Strana 64
#11187BOXART STORY
Limited edition kit boxarts do not usually
convey a specific story or situation. They are
meant to evoke a certain atmosphere and
visually prepare the modeler for what awaits
them in the box. This is especially true regarding
Dual Combo kits, where the selection of markings
is very diverse and colourful, and the aircraft
depicted on the box may be related to war zones
that are quite distant from each other.
This is the case with the Dual Combo Kittyhawk,
where an RAF Kittyhawk from the African
battlefield and an RAAF aircraft from the South
Pacific fly together over the desert.
Nevertheless, both aircraft have a lot in
common, the elegant and combative expression
characteristic of all P-40s being not the least.
The British used Tomahawks (P-40B/C) and
Kittyhawks (P-40D
-
N) in Africa with great
success. These aircraft played an important
role as workhorses in the North African desert
campaign. In addition to the RAF, they were flown
by Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans,
and Canadians (who did not have their own RCAF
squadrons in Africa and were assigned to RAF
squadrons).
These aircraft were not the fastest or the best
at higher altitudes, but their sturdy construction,
which could withstand considerable damage
in combat, and their ability to perform ground
attack missions made them indispensable to the
Allies in North Africa.
Probably the most notable unit using
Kittyhawks in Africa and the Mediterranean
in general was the RAF 112 Squadron. It was
famous not only for its great combat successes
(by the end of the war, its pilots had claimed
206 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air and
62 on the ground), but also for the distinctive
shark mouth painted on the radiators at the
bottom of the nose of their aircraft. This feature
was adopted from the American Flying Tigers
(1st American Volunteer Group), which operated
in the Sino-Japanese War in 1941–42. Both
instances of the "sharkmouth" created a kind of
trademark, a visual image inextricably linked to
the P-40 aircraft.
The first of the two aircraft in the picture,
Kittyhawk ET789, belonged to the aforementioned
No. 112 Squadron RAF and was flown in 1942
by Australian pilot Sgt. Wallace Daniel Hogg.
Among other things, he took part in a major
battle with German Ju 87s in April 1942, during
which his Kittyhawk was seriously damaged.
Sgt. Hogg nevertheless managed to get home
and continued to fight for the following months,
until October 21, 1942, when he was shot down
and captured. He spent the rest of the war in the
Stalag Luft 3 POW camp in Sagan.
The pilot of the second Kittyhawk from
the box art was also Australian. Unlike
Hogg, he served in a purely Australian unit
(No. 75 Squadron RAAF) and also much closer to
home. The squadron's heyday came in the spring
of 1942, when it served on Noemfoor Island in the
South Pacific, where it primarily defended the
port of Port Moresby. During just over six weeks
of fighting, the squadron shot down 35 enemy
aircraft and damaged nearly 60. However, it also
suffered considerable losses. It lost 12 pilots and
22 aircraft in combat and accidents. Most of its
Kittyhawks were lost or seriously damaged by the
end of this period. On May 3, 1942, the squadron
was withdrawn from combat and returned to the
Australian mainland. After being re-equipped
with aircraft and new pilots, it was deployed to
Milne Bay, not far from its previous battlefield.
The squadron then operated from various bases
in Papua New Guinea until December 1944.
The story of the second aircraft shown here
falls within this period, specifically August 1944.
The Kittyhawk with RAAF designation A29-521
was piloted by F/O T. R. Jacklin of the RAAF's
No. 75 Squadron. On August 9, 1944, Jacklin’s
aircraft suffered serious damage in combat, with
more than a quarter of the left wing destroyed.
The left aileron was completely missing. Despite
an aircraft so badly damaged, F/O Jacklin
managed to fly more than 200 miles to Noemfoor
Island and land at his base.
In two very different combat areas, the
desert environment of North Africa and
the extremely humid climate of the South
Pacific, the Kittyhawks suffered considerably,
yet without losing their combat value. The
demanding climatic conditions affected not only
the airframe, instruments, weapons, and power
units, but also the surface. Camouflage paint in
these areas faded and chipped significantly. This
makes these planes even more interesting for
modelers today. This interest is also enhanced by
the numerous paintings, emblems and nose art
that usually adorned the Kittyhawks and P-40
aircraft in general.
Text: Jan Zdiarský
Illustration: Gareth Hector
Kittyhawks of Two Continents
INFO Eduard64
December 2025