Strana 10
per hour faster than the previous model, at
350 mph. Because the new engine retained
a single-stage supercharger, the P-40D’s
service ceiling and peak performance altitude
of 15,000 feet were virtually unchanged from
the P-40C.
The U.S. Army placed an order with Curtiss
for 23 P-40Ds in 1940 and took delivery
of the new planes in mid-July 1941. Great
Britain, meanwhile, took over a French order
with modifications to RAF specifications.
Designated Kittyhawk Is, these aircraft began
rolling of the assembly lines in August 1941.
The first 20 were four-gun equivalents of the
P-40D, but the rest of the Kittyhawk Is in the
560-plane order mounted six guns, like the U.S.
Army’s 820 P-40Es that were built alongside.
Deliveries of both continued through the end
of the year, by which time the United States
had entered the war. A very similar version,
the P-40E-1/Kittyhawk IA, had beefed up wing
structure to allow it to carry more external
stores. Curtiss built 1,500 of these and about
one-third of them went to the Allies under
Lend Lease.
Operational History
Curtiss produced its first Hawk 87s,
22 P-40Ds, for the U.S. Army in July 1941.
Deliveries of 820 P-40Es, which was
essentially the same airplane as P-40D but
with the armament increased from four wing
guns to six, began the following month and
continued into May 1942.
Virtually every model of the Hawk
87 followed the P-40D into training duties
around the United States. Initially, they were
assigned to first-line combat squadrons
preparing for overseas service while providing
air defense for areas such as coastal cities
deemed vulnerable to attack from the sea
and industrial centers in the Midwest. As the
war progressed and tour-expired combat
veterans became available in mid-1943 to
provide operational training to new pilots just
out of flight school, P-40Es did yeoman duty in
replacement training units.
The P-40E made its combat debut in the
skies over Luzon in the Philippine Islands on
Dec. 8, 1941 (Pacific Time), the day that the
United States entered World War II. Through
no fault of the pilots or the P-40Es of the
24th Pursuit Group, the performance was
anything but impressive.
Word of the Pearl Harbor attack was
radioed to the headquarters of Gen. Douglas
MacArthur in Manila shortly after Japanese
bombs stopped falling on Battleship Row
in Hawaii. It was 3:55 a.m. December 8 local
time in the Philippine Islands, and within
hours a Japanese triumph even greater than
the destruction of the American fleet at Pearl
Harbor would begin to unfold.
On paper, the fighter strength deployed
by the Far East Air Force’s 5th Interceptor
Command on Luzon in early December
1941 looked substantial. Of approximately
100 P-40s in four squadrons, 75 percent
were new E-models, while the 20th Pursuit
Squadron flew P-40Bs and the 34th Pursuit
Squadron had even more outdated Seversky
P-35As. These squadrons made up the 24th
Pursuit Group, but the unit was far from ready
for war. The obsolete P-35As had been in
service for nearly two years and were worn
out. The P-40Bs at Clark Field, delivered in
the summer of 1941, were in good condition,
but their guns had never been fired due to
a shortage of ammunition on Luzon for target
practice. The P-40Es were brand new and
subject to several teething problems, including
engine fires.
Just as important, many of the pilots were
fresh out of flying school and unfamiliar with
their P-40s. Meanwhile, 300 miles north of
Manila on the island of Formosa, Japan had
amassed a force of nearly 200 A6M Zero
naval fighters, 200 navy bombers and about
150 army aircraft. Many of the men who flew
these planes were veterans of combat in China.
Tensions had been building in the Far East for
several weeks prior to word of the Pearl Harbor
attack. Still, despite ample warning of attack,
U.S. Army air units in the Philippines were all
but wiped out on December 8. A handful of
P-40 pilots managed to engage enemy aircraft
during the day, and each of them got a nasty
shock when they experienced the climbing
and turning performance of the heretofore
unknown A6M Zero fighters firsthand. Nine
victories were credited to five pilots (plus
one in a P-35A), but several P-40s were shot
down and nearly all suffered battle damage at
the hands of the Zero pilots. Most American
aircraft were destroyed on the ground.
Capt. Bill Hennon, a veteran of the Java campaign, flew P-40E No. 36 with the 7th FS/49th FG during the defense
of Darwin and northern Australia during 1942. (photo: NARA)
After scoring two aerial victories in the defense of the Philippines and three more over Java, Capt. George “King”
Kiser destroyed four more Japanese aircraft at Darwin, Australia, with the 8th FS/49th FG. All of his victories
were scored in P-40Es.(photo: NARA)
HISTORY
INFO Eduard10
February 2025