; these were to be flown by the veteran pilots of elite Luftwaffe units, such as Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG27), in North Africa.
The P-40 was generally considered roughly equal or slightly superior to the Bf 109 at low altitude, but inferior at high altitude, particularly against the Bf 109F. Most air combat in North Africa took place well below 16,000 ft (4,900 m), thus negating much of the Bf 109's superiority. The P-40 usually had an edge over Bf 109 in horizontal maneuverability, dive speed and structural strength, was roughly equal in firepower, but was slightly inferior in speed and outclassed in rate of climb and operational ceiling.
The P-40 was generally superior to early Italian fighter types, such as the Fiat G.50 and the Macchi C.200. Its performance against the Macchi C.202 Folgore elicited varying opinions. Some observers consider the Macchi C.202 superior.^[29] Clive Caldwell, who scored victories against them in his P-40, felt that the Folgore would have been superior to both the P-40 and the Bf 109 except that its armament of only two or four machine guns was inadequate