Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S: playwt.link/RexsHangar Follow the link to download the game to get a premium tank, aircraft AND ship, along with a seven day account boost just for downloading. F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible. Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
Hopping you get much better my friend truly.....In this video thanks for setting the Flying Tigers record straight in the correct time period......Your friend Old Shoe🇺🇸
Not sure if you've heard but there's a horse paste that takes Schlong Covid away. It might even work on monkey pox yet with sads happening so quickly in that group more testing is needed. I've read vitamin d c zinc are quite helpful. However if you've taken the Fauci Ouchies not sure if anything will help. For what's it's worth we'll still watch your channel even if sads hits you. God Bless
"New pilots coming to our fighter group were invariably cocky to the point they were dangerous to themselves. They thought the Luftwaffe was finished and that the P-51 could quickly and easily kill anything else that flew. To modify the attitude of the newcomers, we used a war weary P-40 which our squadron somehow acquired. I was in charge of putting new pilots through a quick, intensive training program, and the final flight included a mock dogfight with the new pilot of a P-51 pitted against one of us flying a P-40. I can tell you that until a pilot knows the strengths and weaknesses of both airplanes, the P-40 can make the P-51 look outclassed. Using all of the P-40s strengths, an innovative pilot could out fly a P-51 at low altitudes until the P-51 jockey finally realized that there was something more to fighting in the air than *simply having the best airplane*. At that point the new pilot would become ready to listen to everything we had to say." Barrie Davis, P-51 pilot, 325th Fighter Group
I'll bet!! Always comes down to who's in the seat thing. Very much proven in the Pacific as well !! Imagine the p40 with the Merlin at its zenith could very well have easily matched the mustang envelope possibly?
Appreciate your comment and your service. My father was a bit too old to get into fighters, so he volunteered to fly the "Burma Hump". When the recruiting office discovered he was already an instructor, they busted him a rank and sent him back home. He was a secondary acrobatics instructor flying Ryans and Wacos. His was the last "dual" instruction the cadets received before they climbed into P51s and P38s (if they were fighter pilots) or B17s and B25s (if they were slated for bombers). Many, many stories...
It seems so strange that the Kittyhawk is so forgotten when she did so much sterling service from North Africa to China, From the Philippines to getting some of the first USAAF victories over Pearl Harbor. Guess it's just like the Hurricane with forgotten early war planes?
I think your statement is very wrong the P-40 is not forgotten its very well known most of that because of the Flying Tigers of course but it's certainly not forgotten. I'm not sure what brought you to this opinion most likely its UA-cam videos
@@mikepette4422 Outside of the flying tigers her other service has been largely forgotten. Sure the memory of them at Pearl Harbor remains but people don't think of them outside of there
The RAAF certainly would have felt naked without them ! My stepmom was an WRAAF amourer ! There was a picture of her in the main Australian magazine! From 43’ ? Loading the 50 cal belts into P40 Warhawk Page was tucked into her copy of they speed the eagles ua-cam.com/video/NxcC4kqXacw/v-deo.html The above mentioned. THEY SPEED THE EAGLES
As a Chinese American son of a World War II veteran, the P40 holds a special place in my heart. I even had an all-metal toy model as a boy. Thanks for making this, and I hope you recover fully from your covid.
You might also look up Chinese American pilots like who served in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force prior to the AVG: John “Buffalo” Wong of Los Angeles, CA who was the first ace on the Gloster Gladiator I, losing his life later to a Zero. Art Chin of Portland, OR is credited with 7 air kills. His hands were burnt leaving his flaming aircraft during a battle over Hong Kong which stopped him from flying fighters. Still able to fly transports so he flew the Hump for the remainder of the war. Reportedly ahe and his commander Chennault were friends. On returning home he became a mailman with a post office named after him.
@@ohger1 It all depends on the policies of the CPC. If it suits them politically, they'll paint the AVG as heroes from friendly America. If foreign policy is at odds between the two countries, then there will be little to no mention of them. Only recently have the CPC admit that Chiang's KMT had a hand in defending China in WWII, when in fact they did the bulk of the fighting against the Japanese. This admission coincides with both the CPC and the KMT agreeing on the issue of Taiwan being part of China proper. They see the KMT as allies against the more-separatist leaning DDP currently in power. Before this, Chiang and his party were greatly vilified.
The P-40 was the first plane I became enamored with, all thanks to a G.I. Joe toy. It may have its deficiencies but to me it will always be the most badass looking fighter of the war.
@@TheBeef2487 The flying tigers made that plane something more special than anything else. Since it was one of the first planes I ever saw with teeth, it was one of my first loves.
I've enjoyed the retrospective of the P-40 line since the mid '70s when I built and flew a Top Flite radio control version for about 10 years. Lots of studying but the history keeps getting more intact with videos like this and glad to see it.
10:54 'the pilot and the engine were once again within the same postcode' 😂 brilliant! This is a thing I always appreciate in your style: this talented way with words and discreet sense of irony.
My uncle reg was a ground mechanic or engineer with 3 squadron in North Africa. I believe pilots from other base's got to hear of his tuning abilities and would make excuses to land at the airfield he was working on. My grandmother kept on asking what he needed while there. He replied more often than not, Hankerchiefs which he would use whilst working on fuel supply equipment. CARBYS FILTERS ECT To the time he died he never much liked the beach as he reckoned he had seen enough sand to last several lifetime's. Footnote towards the end of WWII he actually was on Lancaster's as a flight engineer. Always had 2 scotches after 3 and said to me the secret to living a long life was sex and chocolate cake. He died at 93. Aussie Jeff Moore
My great uncle was a mechanic in 450 SQN RAAF, also serving in Nth Africa & other places.. He had 3 or 4 small notebooks that he kept secretly as diaries (diaries were strictly forbidden in case of capture), & before he passed my dad typed them up & in one volume & passed a copy to 3 SQN RAAF (I think) .
The P-40F Warhawk is my second favorite plane EVER and IMO has been severely overshadowed during its tenure by both the Mustang and the Spitfire (the C-130 Hercules in all is various iterations will forever and always be #1, and anyone who says otherwise can fight me.) and my husband is laughing at me for literally squeeing with excitement over this video. Super looking forward to part 2!
C-130 is a beast but the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier has to be number 1. It can up like a chopper, fly like a jet and fight like Rambo on cocaine. Like the C-130 it can go there, do the thing, come back, get the t-shirt then blow the t-shirt to kingdom come but, the Harrier goes up up, not that boring forward and kind of up. Then it uses that ability in combat to kill the speed and let the enemy fly past, like a bloody cartoon, so it can blow that enemy out of the sky.
My grandfather trained on a p-40 with the british in Africa, I used to keep the photograph we have of him flying on above my bed as a kid. There was an inscription on the back that said "Flying my Kittyhawk, Rhodesia, 1944"
May I be the first to say I don't think the P40 was so much underrated as overshadowed by the "sexier" stuff like the Spitfire, Me109, FW190, P38 & P51. The P40 did a damn' fine job in every theatre where it operated.
Yeah, I don’t know where people get the idea that the P40 is a forgotten or underrated plane. Granted, it’s always been in my top 5 favorite planes, so I might be in a bubble of my own making. Given that I’ve seen plenty of them make it into movies as the “hero” plane, and that everyone knows the Flying Tiger, I think it gets plenty of love, it just wasn’t ever hyped up to the level of the P51, spitfire, or bf109
The Mediterranean war wasn't as well publicized as the Pacific or ETO because of all the screw ups. It had nothing to do with "sexy" but with rather with young lads being KIA and US generals' reputaion being protected (Battle of Kasserine Pass, Anzio, P-38s being wiped out in Algeria, Raid on Ploesti, etc). On the Brit side however, Monty was a johnny come lately and enjoyed all their successes, so he and the Kittyhawks were well known in Britain. 112 Sqn in particular received attention for their shark mouth scheme, which the AVG copied after seeing it in a magazine. Media controls the public... always has. As for performance, the P-40 was mediocre but did well because allied bombers only flew at 12,000' in the desert and the LW was outnumbered and undersupplied. In Milne Bay, the Japanese carriers had already been decimated in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. It would have been different otherwise for the old Kittyhawks.
My late uncle who only passed away 3 years ago flew them in North Africa together with Hurricanes for the SAAF , he later flew P51's with 5 Squadron SAAF in Italy ....RIP an absolute legend , Windsor Jacobs 🙏
As a kid, from the 70s to the early 80s, this plane was what came to mind when I thought of a WW2 fighter. It just LOOKED so mean, amd fast! Also, when I thought of a jet fighter, the 1st thing I thought of was the F4 Phantom. In the mid 80s, I got a book on military aircraft, and it introduced me to a wide variety of fighter, bomber, and observation planes from around the world. I know they weren't the absolute best performing planes, but at the same time, my favorite generation of the Corvette is the 70s to early 80s Stingrays. They look fast sitting in a parking lot!
When I was about, oh, perhaps eight years old, my family drove down to Washington DC to visit my father's WWII wartime buddy. We visited the Smithsonian, and in a moment where I was left alone in the gift shop I bought a copy of the book "God Is My Copilot" by Robert L. Scott, with a picture of a P-40 (with shark's mouth) on the cover. I loved that book, and I have had a love of the P-40 ever since, this was somewhere in the early 1960's. The Flying Tigers were my heroes, Claire Chennault was my hero, and I have never lost that love.
The Flying Tiggers proved that the Pilot is more important than the performance of plane. The P40 was a good plane, just not the best at the beginning of WW2. The biggest advantage of P40 is that we had them at the beginning of WW2 and could produce them in vast numbers.
@@saltyroe3179 Like people, every plane had it's strengths and weaknesses, and they should be used so as to take advantage of the strengths and guard the weaknesses. This is what the Flying Tigers did. The P40 was not capable if dogfighting a Zero, so don't play the Zero's game. Use the ability to dive (which was not a strength of the Zero) and the superior firepower and pray that the armor protects you.
It is so good to hear you air some of Clive Caldwell's exploits and victories. I've read a lot about him but few Aussies have ever heard of him. He was an ace about six times over. The "Unsung Hero". Thank you for your recognition of the great WWII pilot who has been forgotten.
@@306champion We,in Poland,also recognize "Killer" Caldwell,as a few Polish ferry pilots had a chance to fight under his command. Great fighter pilot and true friend in need.
@@piotrweydmann3345 That means a lot to me mate, it really does. Clive seems to be forgotten over here. Politics and a pissed off Air Marshall put an end to his recognition and career. Thank you for your reply.
@@306champion Correct, Clive was persecuted over the booze fiasco, simply because he implicated the brass who were also selling booze illegally. Caldwell was Australia's best leader and pilot !! The name "killer" is also misunderstood and misused.
Very nice video on the Curtiss P-40 fighter plane and its variants. My father flew the Curtiss P-40E Warhawk for the USAAF when he was stationed at Randolph Field in Texas for fighter pilot training in 1943. He really enjoyed flying the P-40E Warhawk. He said it was the best single engine figher plane he had flown during the war. He also mentioned that it was an honest fighter pilots plane when it was in capable hands. When they made him fly the Bell P-39 Aerocobra, this plane did him in as a fighter pilot. My father had very broad shoulders and he didn't fit inside the P-39's narrow cockpit too well. After only two flights in the Aerocobra, he ended up with badly bruised shoulders and was admitted to the Army hospital. The Army weighed him and discovered he was too overweight to become a fighter pilot. In fact, he had to get a waiver signed by General Hap Arnold himself to maintain his flight status. Fortunately, General Arnold signed off on his waiver and he later became a bomber pilot instead.
My dad flew these in the 7th squadron of the 49th fighter group in the SWPAC. He had some amazing stories to tell. One was when he was on a fighter sweep near Nadzab when he came upon a Japanese Corvette. There was a sailor running for the forward deck gun when dad opened up with the 6 50 cals. He made a second pass and saw that the whole bow of the ship, gun and sailor were gone. The ship sank in 10 minutes.
@@jacktattis Where do you get 1.2 inches of steel? My 400 ft destroyer had 5/8 inch hull plating. Corvettes were less than 200 ft. and no armor. And SMALL 1/2 inch holes? I don't think you've ever seen them when they hit a target. In the battle of Leyte Gulf, dad sank a large tanker with two passes in a P-38. The ship was loaded with soldiers holding palms to camouflage the ship. Again, went down very quickly with all hands.
@@thestarprophecy3738 1/2 inch not 1.2 inches And my friend with numerous trips to the Holsworthy and Pucka firing ranges I know exactly how large a 50 calibre round makes in steel . In fact in the four years with an Australian Cav Regt I became an excellent shot with our Fitters 50 cal With two Passes with 50s and one cannon again I doubt the veracity of the report.
It held the line a lot longer than that. The advanced models of planes everyone likes as the “best fighters” didnt exist in great numbers until 1944, when the war was almost over.
Hey I love the P-40. Especially the tomahawk which I believe tends to be the B and C variant. It’s a very pretty plane, made famous by the flying tigers and the deserts of Africa
I love the P-40 and agree absolutely that it's underrated. It did exactly what it was designed to do, slug it out as a fighter bomber and engage whatever aircraft it encountered in all theaters. It's predecessor, the P-36 is also underrated. Its part in the Battle of France is always forgotten because the French lost. What nobody talks about is the quite significant toll that French Hawk 75 squadrons exacted on the Luftwaffe.
It was slow in the climb, a handful in the dive and high pilot workload during air combat. Successful in the desert when available in large numbers and the LW few in numbers with supply lines were cut. On equal terms with the LW, it was outclassed but allied bombers flew at 12,000' which forced the LW to come down off their perch.
All this general performance stuff doesn't mean anyone knows anything. If you want to know how the P-40 performed in reality, you need to read. The RAF used it well in the battles for North Africa but the P-40 was the aircraft that RAAF 75 Sqn used to defend Australia from the Japanese in the Defence of Port Moresby in early 1942. There was also the Battle of Milne Bay a couple of months later. The P-40 was as important to Australia and the Hurricane and Spitfire were to Britain.
Honestly context is so important. If you look at the combat performace of the early war equipment it is actually very decent. I was a little surprised to read in Samuel Eliot Morison how well the F4F performed in the Soloman's Campaign.
Rex’s Hangar. I thoroughly enjoyed this good review of the P-40. Being a few months North of 70 years the fierce,leering shark’s mouth of the 1st AVG “Flying Tigers” caught my young imagination and fueled to this day the undying love affair with WWII military aviation. Being as well a follower of the history of that period the size and scope of the allied war effort was immense. Thank God for those brave lads who held the line during the defense of Britain in those dark days of the “blitz”. Again I enjoyed this exhaustive review and look forward to more. With my thanks from Florida and wishes for a good day.
Correct to focus on the brave pilots, not the machine. There are so many factors involved in a pilot's survival or success and the aircraft is only a small part of that.
No matter what you do it can't be any cooler than taxiing your P-40 with the canopy rolled back having Tex Hill, Pappy Boyington, along with many other volunteers getting ready to take to the skies against the juggernaut that was the Japanese in China at that time. Their story and the P-40 are joined at the wings.
In seven months in combat, having never faced a situation where they weren’t wildly outnumbered, the AVG racked up an utterly insane 297-14 kill ratio (with 8 more pilots killed on the ground or in training) flying (almost exclusively) obsolete aircraft mostly matching the P-40B specification. Playing to its strengths, the P-40 was utterly lethal, and one of the most elegant-looking fighters of the era.
I think I read that in early days the Japanese bombers flew without escorts, as the Chinese couldn't catch them. Thus the early heavy kill numbers. But this was from a very old ( early ) book, and info may have changed .
@@lamwen03 that was true very early in the AVG’s combat tour, but they tore through insane numbers of Ki-21 and Ki-23 fighters, and a handful of Zeros as well. If there was any way to calculate badly damaged planes in addition to kills, their numbers would be even further into the realm of “no one would believe this movie script - based on Japanese records analyzed by some historians, the AVG’s kill total may be fairly low compared to reality: as an example that I’ve read about in several places, in one incident they intercepted and turned back a flight of 10-15 bombers. They were credited with (I think) 5 direct kills, and damaged all of the planes to some degree, but a later review of the records from the Japanese airbase indicated that the survivors were either known to have crashed from damage or simply disappeared on the way home, with only one bomber landing - and I think that one was badly damaged enough that it was scrapped.
@@lamwen03 the AVG chewed up Japanese fighters, too. Claire Chennault studied the Soviet tactics from Khalkhin Gol, and tweaked them to wring every bit of advantage he could out of the P-40 airframe.
"...and a handful of Zeros" - The AVG never came within 500 miles of an A6M Zero. The A6M was a IJN fighter and the Flying Tigers combat was only against the IJA who flew the Ki-43 Hayabusa and maybe some A5Ms. To their detriment, the IJN and IJA did not get along or work together well at all and the idea of sharing an airframe was unacceptable. The AVG pilots may have called them Zeros, but they were Oscars.
A story from WWII - A pilot walks into a bar, sees another fellow sitting there, well along in his drinking. Getting his drink he notices that the first man also has pilots wings. So to start up a conversation he asks what type of aircraft he flew. The fellow looks at him bleary eyed and says, "A P-400", to which the first replies, "Go On, There's no such aircraft!" To which the second says, "There sure is! It's a P-40 with a Zero on it's tail, which is how I spent the war!!"
Great video. It's nice to see someone finely giving the P-40 some well deserved and overdue love. Much like the P-39, the P-40 never seams to get the credit it deserves, which in my mind detracts from the stories of the brave men who flew these planes and the men who worked so hard to keep them air worthy.
A friend of mine flew the P 40 with the RNZAF in the Pacific , his name was "Mack" Calder. After the P 40 he transitioned to the Corsair , of the Corsair he said , " the best defence was to unstrap your harness and run around the cockpit" , funny I thought.
The P-40 has always been my favorite early WWII fighter plane. In ally hands, it was the best we had when the war started. Just like every other aircraft, it was a good plane when used within its strength .
@Rex Hangar, Just one clarification: the other air combat squadrons in the Philippines not flying P-40s were not flying older P-36 Hawks, but were instead flying the much less-capable Seversky P-35As from a shipment of 60 that was impounded by the U.S. government from an order placed by the Swedish government. The P-35A was a slightly improved version of the P-35 used by the U.S. Army Air Corps, which had a slightly more powerful 1,050HP Pratt & Whitney aeroengine (oddly enough, Seversky's fighter actually won the fighter competition against Curtiss' own Hawk fighter before the U.S. Army Air Corps decided to give a contract to Curtiss for 210 P-36s). The P-35 was the result of Alexander Kartveli's redesign of a successful racing airplane that employed some innovative design features like a "wet wing" (where a section of the wing acted like a fuel tank after closing up two sides) and a retractable landing gear. Unfortunately for those pilots who had to duke it out with the Japanese in their Seversky fighters, they quickly found that the P-35A was no match for the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero of the Imperial Japanese Navy or the Nakajima Ki-27s and Ki-43s of the Japanese Army. The airplane was barely able to break 290 MPH airspeed, had a tendency to snap to a spin in high-G maneuvers and had no self-sealing fuel tanks or armor, plus the "wet wing" tended to leak avgas badly after hard landings popped a few rivets. At least it had a compartment in the back that some pilots used to evacuate fellow airmen or ground crew to Mindanao right when the fall of the Bataan Peninsula became a likely prospect. You can identify which planes are P-35 from the photos of destroyed airplanes of the Far East Air Force by their circular engine cowl and faired-over 0.50 CAL guns on top of the cowling (the cowl on a P-36 is oval-shaped). You may see photos of restored P-35As with no faired-over cowling guns but if you look for images of P-35A's that belong to the Far East Air Force, you will see that their cowling guns are indeed faired over, just like those planes in the photos of destroyed radial engine planes that Rex shows as evidence of the destruction brought by the Japanese during the Philippines campaign. Their perfectly round engine cowls betray the fact they're indeed Seversky P-35A. However, this does not mean that the Hawk didn't see combat in the Pacific region. The British had several squadrons of Mohawk Mk1 and Mk4 formed from an order of 200+ that was slated for France. The Dutch used their Hawks hard during the fighting in the Dutch East Indies, to the point where their engines were very worn out. The Chinese had a few, including some given to the American Volunteer Group.
I had actually meant to say they were the P-35s but at some point I made a typo and put in P-36 and then during two weeks of script work I never picked up on this error as my brain so naturally assumed that P-36s would fly alongside P-40s as the natural order of things. oops.
P-40s were highly successful in the Pacific Theater until the P-51s came into service in mid-late 1944. The 49th Fighter Group was in action in the Pacific from the beginning of the war. Robert DeHaven scored 10 kills (of 14 overall) in the P-40 with the 49th FG. He compared the P-40 favorably with the P-38: "If you flew wisely, the P-40 was a very capable aircraft. [It] could outturn a P-38, a fact that some pilots didn't realize when they made the transition between the two aircraft. [...] The real problem with it was lack of range. As we pushed the Japanese back, P-40 pilots were slowly left out of the war. So when I moved to P-38s, an excellent aircraft, I did not [believe] that the P-40 was an inferior fighter, but because I knew the P-38 would allow us to reach the enemy. I was a fighter pilot and that was what I was supposed to do." The 8th, 15th, 18th, 24th, 49th, 343rd and 347th PGs/FGs, flew P-40s in the Pacific theaters between 1941 and 1945, with most units converting to P-38s from 1943 to 1944. In 1945, the 71st Reconnaissance Group employed them as armed forward air controllers during ground operations in the Philippines, until it received delivery of P-51s. They claimed 655 aerial victories. Contrary to conventional wisdom, with sufficient altitude, the P-40 could turn with the A6M and other Japanese fighters, using a combination of a nose-down vertical turn with a bank turn, a technique known as a low yo-yo. Robert DeHaven describes how this tactic was used in the 49th Fighter group: [Y]ou 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 ... on the Zero. If your speed was up over 275, you could outroll [a Zero]. His big ailerons didn't have the strength to make high speed rolls... You could push things, too. Because ... [i]f you decided to go home, you could go home. He couldn't because you could outrun him. [...] That left you in control of the fight. In the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI Theater) the USAAF and Chinese P-40 pilots performed well in this theater against many Japanese types such as the Ki-43, Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" and the Zero. The P-40 remained in use in the China Burma India Theater (CBI) until 1944 and was reportedly preferred over the P-51 Mustang by some US pilots flying in China. The American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) was integrated into the USAAF as the 23rd Fighter Group in June 1942. The unit continued to fly newer model P-40s until the end of the war, achieving a high kill-to-loss ratio. In the Battle of the Salween River Gorge of May 1942 the AVG used the P-40E model equipped with wing racks that could carry six 35-pound fragmentation bombs and Chennault's armorer developed belly racks to carry Russian 570-pound bombs, which the Chinese had in large quantity. Units arriving in the CBI after the AVG in the 10th and 14th Air Forces continued to perform well with the P-40, claiming 973 kills in the theater, or 64.8 percent of all enemy aircraft shot down. Aviation historian Carl Molesworth stated that "...the P-40 simply dominated the skies over Burma and China. They were able to establish air superiority over free China, northern Burma and the Assam valley of India in 1942, and they never relinquished it." The 3rd, 5th, 51st and 80th FGs, along with the 10th TRS, operated the P-40 in the CBI. CBI P-40 pilots used the aircraft very effectively as a fighter-bomber. The 80th Fighter Group in particular used its so-called B-40 (P-40s carrying 1,000-pound high-explosive bombs) to destroy bridges and kill bridge repair crews, sometimes demolishing their target with one bomb. At least 40 U.S. pilots reached ace status while flying the P-40 in the CBI.
Great video as usual Rex. The P40 was a great plane used by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in their defence of Port Moresby against the Japanese invasion.
The P-40 has been one of my most beloved fighters of the era since i got into WWII history. I used to fly it nearly exclusively in IL-2 back in the day. i still fly it extensively in any flight sim that or game that has it.
IL-2 deliberately nerfed their P-40s (Russia HATE America, duh!) to where their absolute ceiling is 15,000 feet. Those guys pissed me off with that nonsense.
Thank you so much for this video/series! The P-40 Warhawk is and will ALWAYS be my favorite aircraft of all time. I appreciate you shining light on this underrated yet still fantastic fighter!! 😃
My favorite WWII aircraft all around. Have built many models of it and have 2 RCs a foam Rage mini and an unfinished large wood one. I've gone up against jets in WarThunder using the American P-40E a few times and won.
I love it when I learn something new. I didn't underappreciate it - I just had never been told about it before and I follow loads of aviation history & ww2 channels. Subscribed. 💥
The P-40 is my favourite ww2 fighter! As a child, I saw one in a museum and I remember thinking for the first time ever "Wow that plane looks cool!". Before that P-40, I never payed any attention to planes.
Same thing for me. As a young boy the family took me on a trip to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, with its P-40 Warhawk kitted out as a Flying Tiger. It instantly won my appreciation and got me into thinking that aircraft could be cool.
@@mikehipperson June 1941 RAF No.112 Squadron North Africa. Until Dec. 1940 P-40 still undergoing test and evaluation. Also, don't confuse doctrine with design.
Thank you for this one. The P-40 B/C has been one of my favourite fighters since I was a kid and built the Monogram P-40 a long 50 years ago. 😄 Still the most accurate P-40 C out there, I have 3 more in my stash.
Around 20 Kittyhawkes made it to Milne Bay. These straffed the Japanese landing barges and contributed to the first victory on land against the Japanese. By the end of this battler there was only one serviceable plane left for the Australians.
Claire Chenault instructions to the Flying Tigers was to dive in, strafe and climb back to altitude for another pass and avoid dogfighting. No one can deny the successes of the Flying Tigers. His pilots were known as one burst gunners. Each airplane has its specific set of options in air combat maneuvers.
Best P-40 pilot: Dallas Klinger. He simply got MAD at Zeroes and rammed his way down through their formations--firing all the way at every shred of target. That's what you did with a P-40: dive-bomb dogfighting. Get in fast, get out faster, and come around for another dive.
Darwin as well. People have forgotten that the Darwin raids were contested by both American(49th Fighter Group)and Australian P40Es out to sea, taking off from top hidden bases cut out from pristine bush.
75 and 76 squadrons did Stirling work with the p40s, at a time when we had bugger all to fight with. Milne Bay I believe was the first combat deployment of Marston matting I think? (I stand by for correction).
It's often described as obsolete, especially when us nerds get into an argument over the best planes. People tend to focus on a few specs, like speed, turning radius, armament, climb rate, etc. Contemporary planes like the BF-109 and Zero outperformed the P-40 on many specs, so people would dismiss it. Also, people tend to become fixated on the lack of a turbocharger and dismissed it entirely on that basis.
Pilots who flew newer planes and trained pilots on 40s often had complaints about them. Pilots who only flew the 40s liked them. The last version was decent but the especially original version had a real hard time keeping up with Germans. The main tactic was to fly way high and drop down on the enemy because the climbing and turning radius were very much behind compared to Germans. So if used properly there were ok, if it was a one on one dog fight the 40 was very much the underdog.
First off, two stage two speed mechanical supercharging in the US was well ahead of Europe. Pratt & Whitney actually had one on the R-1830-79 in 1937. The first such device in Europe was the Hooker unit on the Merlin 60 in 1942. Hooker had put a second gear on the Merlin's single stage unit the previous year. The issue was twofold. The USAAC required turbocharging for secondary supercharging. They did so because NACA had proven it was the most efficient approach. Both turbo and secondary mechanical superchargers had a major problem, size. This didn't matter behind large cross-section radial engines, so the US Navy got 2/2 superchargers before entering the war. Likewise the P-47 had a very successful turborcharger installation. But V-12 engines were not having the same luck. Hooker's big idea in 1942 was running both stages off the same quill shaft, built into the engine. This was very compact. Allison's two stage and turbo models were just too big to work in existing single engined fighters. And they couldn't copy the Merlin design because of the second problem. The USAAC had separated the engine and supercharger programs. Allison didn't have much of a blower design team as they were required to buy turbos from GE. And the Hooker design required RR redesign the crank case. Allison just didn't have the resources to do such a redesign.
Nice summary. Hooker brilliantly made the 2 stage system with intercooling and aftercooling and also had backfire screens, concepts that eluded Allison. The RR team were miles ahead of Allison and by 1944 had the Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection. That was the Merlin 66. Spit IXs were modified in this way to chase V-1's. With 150 Octane they pushed RM.17.SM up to 2350 hp at 30 lb boost/water injection with a short 15 min run at 2640 hp limit at 36 lb boost. With the introduction of jets and speed limited by props, they instead focused on making the merlin versions reliable for long distance commercial use.
@@bobsakamanos4469 Hooker's design was brilliant, but mostly because of its compactness. Calling the coolant channels between the two stages an intercooler was frankly a little generous. It was not an efficient design for cooling, just for space, which was more important. That is why they needed the aftercooler (although it was a good idea anyway). >he RR team were miles ahead of Allison Allison didn't really have a supercharger design team because their monopsony customer, the Army, mandated they use other vendors' devices. they knew exactly how to make a Hooker style supercharger, but to do so would break the modularity of the engine. Any V-1710 could be converted into any other with normal tools in the field. You could reverse the crank direction by flipping it end over end. RR redesigned their crank case to fit the Hooker unit. Allison didn't have the freedom to do that. The two stage design they ended up with had a couple of neat tricks. The second stage was fluid coupled like a Daimler, so it had a turbo like power curve all the way up to critical altitude. But there wasn't much demand for it until Packard shut down V-1650-7 production when the war ended. The VVS and PVO loved the P-63 though. If you are going to criticize Allison for their dual stage design, you might as well criticize RR for their nonexistent turbocharged design. These were policy and business decisions, not engineering failures. The Allison had plenty of advantages over the Merlin, and several of its technologies, like the exhaust, pressure carb, hollow crank, and crank bearings ended up being adopted on the Merlin. The Hooker supercharger also used a Wright design for the quill drive. >d by 1944 had the Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection. They may have done it on the bench, but there were no water injected Merlins in the field during the war, and certainly not in 1944. If we are talking on the bench, the R-2800 made 3,800 hp running at 100" (~50 psi) of manifold pressure for 24 hours straight in testing. The Allison V-1710-127, which was a real production engine, had a War Emergency Rating with water/alcohol injection of 3090 hp (Military Rating military rating of 2320 hp), but it didn't make it into the war either. It one upped all V-12s by ditching two stage, both turbo and mechanical, in favor of turbo-compounding. TC is basically free horsepower, and even increases fuel efficiency. The best supercharger designs of the war were Pratt & Whiney's, because they had the most experience and they had a ton of space to work with behind the R-2800. Hooker, being the greatest aero engine designer who ever lived, got 90% of the way there in an absolutely tiny package. It was a staggering achievement. EDIT: >Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection. That was the Merlin 66. The Merlin 66 was a low altitude version of the 60 series that made 1,300hp. It did not have water injection. The only water injected Merlin I know of is the Packard V-1650-9 in the P-51H, but it wasn't fielded during the war and it wasn't designed by RR.
Great rundown of a favourite fighter. I had a book (of my father's) Daredevils of the Skies, by Norman Ellison, about Australian air pioneers written during WW2 which mentioned Kittyhawks, an aircraft I'd never heard of (I was still in primary school at the time). It was a few years later when I made my first model of a Kittyhawk that I got more of the story behind that aeroplane. Many years later I went to a talk by Wing Commander Bobby Gibbes, the Australian fighter pilot who started off in, I think, Gloster Gladiators and moved through all marques of Toma/Kitty/Warhawks and finally Spitfires. He said his favourite was the Tomahawk as it wasn't as heavy as the Kittyhawks he flew later and just flew better. It wasn't as fast but was a better dogfighter. Which was important to him against CR-32/42's and Bf-109E's and F's. But he did like the Ca-202, which (being with 3 Squadron RAAF who typically acquired so many enemy aircraft) he actually flew.
Bobby was a good leader and tough lad. He was awarded the Winged Boot after having crash landed in the desert and walked 50 miles or so back to his lines.
Great video. Well done sir. We've become so used to seeing the P40 with it's Flying Tigers AVG markings that without them it seems naked. I've always felt the P 40 never got the praises it deserved. The Flying Tigers showed that it was a capable aircraft when flown by experienced pilots who knew their aircrafts capabilities and how to properly use them to their advantage.
Nice work. Your visual improvements to the episodes are really good, not overdone at all. I especially like how you pan through photographs to give a slight impression of motion, again without being overdone. And your research, as usual, is excellent. You’re really turning into a channel powerhouse, Rex!
This is the WW2 aircraft I owe my knowledge of those to today, it caught my eye as a kid with it's aggressive lines and shark mouth graphics, and it eventually led me to climb in the pilot seat a few years later for the first time at 15 ! I never invested enough time and money into getting my license but I have close to 40 hours of flight to my name and many more behind the screen, or my nose into books about aero engineering. Thanks P40 !
In 1969 my Dad took us over to Pearl Harbor on a Sunday to see the aircraft being used to film the epic movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" (he was stationed at Pearl at the time). The Navy had dragged a P40 out of a hangar that had been damaged but not destroyed 28 yrs earlier during the attack. One of the landing gear was bent where the pilot hit debris while trying to taxi during the attack and their were bullet holes up and down one wing and the fuselage. The radio equipment and instruments had long since been ripped out and there were wires hanging out of the cockpit. Me and my brother climbed up on the wing and due to the fact that he was older than me, he jumped into the cockpit. The flight yoke / stick was still in it as was the gun site. After 5 minutes I began to have a meltdown because it was my turn and my brother wasn't complying LOL. My Dad realizing that we might get in trouble for messing with what was a movie prop ordered us off this majestic piece of history. I was SEETHING with anger at my brother for robbing me of my opportunity to seat in the cockpit of a piece of history because even at 7 yrs of age I understood its significance. But that's OK. I got back at him four yrs later when I got to steer a DDG Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer and HE DIDN'T during a Tiger cruise LOL (just so happened that the Captain was a friend of my Dad's family so he let the Sr. CPO's kid sit in his chair and steer the ship).
I was skiing in Mt Hotham 4 weeks ago and got an impromptu acrobatic display by a P 40! Apparently it flies out of Albury. Thanks for the video and good luck with the long covid
In the age of 4th generation fighters serving long enough if they were human they could be collecting retirement. And the absolute best of the best 3rd generation fighters from "both sides" AND who can forget the B-52 and to a slightly lesser extent TU-95 and every military version of the 707. Hearing wore out in 2 years is crazy to comprehend.
Another terrific video. Have to say, the longer format seems to suit both your depth of research and your style of delivery. I thoroughly enjoyed both of the Wellington episodes and this is shaping up to be equally entertaining and informative. Hope your battle with long COVID becomes easier for you and your health improves.
As a youth with great interest in WWII and building Scale Models of every period Aircraft I could get my hands on, I was given a Model of the P-40 mounted on a wooden base that has the Aircraft seeming to be flying thru the air. Supposedly, many were given to Curtis Employees when they worked at the production facility. I was told that while a number were made, they are quite rare today. I regard it as a valuable item.
A little known point. The shark tooth was first used by the Germans on their ME 110’s. The Brits in North Africa later put it on their kitty hawks and it spread across the RAF and RAAF. A member of the AVG saw it and proposed to Chennault that he put it on his aircraft. Chennault was later quoted as saying “Put it on them all”
This past weekend while in a Home Depot parking lot next to Republic Airport on Long Island I saw a P-40 in what I assume were origianl US Army Air Corps colors warming up for takeoff. I was so awed by it it that I sat there waiting until it taxied out and took off. A truly beautiful plane.
Many thanks for this vid. I knew that the P-40 was derived from the P-36 but wow, so many early variants. My father flew the P-40N in New Guinea until the end of the war. His logbook makes interesting reading.
The Warhawk is by far my favorite aircraft of ww2 due to it being one of the only airframes to fight in the war from start to finish and serve in all theaters of the war
Agreed! The P-47s and especially the latter P-51 variants always get all the adoration. But I loved the P-40, the A-36 (an early P-51, really), not to mention the P-39 and P-63 Cobras. All tough and respected in their respective wartime roles. Great retrospective, thanks! 🤙
My son and I share the account, going about about 10 years now. He has graduated to playing jets, tanks and ships in RB, I still luv playing props in AB.
When I was a kid, I read the book about the Flying Tigers in China. I thought the P40 was so cool with that Shark face on it. Here I am at 77 yrs old and I think it’s still cool.
Allison didn't publish official overboost ratings (war emergency power) until late 1942, so in the Desert Air Force there were the official P-40 performance figures and various "unofficial" ones which depended on how hard a squadron's pilots were prepared to push the engine.
The Ruskies pretty much ignored the admonishments of running the engines at WEP for more than a few minutes, and did very well. The Allison became a very tough engine.
The early P-40s in the desert suffered horribly from lack of filters on the induction. Engine fires were common and killed more than a few pilots in the RAF, RSAAF, RAAF. I think that the filtration issue was addressed finally by the P-40 M & N models.
There is good documentation of P-40s in the Pacific being configured for overboosting. The Allison company recommended against it. Of course the reason for overboosting was the need for more speed and climb performance against superior enemy a/c. Allison authorized an new limit of only 60". The Allison -81 had a higher CR and overboosting was not allowed.
An important point about the P-40E is the -39 version of the Allison engine. It was probably the strongest liquid cooled engine in the war and, according to a letter I downloaded from WW2 Aircraft Forums by a USAAF general, it was regularly flown at 75 (!) pounds of manifold pressure. This gave a far higher low altitude speed than it officially had and combined with its maneuverability gave Allied pilots a fighting chance. There are many reasons that Saburō Sakai is alleged to have claimed that a well-handled P-40 was the Allies most dangerous aircraft.
Sakai was shot up by a flight of Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bombers and after the wounds he sustained, including being blinded in one eye, was never the fighter pilot he was.
My father flew P40’s on one tour with the RNZAF attacking the Japanese in the New Britain theatre. He later flew a further two tours with Corsairs but never had a bad word to say about the P40. He said the P40 was a delight to fly. I have a recollection that he claimed these P40’s the RNZAF used had previously been with the RAF in the Middle East, he claimed there was a lot of sand flying around when they were flown inverted!
Awesome video. I was already familiar with the P-40's history, and achievements, but this and it's Part 2 combine to tell this story in a beautifully accessible way. Well done.
The Flying Tigers sold me on this bird as a kid; relative a/c characteristix being a key lesson. Was slightly disappointed that the shark mouth came from the RAF. I am also a supporter of the P-39, for similar reasons 💜💜💜.
Not going to lie, I get kind of tired seeing P-51's at airshows. Was lucky enough to see an original Pearl Harbor survivor P-40 a couple times. Quite a beautiful aircraft. The wing shape is fantastic.
This is a great video of my favorite WW2 aircraft - the Curtiss Model 81 Tomahawk. I did notice however that occasionally, photos of the Model 87 Kittyhawk were included in the editing, which were inappropriate in the text content. Be that as it may, thanks Rex for your good work in researching your videos - always enjoy watching them, and looking forward to the real Model 87 one!
Fantastic. One of my favourite fighters, it was available in numbers early in the war when needed which can’t be said for the P51 etc. I loved the pictures you showed of the RNZAF P40’s in their pacific paint scheme.
Not only did the P-40 suffer from a lack of prestige after the war, but the Allison engine also suffered. No one these days seem to remember that the P-38 Lightning also used the same engines, and with a turbo-supercharging system installed were some of the most powerful engines ever used during the war. I recently saw an interview with Elon Musk where he claimed that if the P-38 had used Merlin engines, it "would have been awesome," but I guess no one told him the turbo-supercharged Allisons outperformed the Merlins at all altitudes by a significant margin.
Elon was not wrong. The Lockheed engineers had done the studies and repeatedly requested Merlins, especially when the later merlins were on the books showing 2050 HP, later used in the Hornet. Allison never made reliable high altitude engines in WWII or Korea. Even the P-82 Allisons were a maintenance nightmare.
The P-40 did a wonderful job in the African desert and as a stop gap in New Guinea. It's wide track and strong undercarriage combined with the 6 50 cals also made it a great plane in ground support off crappy airfields. It was instrumental at the Battle of Milne Bay.
It is nice to see a much maligned,unfairly, aircraft getting some recognition, as with the Bolton-Paul-Defiant, it found a niche that the pilots used to good effect, and the fact that they were so rugged, bringing pilots home when most other aircraft would have fallen from the sky, must have given their pilots a measure of comfort. Thanks for sharing your research and knowledge with us all, looking forward to part 2, thanks again Rex. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿🇺🇸
@@michaelbrogan7537 exactly my point Michael, as a day fighter/light attack aircraft it was not very much use, but later in the war as a night fighter it was a very very useful asset to the allies and in particular the RAF. Outdated before it even entered service the RAF had no option but to use it during the disastrous BEF campaign in Europe. Thanks for your reply, it is great getting feedback on my comments, and I usually learn something new. 😀🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦👍
I'm a big fan of that Allison engine but the reality is, it wasn't enough at the time. And was the Biggest shortcoming of the p40. That plane needed a minimum of eighteen hundred horsepower plus a 2 speed supercharger to play with the big boys upstairs. Pratt and whitney was leading the way in American horsepower. (Power to weight) Imagine what that tough air frame could have done if it was given a better engine.
Correct. The P-40 was somewhat draggy and the Allison made it underpowered. Field units (especially Aussies) overboosted the engine (prior to the -81 series) but too many youtoobers think that was without consequence. Overboosting caused many engine failures/fires and shortened engine life, but that was the risk taken to save the pilot. Overboosting was not allowed on the -81 series as it had a higher CR. Later Allisons were stronger, but continued to have issues with overboosting. Even the P-82 engines were a maintenance nightmare in Korea.
I developed an enhanced liking for the P-40 after reading the Autobiography of Bobby Gibbs, "You live but once." It's a signed copy and has no publishers page.
The kitty hawk is the plane everyone loves to trash talk, while also being that one plane needed to take so many hits, fish out so many hits, while being one to carry the boys back home in. Without it, I’m sure things would be very different.
Yep same with the Hurricane. The planes we relied on when we really needed it are the most underappreciated. Combination of the media of the day bigging up the glamorous spitfires and P51s and axis pilots who bizarrely refused to admit they had been shot down by a hurri or P40.... It was always a spit or P51. Good to see some redress finally.
@@johnrainford9708 LOL, the Hurri was outdated by the fall of 1940. Even during the Battle of Britain it was only useful in numbers if radar controllers could guide them into place in time. It had the worst kill ratio in that battle, the Me110 had the best, and that was against fighters, not bombers.
P-40 was certainly better than the Hurricane with its radiator and wing tanks vulnerable from many angles and its header tank unprotected. It was a death trap with poor combat metrics, while the P-40 at least could dive away and roll quickly.
![A Domestic Failure That Became An International Success | Curtiss P-36 Hawk [Aircraft Overview #33]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/lTgY8za-2Xw/mqdefault.jpg)
Play War Thunder for FREE on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S: playwt.link/RexsHangar Follow the link to download the game to get a premium tank, aircraft AND ship, along with a seven day account boost just for downloading.
F.A.Q Section
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos?
A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :)
Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators?
A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.
Feel free to leave you questions below - I may not be able to answer all of them, but I will keep my eyes open :)
finally...right? pivotal aircraft by anyone's standard. Flown to its strengths.
Hopping you get much better my friend truly.....In this video thanks for setting the Flying Tigers record straight in the correct time
period......Your friend Old Shoe🇺🇸
Not sure if you've heard but there's a horse paste that takes Schlong Covid away. It might even work on monkey pox yet with sads happening so quickly in that group more testing is needed. I've read vitamin d c zinc are quite helpful. However if you've taken the Fauci Ouchies not sure if anything will help.
For what's it's worth we'll still watch your channel even if sads hits you.
God Bless
What do you usually play in wt?
Great work Rex. I really appreciate the thorough look at the P 40. I appreciate your objectivity. Best wishes, Steve
"New pilots coming to our fighter group were invariably cocky to the point they were dangerous to themselves. They thought the Luftwaffe was finished and that the P-51 could quickly and easily kill anything else that flew. To modify the attitude of the newcomers, we used a war weary P-40 which our squadron somehow acquired. I was in charge of putting new pilots through a quick, intensive training program, and the final flight included a mock dogfight with the new pilot of a P-51 pitted against one of us flying a P-40. I can tell you that until a pilot knows the strengths and weaknesses of both airplanes, the P-40 can make the P-51 look outclassed. Using all of the P-40s strengths, an innovative pilot could out fly a P-51 at low altitudes until the P-51 jockey finally realized that there was something more to fighting in the air than *simply having the best airplane*. At that point the new pilot would become ready to listen to everything we had to say."
Barrie Davis, P-51 pilot, 325th Fighter Group
The Virgin mustang vs the Chad Warhawk.
I'll bet!! Always comes down to who's in the seat thing. Very much proven in the Pacific as well !! Imagine the p40 with the Merlin at its zenith could very well have easily matched the mustang envelope possibly?
Appreciate your comment and your service. My father was a bit too old to get into fighters, so he volunteered to fly the "Burma Hump". When the recruiting office discovered he was already an instructor, they busted him a rank and sent him back home. He was a secondary acrobatics instructor flying Ryans and Wacos. His was the last "dual" instruction the cadets received before they climbed into P51s and P38s (if they were fighter pilots) or B17s and B25s (if they were slated for bombers). Many, many stories...
@@lonnieshurtleff3699 that's cool
The P-51 was fast and long ranged, it wasn't a particularly good dog fighter. Slow climb rate and didn't turn particularly well.
It seems so strange that the Kittyhawk is so forgotten when she did so much sterling service from North Africa to China, From the Philippines to getting some of the first USAAF victories over Pearl Harbor. Guess it's just like the Hurricane with forgotten early war planes?
the hurricane gets a lot more credit tbf
I think your statement is very wrong the P-40 is not forgotten its very well known most of that because of the Flying Tigers of course but it's certainly not forgotten. I'm not sure what brought you to this opinion most likely its UA-cam videos
@@xavier4519 the hurricane probably deserves that glory however
@@mikepette4422 Outside of the flying tigers her other service has been largely forgotten. Sure the memory of them at Pearl Harbor remains but people don't think of them outside of there
The RAAF certainly would have felt naked without them !
My stepmom was an WRAAF amourer ! There was a picture of her in the main Australian magazine! From 43’ ?
Loading the 50 cal belts into P40 Warhawk
Page was tucked into her copy of they speed the eagles
ua-cam.com/video/NxcC4kqXacw/v-deo.html
The above mentioned. THEY
SPEED
THE
EAGLES
The best thing about the P40 was that it was there when we needed it. The Australians made great use of the P40 as well as the British.
Also, sharks.
Once it was available in large numbers and LW supply lines were cut.
As a Chinese American son of a World War II veteran, the P40 holds a special place in my heart. I even had an all-metal toy model as a boy. Thanks for making this, and I hope you recover fully from your covid.
Oh man talk about being a war baby!
Off topic a bit, but do you know if schools in China teach anything about the AVG in WWII to their students or even about Chiang Kai-Shek?
You might also look up Chinese American pilots like who served in the Nationalist Chinese Air Force prior to the AVG:
John “Buffalo” Wong of Los Angeles, CA who was the first ace on the Gloster Gladiator I, losing his life later to a Zero.
Art Chin of Portland, OR is credited with 7 air kills. His hands were burnt leaving his flaming aircraft during a battle over Hong Kong which stopped him from flying fighters. Still able to fly transports so he flew the Hump for the remainder of the war. Reportedly ahe and his commander Chennault were friends. On returning home he became a mailman with a post office named after him.
@@ohger1 It all depends on the policies of the CPC. If it suits them politically, they'll paint the AVG as heroes from friendly America. If foreign policy is at odds between the two countries, then there will be little to no mention of them. Only recently have the CPC admit that Chiang's KMT had a hand in defending China in WWII, when in fact they did the bulk of the fighting against the Japanese. This admission coincides with both the CPC and the KMT agreeing on the issue of Taiwan being part of China proper. They see the KMT as allies against the more-separatist leaning DDP currently in power. Before this, Chiang and his party were greatly vilified.
@@ohger1no. History is being erased from both sides
There seems to be a wave of retrospective appreciation for the P-40, and I'm happy to see it.
The P-40 was the first plane I became enamored with, all thanks to a G.I. Joe toy. It may have its deficiencies but to me it will always be the most badass looking fighter of the war.
@@TheBeef2487 The flying tigers made that plane something more special than anything else. Since it was one of the first planes I ever saw with teeth, it was one of my first loves.
And the P-39 too. Both planes were robbed of a great legacy.
I've enjoyed the retrospective of the P-40 line since the mid '70s when I built and flew a Top Flite radio control version for about 10 years. Lots of studying but the history keeps getting more intact with videos like this and glad to see it.
If you talk to pilots today, flying vintage WW2 aircraft, many will tell you that the P-40 is their favorite to fly.
10:54 'the pilot and the engine were once again within the same postcode' 😂 brilliant! This is a thing I always appreciate in your style: this talented way with words and discreet sense of irony.
My uncle reg was a ground mechanic or engineer with 3 squadron in North Africa. I believe pilots from other base's got to hear of his tuning abilities and would make excuses to land at the airfield he was working on.
My grandmother kept on asking what he needed while there. He replied more often than not, Hankerchiefs which he would use whilst working on fuel supply equipment. CARBYS FILTERS ECT
To the time he died he never much liked the beach as he reckoned he had seen enough sand to last several lifetime's.
Footnote towards the end of WWII he actually was on Lancaster's as a flight engineer. Always had 2 scotches after 3 and said to me the secret to living a long life was sex and chocolate cake. He died at 93. Aussie Jeff Moore
My great uncle was a mechanic in 450 SQN RAAF, also serving in Nth Africa & other places.. He had 3 or 4 small notebooks that he kept secretly as diaries (diaries were strictly forbidden in case of capture), & before he passed my dad typed them up & in one volume & passed a copy to 3 SQN RAAF (I think) .
@@peterkerr4019 that's great stuff so we all understand what they went through.
I think Gog, in earnest, for people like him.
Why do you abuse apostrophes so much? What did they ever do to you?
@@slappy8941 because in my High school learning I never got the hang of grammar as the teacher was flat out controlling the class.
The P-40F Warhawk is my second favorite plane EVER and IMO has been severely overshadowed during its tenure by both the Mustang and the Spitfire (the C-130 Hercules in all is various iterations will forever and always be #1, and anyone who says otherwise can fight me.) and my husband is laughing at me for literally squeeing with excitement over this video. Super looking forward to part 2!
You gotta sister?
You GO girl!
C-130 is a beast but the Hawker-Siddeley Harrier has to be number 1. It can up like a chopper, fly like a jet and fight like Rambo on cocaine. Like the C-130 it can go there, do the thing, come back, get the t-shirt then blow the t-shirt to kingdom come but, the Harrier goes up up, not that boring forward and kind of up. Then it uses that ability in combat to kill the speed and let the enemy fly past, like a bloody cartoon, so it can blow that enemy out of the sky.
@@andrewince8824 the Harrier is perhaps the most overrated "fighter" in history
"Fighter"
P 40 Flying Tiger- coolest looking plane in WW2. Spitfire most beautiful.
Bundle of stick brit
My grandfather trained on a p-40 with the british in Africa, I used to keep the photograph we have of him flying on above my bed as a kid. There was an inscription on the back that said "Flying my Kittyhawk, Rhodesia, 1944"
Which Sqn?
@@hunterfalkenberg2837 thanks for the feedback. I just wondered if he crossed paths with my father in N.Africa (Kittyhawks & test pilot)
May I be the first to say I don't think the P40 was so much underrated as overshadowed by the "sexier" stuff like the Spitfire, Me109, FW190, P38 & P51.
The P40 did a damn' fine job in every theatre where it operated.
Yeah, I don’t know where people get the idea that the P40 is a forgotten or underrated plane. Granted, it’s always been in my top 5 favorite planes, so I might be in a bubble of my own making. Given that I’ve seen plenty of them make it into movies as the “hero” plane, and that everyone knows the Flying Tiger, I think it gets plenty of love, it just wasn’t ever hyped up to the level of the P51, spitfire, or bf109
I'ma correct you right there: Ain't nothin sexier than a shark-mouthed P-40. But don't tell my wife I said that.
The Mediterranean war wasn't as well publicized as the Pacific or ETO because of all the screw ups. It had nothing to do with "sexy" but with rather with young lads being KIA and US generals' reputaion being protected (Battle of Kasserine Pass, Anzio, P-38s being wiped out in Algeria, Raid on Ploesti, etc).
On the Brit side however, Monty was a johnny come lately and enjoyed all their successes, so he and the Kittyhawks were well known in Britain. 112 Sqn in particular received attention for their shark mouth scheme, which the AVG copied after seeing it in a magazine.
Media controls the public... always has.
As for performance, the P-40 was mediocre but did well because allied bombers only flew at 12,000' in the desert and the LW was outnumbered and undersupplied. In Milne Bay, the Japanese carriers had already been decimated in the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway. It would have been different otherwise for the old Kittyhawks.
My late uncle who only passed away 3 years ago flew them in North Africa together with Hurricanes for the SAAF , he later flew P51's with 5 Squadron SAAF in Italy ....RIP an absolute legend , Windsor Jacobs 🙏
He was probably an axis fifth columnist
@@julianpalmer4886
That was South African air force how are they 5th axis colonists...they were allies.
As a kid, from the 70s to the early 80s, this plane was what came to mind when I thought of a WW2 fighter. It just LOOKED so mean, amd fast! Also, when I thought of a jet fighter, the 1st thing I thought of was the F4 Phantom. In the mid 80s, I got a book on military aircraft, and it introduced me to a wide variety of fighter, bomber, and observation planes from around the world. I know they weren't the absolute best performing planes, but at the same time, my favorite generation of the Corvette is the 70s to early 80s Stingrays. They look fast sitting in a parking lot!
When I was about, oh, perhaps eight years old, my family drove down to Washington DC to visit my father's WWII wartime buddy. We visited the Smithsonian, and in a moment where I was left alone in the gift shop I bought a copy of the book "God Is My Copilot" by Robert L. Scott, with a picture of a P-40 (with shark's mouth) on the cover. I loved that book, and I have had a love of the P-40 ever since, this was somewhere in the early 1960's. The Flying Tigers were my heroes, Claire Chennault was my hero, and I have never lost that love.
I think that the script for the John Wayne classic "Flying Tigers" was based on Robert Scott's book.
My Dad gave his copy he had as a kid... first real book I read... great memory...
Great book, commonly thought of - by people who haven't read it - as a religious rambling. Robert L. Scott was a humble, good natured American hero.
The Flying Tiggers proved that the Pilot is more important than the performance of plane. The P40 was a good plane, just not the best at the beginning of WW2. The biggest advantage of P40 is that we had them at the beginning of WW2 and could produce them in vast numbers.
@@saltyroe3179 Like people, every plane had it's strengths and weaknesses, and they should be used so as to take advantage of the strengths and guard the weaknesses. This is what the Flying Tigers did. The P40 was not capable if dogfighting a Zero, so don't play the Zero's game. Use the ability to dive (which was not a strength of the Zero) and the superior firepower and pray that the armor protects you.
It is so good to hear you air some of Clive Caldwell's exploits and victories. I've read a lot about him but few Aussies have ever heard of him. He was an ace about six times over. The "Unsung Hero". Thank you for your recognition of the great WWII pilot who has been forgotten.
We in the US who are ww2 buffs know of Caldwell. And by the way he flew a p 40
@@raymondkurtyka754
Thanks mate, he also flew Spits.
@@306champion
We,in Poland,also recognize "Killer" Caldwell,as a few Polish ferry pilots had a chance to fight under his command. Great fighter pilot and true friend in need.
@@piotrweydmann3345
That means a lot to me mate, it really does. Clive seems to be forgotten over here. Politics and a pissed off Air Marshall put an end to his recognition and career.
Thank you for your reply.
@@306champion Correct, Clive was persecuted over the booze fiasco, simply because he implicated the brass who were also selling booze illegally. Caldwell was Australia's best leader and pilot !! The name "killer" is also misunderstood and misused.
Very nice video on the Curtiss P-40 fighter plane and its variants. My father flew the Curtiss P-40E Warhawk for the USAAF when he was stationed at Randolph Field in Texas for fighter pilot training in 1943. He really enjoyed flying the P-40E Warhawk. He said it was the best single engine figher plane he had flown during the war. He also mentioned that it was an honest fighter pilots plane when it was in capable hands. When they made him fly the Bell P-39 Aerocobra, this plane did him in as a fighter pilot. My father had very broad shoulders and he didn't fit inside the P-39's narrow cockpit too well. After only two flights in the Aerocobra, he ended up with badly bruised shoulders and was admitted to the Army hospital. The Army weighed him and discovered he was too overweight to become a fighter pilot. In fact, he had to get a waiver signed by General Hap Arnold himself to maintain his flight status. Fortunately, General Arnold signed off on his waiver and he later became a bomber pilot instead.
Rex, I'm really enjoying these longer videos. So much great detail and stories. Thank you!
My dad flew these in the 7th squadron of the 49th fighter group in the SWPAC. He had some amazing stories to tell. One was when he was on a fighter sweep near Nadzab when he came upon a Japanese Corvette. There was a sailor running for the forward deck gun when dad opened up with the 6 50 cals. He made a second pass and saw that the whole bow of the ship, gun and sailor were gone. The ship sank in 10 minutes.
The 40 didn't have cannons, but 6 Brownings can throw a crapload of high velocity lead and shred just about anything.
Crap Crap Crap they make small 1/2 inch holes they blow away nothing .
Do the bloody Maths diving in at 300 mph and on target less than 3 seconds Ships deck and sides 1.2 inch steel and maybe 15mm Steel not aluminium
@@jacktattis Where do you get 1.2 inches of steel? My 400 ft destroyer had 5/8 inch hull plating. Corvettes were less than 200 ft. and no armor. And SMALL 1/2 inch holes? I don't think you've ever seen them when they hit a target. In the battle of Leyte Gulf, dad sank a large tanker with two passes in a P-38. The ship was loaded with soldiers holding palms to camouflage
the ship. Again, went down very quickly with all hands.
@@thestarprophecy3738 1/2 inch not 1.2 inches And my friend with numerous trips to the Holsworthy and Pucka firing ranges I know exactly how large a 50 calibre round makes in steel . In fact in the four years with an Australian Cav Regt I became an excellent shot with our Fitters 50 cal
With two Passes with 50s and one cannon again I doubt the veracity of the report.
The P-40, the plane that held the line during the dark, early days of WW2. Good vid for an often looked over airplane.
It held the line a lot longer than that. The advanced models of planes everyone likes as the “best fighters” didnt exist in great numbers until 1944, when the war was almost over.
Hey I love the P-40. Especially the tomahawk which I believe tends to be the B and C variant. It’s a very pretty plane, made famous by the flying tigers and the deserts of Africa
The Tomahawks were the first flying tigers - summer 1941.
@@bobsakamanos4469 yeah
The P40 looks awesome, particularly the N model with the square rear windows and 6x12.7mm guns.
That YP-37 model (5:40 mark) reminds me of those Soviet Yak fighters.
Imagine if those guns were 50 cal guns..
@@coppertopv36512.7 mm is .50 cal…
I love the P-40 and agree absolutely that it's underrated. It did exactly what it was designed to do, slug it out as a fighter bomber and engage whatever aircraft it encountered in all theaters.
It's predecessor, the P-36 is also underrated. Its part in the Battle of France is always forgotten because the French lost. What nobody talks about is the quite significant toll that French Hawk 75 squadrons exacted on the Luftwaffe.
Very true.. P-36 was solid as well and did good work for the French
Exactly… the P-36 caused the Luftwaffe a great deal of frustration and consternation when the French were using them to defend critical areas.
A good topic for an episode.
It was slow in the climb, a handful in the dive and high pilot workload during air combat. Successful in the desert when available in large numbers and the LW few in numbers with supply lines were cut. On equal terms with the LW, it was outclassed but allied bombers flew at 12,000' which forced the LW to come down off their perch.
All this general performance stuff doesn't mean anyone knows anything. If you want to know how the P-40 performed in reality, you need to read. The RAF used it well in the battles for North Africa but the P-40 was the aircraft that RAAF 75 Sqn used to defend Australia from the Japanese in the Defence of Port Moresby in early 1942. There was also the Battle of Milne Bay a couple of months later. The P-40 was as important to Australia and the Hurricane and Spitfire were to Britain.
Honestly context is so important. If you look at the combat performace of the early war equipment it is actually very decent. I was a little surprised to read in Samuel Eliot Morison how well the F4F performed in the Soloman's Campaign.
When I was a kid, my model of a P-40 was one of my favorites. They're beautiful. Never understood why they're so rarely mentioned.
By far my favorite war bird. The memories I have as a boy reading the exploits of AVG are still fresh. Can't get enough of the P-40.
So glad you have a favorite. Do you have a favorite hot dog? How about favorite toy? Please take your meds and have a nappy
@@georgeburns7251 sounds like you missed quite a few doses yourself, cupcake.
@@georgeburns7251sounds like you've missed a few doses yourself, cupcake.
The P-40 in all its variants was the coolest looking plane of WW2
It looked like a shark, even without the teeth. It looked mean.
Sexy!
Yeah the flying tiger mouth was cool .
The P-40, F-4F Wildcat, and the B-17 all had a bit of 1930's style, IMHO.
Corsair wasn’t too shabby, mustang should be up there too.
Rex’s Hangar. I thoroughly enjoyed this good review of the P-40. Being a few months North of 70 years the fierce,leering shark’s mouth of the 1st AVG “Flying Tigers” caught my young imagination and fueled to this day the undying love affair with WWII military aviation. Being as well a follower of the history of that period the size and scope of the allied war effort was immense. Thank God for those brave lads who held the line during the defense of Britain in those dark days of the “blitz”. Again I enjoyed this exhaustive review and look forward to more. With my thanks from Florida and wishes for a good day.
Correct to focus on the brave pilots, not the machine. There are so many factors involved in a pilot's survival or success and the aircraft is only a small part of that.
I totally agree about the Kittyhawk. The highest scoring RCAF ace still living, Stocky Edwards, flew several marks of P 40.
No matter what you do it can't be any cooler than taxiing your P-40 with the canopy rolled back having Tex Hill, Pappy Boyington, along with many other volunteers getting ready to take to the skies against the juggernaut that was the Japanese in China at that time.
Their story and the P-40 are joined at the wings.
my uncle, plane #3, was one of them.
Thank you for not referring to the Japanese fighters in China as Zeroes.
You deserve an Oscar.
Sorry.
🤣🤣🤣👍
Good one!
🤣
Only us Dinah saurs would get that!
That's funny!
In seven months in combat, having never faced a situation where they weren’t wildly outnumbered, the AVG racked up an utterly insane 297-14 kill ratio (with 8 more pilots killed on the ground or in training) flying (almost exclusively) obsolete aircraft mostly matching the P-40B specification. Playing to its strengths, the P-40 was utterly lethal, and one of the most elegant-looking fighters of the era.
I think I read that in early days the Japanese bombers flew without escorts, as the Chinese couldn't catch them. Thus the early heavy kill numbers. But this was from a very old ( early ) book, and info may have changed .
@@lamwen03 that was true very early in the AVG’s combat tour, but they tore through insane numbers of Ki-21 and Ki-23 fighters, and a handful of Zeros as well. If there was any way to calculate badly damaged planes in addition to kills, their numbers would be even further into the realm of “no one would believe this movie script - based on Japanese records analyzed by some historians, the AVG’s kill total may be fairly low compared to reality: as an example that I’ve read about in several places, in one incident they intercepted and turned back a flight of 10-15 bombers. They were credited with (I think) 5 direct kills, and damaged all of the planes to some degree, but a later review of the records from the Japanese airbase indicated that the survivors were either known to have crashed from damage or simply disappeared on the way home, with only one bomber landing - and I think that one was badly damaged enough that it was scrapped.
@@lamwen03 the AVG chewed up Japanese fighters, too. Claire Chennault studied the Soviet tactics from Khalkhin Gol, and tweaked them to wring every bit of advantage he could out of the P-40 airframe.
"...and a handful of Zeros" - The AVG never came within 500 miles of an A6M Zero. The A6M was a IJN fighter and the Flying Tigers combat was only against the IJA who flew the Ki-43 Hayabusa and maybe some A5Ms. To their detriment, the IJN and IJA did not get along or work together well at all and the idea of sharing an airframe was unacceptable. The AVG pilots may have called them Zeros, but they were Oscars.
A story from WWII - A pilot walks into a bar, sees another fellow sitting there, well along in his drinking. Getting his drink he notices that the first man also has pilots wings. So to start up a conversation he asks what type of aircraft he flew. The fellow looks at him bleary eyed and says, "A P-400", to which the first replies, "Go On, There's no such aircraft!" To which the second says, "There sure is! It's a P-40 with a Zero on it's tail, which is how I spent the war!!"
There was such a thing as P-400... export P-39.
Great video. It's nice to see someone finely giving the P-40 some well deserved and overdue love. Much like the P-39, the P-40 never seams to get the credit it deserves, which in my mind detracts from the stories of the brave men who flew these planes and the men who worked so hard to keep them air worthy.
A friend of mine flew the P 40 with the RNZAF in the Pacific , his name was "Mack" Calder. After the P 40 he transitioned to the Corsair , of the Corsair he said , " the best defence was to unstrap your harness and run around the cockpit" , funny I thought.
I’m imagining what he’d have thought of the size of a P-47
@@Idahoguy10157 P-47... my old man, having flown Spits, Hurri's and Kittyhawks, said that the T-Bolt was like sitting in a big ol bath tub.
@@bobsakamanos4469 …. It was huge!
For a good book on P40s off New Guinea during WW11 read ‘The Missing Man’ about Len Waters the Australian Aboriginal fighter pilot.
The P-40 has always been my favorite early WWII fighter plane. In ally hands, it was the best we had when the war started. Just like every other aircraft, it was a good plane when used within its strength .
@Rex Hangar,
Just one clarification: the other air combat squadrons in the Philippines not flying P-40s were not flying older P-36 Hawks, but were instead flying the much less-capable Seversky P-35As from a shipment of 60 that was impounded by the U.S. government from an order placed by the Swedish government. The P-35A was a slightly improved version of the P-35 used by the U.S. Army Air Corps, which had a slightly more powerful 1,050HP Pratt & Whitney aeroengine (oddly enough, Seversky's fighter actually won the fighter competition against Curtiss' own Hawk fighter before the U.S. Army Air Corps decided to give a contract to Curtiss for 210 P-36s). The P-35 was the result of Alexander Kartveli's redesign of a successful racing airplane that employed some innovative design features like a "wet wing" (where a section of the wing acted like a fuel tank after closing up two sides) and a retractable landing gear. Unfortunately for those pilots who had to duke it out with the Japanese in their Seversky fighters, they quickly found that the P-35A was no match for the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero of the Imperial Japanese Navy or the Nakajima Ki-27s and Ki-43s of the Japanese Army. The airplane was barely able to break 290 MPH airspeed, had a tendency to snap to a spin in high-G maneuvers and had no self-sealing fuel tanks or armor, plus the "wet wing" tended to leak avgas badly after hard landings popped a few rivets. At least it had a compartment in the back that some pilots used to evacuate fellow airmen or ground crew to Mindanao right when the fall of the Bataan Peninsula became a likely prospect. You can identify which planes are P-35 from the photos of destroyed airplanes of the Far East Air Force by their circular engine cowl and faired-over 0.50 CAL guns on top of the cowling (the cowl on a P-36 is oval-shaped). You may see photos of restored P-35As with no faired-over cowling guns but if you look for images of P-35A's that belong to the Far East Air Force, you will see that their cowling guns are indeed faired over, just like those planes in the photos of destroyed radial engine planes that Rex shows as evidence of the destruction brought by the Japanese during the Philippines campaign. Their perfectly round engine cowls betray the fact they're indeed Seversky P-35A.
However, this does not mean that the Hawk didn't see combat in the Pacific region. The British had several squadrons of Mohawk Mk1 and Mk4 formed from an order of 200+ that was slated for France. The Dutch used their Hawks hard during the fighting in the Dutch East Indies, to the point where their engines were very worn out. The Chinese had a few, including some given to the American Volunteer Group.
I had actually meant to say they were the P-35s but at some point I made a typo and put in P-36 and then during two weeks of script work I never picked up on this error as my brain so naturally assumed that P-36s would fly alongside P-40s as the natural order of things. oops.
P-40s were highly successful in the Pacific Theater until the P-51s came into service in mid-late 1944. The 49th Fighter Group was in action in the Pacific from the beginning of the war. Robert DeHaven scored 10 kills (of 14 overall) in the P-40 with the 49th FG. He compared the P-40 favorably with the P-38:
"If you flew wisely, the P-40 was a very capable aircraft. [It] could outturn a P-38, a fact that some pilots didn't realize when they made the transition between the two aircraft. [...] The real problem with it was lack of range. As we pushed the Japanese back, P-40 pilots were slowly left out of the war. So when I moved to P-38s, an excellent aircraft, I did not [believe] that the P-40 was an inferior fighter, but because I knew the P-38 would allow us to reach the enemy. I was a fighter pilot and that was what I was supposed to do."
The 8th, 15th, 18th, 24th, 49th, 343rd and 347th PGs/FGs, flew P-40s in the Pacific theaters between 1941 and 1945, with most units converting to P-38s from 1943 to 1944. In 1945, the 71st Reconnaissance Group employed them as armed forward air controllers during ground operations in the Philippines, until it received delivery of P-51s. They claimed 655 aerial victories.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, with sufficient altitude, the P-40 could turn with the A6M and other Japanese fighters, using a combination of a nose-down vertical turn with a bank turn, a technique known as a low yo-yo. Robert DeHaven describes how this tactic was used in the 49th Fighter group:
[Y]ou 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 ... on the Zero. If your speed was up over 275, you could outroll [a Zero]. His big ailerons didn't have the strength to make high speed rolls... You could push things, too. Because ... [i]f you decided to go home, you could go home. He couldn't because you could outrun him. [...] That left you in control of the fight.
In the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI Theater) the USAAF and Chinese P-40 pilots performed well in this theater against many Japanese types such as the Ki-43, Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" and the Zero. The P-40 remained in use in the China Burma India Theater (CBI) until 1944 and was reportedly preferred over the P-51 Mustang by some US pilots flying in China. The American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) was integrated into the USAAF as the 23rd Fighter Group in June 1942. The unit continued to fly newer model P-40s until the end of the war, achieving a high kill-to-loss ratio. In the Battle of the Salween River Gorge of May 1942 the AVG used the P-40E model equipped with wing racks that could carry six 35-pound fragmentation bombs and Chennault's armorer developed belly racks to carry Russian 570-pound bombs, which the Chinese had in large quantity.
Units arriving in the CBI after the AVG in the 10th and 14th Air Forces continued to perform well with the P-40, claiming 973 kills in the theater, or 64.8 percent of all enemy aircraft shot down. Aviation historian Carl Molesworth stated that "...the P-40 simply dominated the skies over Burma and China. They were able to establish air superiority over free China, northern Burma and the Assam valley of India in 1942, and they never relinquished it." The 3rd, 5th, 51st and 80th FGs, along with the 10th TRS, operated the P-40 in the CBI. CBI P-40 pilots used the aircraft very effectively as a fighter-bomber. The 80th Fighter Group in particular used its so-called B-40 (P-40s carrying 1,000-pound high-explosive bombs) to destroy bridges and kill bridge repair crews, sometimes demolishing their target with one bomb. At least 40 U.S. pilots reached ace status while flying the P-40 in the CBI.
Great video as usual Rex. The P40 was a great plane used by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in their defence of Port Moresby against the Japanese invasion.
So nice to see this venerable fighter covered so well.
The P-40 has been one of my most beloved fighters of the era since i got into WWII history.
I used to fly it nearly exclusively in IL-2 back in the day. i still fly it extensively in any flight sim that or game that has it.
IL-2 deliberately nerfed their P-40s (Russia HATE America, duh!) to where their absolute ceiling is 15,000 feet. Those guys pissed me off with that nonsense.
Thank you so much for this video/series! The P-40 Warhawk is and will ALWAYS be my favorite aircraft of all time. I appreciate you shining light on this underrated yet still fantastic fighter!! 😃
My favorite WWII aircraft all around. Have built many models of it and have 2 RCs a foam Rage mini and an unfinished large wood one. I've gone up against jets in WarThunder using the American P-40E a few times and won.
Good for you. Hope you keep your toys until you grow up.
I love it when I learn something new. I didn't underappreciate it - I just had never been told about it before and I follow loads of aviation history & ww2 channels. Subscribed. 💥
Used to great effect in Derek Robinson’s great novel A Good Clean Fight. Hornet Squadron fighting in North Africa.
112 Sqn. Moggie in the first book was in reality Billy Drake who later was the disliked Sqn Ldr at 112.
The P-40 is my favourite ww2 fighter!
As a child, I saw one in a museum and I remember thinking for the first time ever "Wow that plane looks cool!".
Before that P-40, I never payed any attention to planes.
Same thing for me. As a young boy the family took me on a trip to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum, with its P-40 Warhawk kitted out as a Flying Tiger. It instantly won my appreciation and got me into thinking that aircraft could be cool.
The P-40 did the heavy lifting before and during WWII until newer designs were available.
Except it didn't play any role in the first two years of the war...that was the Hurricane and Spitfire, mostly.
@@owenshebbeare2999 If I remember correctly there was something going on in Asia and the Pacific.
@@altscan8372 Not until December 1941! Britain had been on its own for 2 years before Murica joined in, late again as usual!
@@mikehipperson Translation.."Britain was getting its ass kicked before Murica joined in"
@@mikehipperson June 1941 RAF No.112 Squadron North Africa. Until Dec. 1940 P-40 still undergoing test and evaluation. Also, don't confuse doctrine with design.
Thank you for this one. The P-40 B/C has been one of my favourite fighters since I was a kid and built the Monogram P-40 a long 50 years ago. 😄 Still the most accurate P-40 C out there, I have 3 more in my stash.
I seem to recall Neville Duke (famous British test pilot) flew the P40 in the desert too - i had his book on flying as a kid
Around 20 Kittyhawkes made it to Milne Bay. These straffed the Japanese landing barges and contributed to the first victory on land against the Japanese. By the end of this battler there was only one serviceable plane left for the Australians.
Imagine if the Japanese had not previously lost 5 carriers in the battles of Coral Sea and Midway.
My Great Uncle was shot down over Papua New Guinea by the Japanese in WW2 flying P40 for the RAAF. Thanks for delving into this plane, means a lot.
What happened to him?
Claire Chenault instructions to the Flying Tigers was to dive in, strafe and climb back to altitude for another pass and avoid dogfighting. No one can deny the successes of the Flying Tigers. His pilots were known as one burst gunners. Each airplane has its specific set of options in air combat maneuvers.
And his report the the brass about combat tactics against the zero was pretty much ignored which got many a pilot killed.
@@mikeholland1031 Just like Joseph Stillwell's report on Chinese communists fighting abilities against the Japanese invaders.
If you want a fairly unbiased commentary of the P-40 vs. the Zero get a copy of Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.
Best P-40 pilot: Dallas Klinger. He simply got MAD at Zeroes and rammed his way down through their formations--firing all the way at every shred of target. That's what you did with a P-40: dive-bomb dogfighting. Get in fast, get out faster, and come around for another dive.
My all time favorite plane. It’s just a thing of beauty. I am lucky to have flown in one of the few flying examples a few years back.
You are lucky indeed. Which one? What variant?
Unloved by who ? As an Australian 75 sqn flying these off a steel mat in a swamp at Milne Bay straight into strafing runs was only possible in a P 40
Darwin as well. People have forgotten that the Darwin raids were contested by both American(49th Fighter Group)and Australian P40Es out to sea, taking off from top hidden bases cut out from pristine bush.
75 and 76 squadrons did Stirling work with the p40s, at a time when we had bugger all to fight with. Milne Bay I believe was the first combat deployment of Marston matting I think? (I stand by for correction).
@@rodneypayne4827 Darwin itself received 60 Japanese air attacks, and the P40s played a major part in resisting those attacks.
It's often described as obsolete, especially when us nerds get into an argument over the best planes. People tend to focus on a few specs, like speed, turning radius, armament, climb rate, etc. Contemporary planes like the BF-109 and Zero outperformed the P-40 on many specs, so people would dismiss it. Also, people tend to become fixated on the lack of a turbocharger and dismissed it entirely on that basis.
Pilots who flew newer planes and trained pilots on 40s often had complaints about them. Pilots who only flew the 40s liked them. The last version was decent but the especially original version had a real hard time keeping up with Germans. The main tactic was to fly way high and drop down on the enemy because the climbing and turning radius were very much behind compared to Germans. So if used properly there were ok, if it was a one on one dog fight the 40 was very much the underdog.
Hi Rex, I love the way you combine technical, aesthetic, and human aspects in your commentary.
First off, two stage two speed mechanical supercharging in the US was well ahead of Europe. Pratt & Whitney actually had one on the R-1830-79 in 1937. The first such device in Europe was the Hooker unit on the Merlin 60 in 1942. Hooker had put a second gear on the Merlin's single stage unit the previous year. The issue was twofold. The USAAC required turbocharging for secondary supercharging. They did so because NACA had proven it was the most efficient approach. Both turbo and secondary mechanical superchargers had a major problem, size. This didn't matter behind large cross-section radial engines, so the US Navy got 2/2 superchargers before entering the war. Likewise the P-47 had a very successful turborcharger installation. But V-12 engines were not having the same luck. Hooker's big idea in 1942 was running both stages off the same quill shaft, built into the engine. This was very compact. Allison's two stage and turbo models were just too big to work in existing single engined fighters. And they couldn't copy the Merlin design because of the second problem. The USAAC had separated the engine and supercharger programs. Allison didn't have much of a blower design team as they were required to buy turbos from GE. And the Hooker design required RR redesign the crank case. Allison just didn't have the resources to do such a redesign.
Nice summary. Hooker brilliantly made the 2 stage system with intercooling and aftercooling and also had backfire screens, concepts that eluded Allison. The RR team were miles ahead of Allison and by 1944 had the Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection. That was the Merlin 66. Spit IXs were modified in this way to chase V-1's.
With 150 Octane they pushed RM.17.SM up to 2350 hp at 30 lb boost/water injection with a short 15 min run at 2640 hp limit at 36 lb boost.
With the introduction of jets and speed limited by props, they instead focused on making the merlin versions reliable for long distance commercial use.
@@bobsakamanos4469 Hooker's design was brilliant, but mostly because of its compactness. Calling the coolant channels between the two stages an intercooler was frankly a little generous. It was not an efficient design for cooling, just for space, which was more important. That is why they needed the aftercooler (although it was a good idea anyway).
>he RR team were miles ahead of Allison
Allison didn't really have a supercharger design team because their monopsony customer, the Army, mandated they use other vendors' devices. they knew exactly how to make a Hooker style supercharger, but to do so would break the modularity of the engine. Any V-1710 could be converted into any other with normal tools in the field. You could reverse the crank direction by flipping it end over end. RR redesigned their crank case to fit the Hooker unit. Allison didn't have the freedom to do that. The two stage design they ended up with had a couple of neat tricks. The second stage was fluid coupled like a Daimler, so it had a turbo like power curve all the way up to critical altitude. But there wasn't much demand for it until Packard shut down V-1650-7 production when the war ended. The VVS and PVO loved the P-63 though. If you are going to criticize Allison for their dual stage design, you might as well criticize RR for their nonexistent turbocharged design. These were policy and business decisions, not engineering failures. The Allison had plenty of advantages over the Merlin, and several of its technologies, like the exhaust, pressure carb, hollow crank, and crank bearings ended up being adopted on the Merlin. The Hooker supercharger also used a Wright design for the quill drive.
>d by 1944 had the Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection.
They may have done it on the bench, but there were no water injected Merlins in the field during the war, and certainly not in 1944. If we are talking on the bench, the R-2800 made 3,800 hp running at 100" (~50 psi) of manifold pressure for 24 hours straight in testing. The Allison V-1710-127, which was a real production engine, had a War Emergency Rating with water/alcohol injection of 3090 hp (Military Rating military rating of 2320 hp), but it didn't make it into the war either. It one upped all V-12s by ditching two stage, both turbo and mechanical, in favor of turbo-compounding. TC is basically free horsepower, and even increases fuel efficiency.
The best supercharger designs of the war were Pratt & Whiney's, because they had the most experience and they had a ton of space to work with behind the R-2800. Hooker, being the greatest aero engine designer who ever lived, got 90% of the way there in an absolutely tiny package. It was a staggering achievement.
EDIT: >Merlin reliably producing 2100 HP, 25 lb boost on 100 octane with water injection. That was the Merlin 66.
The Merlin 66 was a low altitude version of the 60 series that made 1,300hp. It did not have water injection. The only water injected Merlin I know of is the Packard V-1650-9 in the P-51H, but it wasn't fielded during the war and it wasn't designed by RR.
Great rundown of a favourite fighter. I had a book (of my father's) Daredevils of the Skies, by Norman Ellison, about Australian air pioneers written during WW2 which mentioned Kittyhawks, an aircraft I'd never heard of (I was still in primary school at the time). It was a few years later when I made my first model of a Kittyhawk that I got more of the story behind that aeroplane.
Many years later I went to a talk by Wing Commander Bobby Gibbes, the Australian fighter pilot who started off in, I think, Gloster Gladiators and moved through all marques of Toma/Kitty/Warhawks and finally Spitfires. He said his favourite was the Tomahawk as it wasn't as heavy as the Kittyhawks he flew later and just flew better. It wasn't as fast but was a better dogfighter. Which was important to him against CR-32/42's and Bf-109E's and F's. But he did like the Ca-202, which (being with 3 Squadron RAAF who typically acquired so many enemy aircraft) he actually flew.
Bobby was a good leader and tough lad. He was awarded the Winged Boot after having crash landed in the desert and walked 50 miles or so back to his lines.
Great video. Well done sir. We've become so used to seeing the P40 with it's Flying Tigers AVG markings that without them it seems naked. I've always felt the P 40 never got the praises it deserved. The Flying Tigers showed that it was a capable aircraft when flown by experienced pilots who knew their aircrafts capabilities and how to properly use them to their advantage.
Nice work. Your visual improvements to the episodes are really good, not overdone at all. I especially like how you pan through photographs to give a slight impression of motion, again without being overdone. And your research, as usual, is excellent. You’re really turning into a channel powerhouse, Rex!
This is the WW2 aircraft I owe my knowledge of those to today, it caught my eye as a kid with it's aggressive lines and shark mouth graphics, and it eventually led me to climb in the pilot seat a few years later for the first time at 15 ! I never invested enough time and money into getting my license but I have close to 40 hours of flight to my name and many more behind the screen, or my nose into books about aero engineering. Thanks P40 !
The p 40 has always been a favorite of mine. I made a few models of it as a kid in the 70's.
Was one of my early models as well. Such a good looking plane that in many ways defined what a WWII fighter looked like in my mind.
Did the same. Always looked rugged and dependable.
@@The1nsane1 and it was.
Im still making them and im 58. Squadron Amazon is ' winging' one to me now! Model again buddy. Its even better!!!
In 1969 my Dad took us over to Pearl Harbor on a Sunday to see the aircraft being used to film the epic movie "Tora, Tora, Tora" (he was stationed at Pearl at the time). The Navy had dragged a P40 out of a hangar that had been damaged but not destroyed 28 yrs earlier during the attack. One of the landing gear was bent where the pilot hit debris while trying to taxi during the attack and their were bullet holes up and down one wing and the fuselage. The radio equipment and instruments had long since been ripped out and there were wires hanging out of the cockpit. Me and my brother climbed up on the wing and due to the fact that he was older than me, he jumped into the cockpit. The flight yoke / stick was still in it as was the gun site. After 5 minutes I began to have a meltdown because it was my turn and my brother wasn't complying LOL. My Dad realizing that we might get in trouble for messing with what was a movie prop ordered us off this majestic piece of history. I was SEETHING with anger at my brother for robbing me of my opportunity to seat in the cockpit of a piece of history because even at 7 yrs of age I understood its significance. But that's OK. I got back at him four yrs later when I got to steer a DDG Charles F. Adams-class guided missile armed destroyer and HE DIDN'T during a Tiger cruise LOL (just so happened that the Captain was a friend of my Dad's family so he let the Sr. CPO's kid sit in his chair and steer the ship).
I had never seen a XP-23 before. That has to be the most beautiful bi-plane I have ever seen.
I was skiing in Mt Hotham 4 weeks ago and got an impromptu acrobatic display by a P 40! Apparently it flies out of Albury. Thanks for the video and good luck with the long covid
P-40s flown by various british and commmonwealth pilots over North africa surprised everyone by holding its own against the vaunted Me 109
Only once they outnumbered the LW - late 1942 - when the hard fighting in Malta had cut the german supply lines from Sicily.
In the age of 4th generation fighters serving long enough if they were human they could be collecting retirement. And the absolute best of the best 3rd generation fighters from "both sides" AND who can forget the B-52 and to a slightly lesser extent TU-95 and every military version of the 707. Hearing wore out in 2 years is crazy to comprehend.
Another terrific video. Have to say, the longer format seems to suit both your depth of research and your style of delivery. I thoroughly enjoyed both of the Wellington episodes and this is shaping up to be equally entertaining and informative. Hope your battle with long COVID becomes easier for you and your health improves.
As a youth with great interest in WWII and building Scale Models of every period Aircraft I could get my hands on, I was given a Model of the P-40 mounted on a wooden base that has the Aircraft seeming to be flying thru the air. Supposedly, many were given to Curtis Employees when they worked at the production facility. I was told that while a number were made, they are quite rare today. I regard it as a valuable item.
A little known point. The shark tooth was first used by the Germans on their ME 110’s. The Brits in North Africa later put it on their kitty hawks and it spread across the RAF and RAAF. A member of the AVG saw it and proposed to Chennault that he put it on his aircraft. Chennault was later quoted as saying “Put it on them all”
This past weekend while in a Home Depot parking lot next to Republic Airport on Long Island I saw a P-40 in what I assume were origianl US Army Air Corps colors warming up for takeoff. I was so awed by it it that I sat there waiting until it taxied out and took off. A truly beautiful plane.
Many thanks for this vid. I knew that the P-40 was derived from the P-36 but wow, so many early variants. My father flew the P-40N in New Guinea until the end of the war. His logbook makes interesting reading.
FAF pilots sayed C-75 was pleasure to fly,heavy boots to fill with later models.I think C-75 was under rated.
My dad spent the first two years of the war in a p-40. He loved it but it had its problems. He later than ended up in p-47 and he loved his jug
It certainly did have problems with the Allison and with handling. Constant trimming required.
The Warhawk is by far my favorite aircraft of ww2 due to it being one of the only airframes to fight in the war from start to finish and serve in all theaters of the war
Agreed!
The P-47s and especially the latter P-51 variants always get all the adoration.
But I loved the P-40, the A-36 (an early P-51, really), not to mention the P-39 and P-63 Cobras.
All tough and respected in their respective wartime roles.
Great retrospective, thanks! 🤙
Fantastic video. You're production just keeps getting better and better.
My son and I share the account, going about about 10 years now. He has graduated to playing jets, tanks and ships in RB, I still luv playing props in AB.
Why do you only have 92K subscribers? This is better content than I have EVER seen on any broadcast network.
When I was a kid, I read the book about the Flying Tigers in China. I thought the P40 was so cool with that Shark face on it. Here I am at 77 yrs old and I think it’s still cool.
Allison didn't publish official overboost ratings (war emergency power) until late 1942, so in the Desert Air Force there were the official P-40 performance figures and various "unofficial" ones which depended on how hard a squadron's pilots were prepared to push the engine.
The Ruskies pretty much ignored the admonishments of running the engines at WEP for more than a few minutes, and did very well. The Allison became a very tough engine.
I read that the Russians in particular didn't pay much attention to WEP limits in their 39s or 40s.
Allison may not have posted engine performance but RAE and AFDU would have tested it.
The early P-40s in the desert suffered horribly from lack of filters on the induction. Engine fires were common and killed more than a few pilots in the RAF, RSAAF, RAAF. I think that the filtration issue was addressed finally by the P-40 M & N models.
There is good documentation of P-40s in the Pacific being configured for overboosting. The Allison company recommended against it. Of course the reason for overboosting was the need for more speed and climb performance against superior enemy a/c. Allison authorized an new limit of only 60". The Allison -81 had a higher CR and overboosting was not allowed.
An important point about the P-40E is the -39 version of the Allison engine. It was probably the strongest liquid cooled engine in the war and, according to a letter I downloaded from WW2 Aircraft Forums by a USAAF general, it was regularly flown at 75 (!) pounds of manifold pressure. This gave a far higher low altitude speed than it officially had and combined with its maneuverability gave Allied pilots a fighting chance.
There are many reasons that Saburō Sakai is alleged to have claimed that a well-handled P-40 was the Allies most dangerous aircraft.
Sakai was shot up by a flight of Douglass SBD Dauntless dive bombers and after the wounds he sustained, including being blinded in one eye, was never the fighter pilot he was.
My father flew P40’s on one tour with the RNZAF attacking the Japanese in the New Britain theatre. He later flew a further two tours with Corsairs but never had a bad word to say about the P40. He said the P40 was a delight to fly. I have a recollection that he claimed these P40’s the RNZAF used had previously been with the RAF in the Middle East, he claimed there was a lot of sand flying around when they were flown inverted!
Ya know I never considered how that terrible condition would exist!!
Sand everywhere!!
makes sense; the F4U was a higher performer, but less pilot friendly. It's often the things you don't see on paper that matter.
Awesome video. I was already familiar with the P-40's history, and achievements, but this and it's Part 2 combine to tell this story in a beautifully accessible way. Well done.
The Flying Tigers sold me on this bird as a kid; relative a/c characteristix being a key lesson. Was slightly disappointed that the shark mouth came from the RAF. I am also a supporter of the P-39, for similar reasons 💜💜💜.
Why are you disappointed? Is it that good old Murica is always the first and best with everything?
who nicked it off the germans...... oooerrr!
Hope you don't forget the Downunda's Tomorrohawks, people like Keith 'Bluey' Truscott, 'Killer' Clive Caldwell and others. Thanks m8.
Not going to lie, I get kind of tired seeing P-51's at airshows. Was lucky enough to see an original Pearl Harbor survivor P-40 a couple times. Quite a beautiful aircraft. The wing shape is fantastic.
P-51 is certainly superior,but P-40 wins big in anesthetic department.Especially earlier B/C models.
Thank you very much for your effort. A great video and made in a very pleasant way. Hope you recover soon. Greetings from Argentina
This is a great video of my favorite WW2 aircraft - the Curtiss Model 81 Tomahawk. I did notice however that occasionally, photos of the Model 87 Kittyhawk were included in the editing, which were inappropriate in the text content. Be that as it may, thanks Rex for your good work in researching your videos - always enjoy watching them, and looking forward to the real Model 87 one!
The design lines of the entire front of the airplane are so elegant.the way the gun blisters melt into the fuselage.
Love the P40. Apparently it could make very tight turns at near full speed owing to it's amazing Curtis wing.
It rolled and turned well, but just couldn't climb and constant trimming, etc caused a high pilot workload.
Fantastic. One of my favourite fighters, it was available in numbers early in the war when needed which can’t be said for the P51 etc. I loved the pictures you showed of the RNZAF P40’s in their pacific paint scheme.
Another outstanding episode - looking forward to part 2 and the Kittyhawk :) sorry to hear about your Long Covid.
Literally, my favorite WWII fighter-- if just on aesthetics alone. And my grandfather was a P-51D pilot-- My second favorite fighter
Not only did the P-40 suffer from a lack of prestige after the war, but the Allison engine also suffered.
No one these days seem to remember that the P-38 Lightning also used the same engines, and with a turbo-supercharging system installed were some of the most powerful engines ever used during the war.
I recently saw an interview with Elon Musk where he claimed that if the P-38 had used Merlin engines, it "would have been awesome," but I guess no one told him the turbo-supercharged Allisons outperformed the Merlins at all altitudes by a significant margin.
Elon was not wrong. The Lockheed engineers had done the studies and repeatedly requested Merlins, especially when the later merlins were on the books showing 2050 HP, later used in the Hornet. Allison never made reliable high altitude engines in WWII or Korea. Even the P-82 Allisons were a maintenance nightmare.
The P-40 did a wonderful job in the African desert and as a stop gap in New Guinea. It's wide track and strong undercarriage combined with the 6 50 cals also made it a great plane in ground support off crappy airfields. It was instrumental at the Battle of Milne Bay.
Actually, the rearward folding gear failed quite often in the rough desert airstrips.
It is nice to see a much maligned,unfairly, aircraft getting some recognition, as with the Bolton-Paul-Defiant, it found a niche that the pilots used to good effect, and the fact that they were so rugged, bringing pilots home when most other aircraft would have fallen from the sky, must have given their pilots a measure of comfort. Thanks for sharing your research and knowledge with us all, looking forward to part 2, thanks again Rex. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿🇺🇸
Hey the Defiant became one of the best night fighters of the war! I love her🥰
@@michaelbrogan7537 exactly my point Michael, as a day fighter/light attack aircraft it was not very much use, but later in the war as a night fighter it was a very very useful asset to the allies and in particular the RAF. Outdated before it even entered service the RAF had no option but to use it during the disastrous BEF campaign in Europe. Thanks for your reply, it is great getting feedback on my comments, and I usually learn something new. 😀🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦👍
I'm a big fan of that Allison engine but the reality is, it wasn't enough at the time. And was the Biggest shortcoming of the p40. That plane needed a minimum of eighteen hundred horsepower plus a 2 speed supercharger to play with the big boys upstairs. Pratt and whitney was leading the way in American horsepower. (Power to weight) Imagine what that tough air frame could have done if it was given a better engine.
Correct. The P-40 was somewhat draggy and the Allison made it underpowered. Field units (especially Aussies) overboosted the engine (prior to the -81 series) but too many youtoobers think that was without consequence. Overboosting caused many engine failures/fires and shortened engine life, but that was the risk taken to save the pilot. Overboosting was not allowed on the -81 series as it had a higher CR.
Later Allisons were stronger, but continued to have issues with overboosting. Even the P-82 engines were a maintenance nightmare in Korea.
@@bobsakamanos4469 They made.
Better hydroplane engines😁👍
I developed an enhanced liking for the P-40 after reading the Autobiography of Bobby Gibbs, "You live but once." It's a signed copy and has no publishers page.
Heal quickly Rex. Your illumination on the history of aircraft history is much appreciated and illuminating.
The kitty hawk is the plane everyone loves to trash talk, while also being that one plane needed to take so many hits, fish out so many hits, while being one to carry the boys back home in.
Without it, I’m sure things would be very different.
Yep same with the Hurricane. The planes we relied on when we really needed it are the most underappreciated. Combination of the media of the day bigging up the glamorous spitfires and P51s and axis pilots who bizarrely refused to admit they had been shot down by a hurri or P40.... It was always a spit or P51. Good to see some redress finally.
@@johnrainford9708 LOL, the Hurri was outdated by the fall of 1940. Even during the Battle of Britain it was only useful in numbers if radar controllers could guide them into place in time. It had the worst kill ratio in that battle, the Me110 had the best, and that was against fighters, not bombers.
P-40 was certainly better than the Hurricane with its radiator and wing tanks vulnerable from many angles and its header tank unprotected. It was a death trap with poor combat metrics, while the P-40 at least could dive away and roll quickly.
Who trash talks it? Nice straw man.
@@bobsakamanos4469 They'd have done well enough if well led.