P-40 Warhawk In Action
(Softcover)
SS10205

Description:. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, a U.S. single-engine,
single-seat, all-metal fighter and ground-attack aircraft, first
took to the air in1939. In service throughout World War II and
used by most Allied powers during the war, the P-40 was the third

most-produced American pursuit plane. A total of 13,738 of the
aircraft were produced by the time output ceased in November of
1944. The P-40 first saw combat with British Commonwealth forces
in June 1941, even before the U.S. had entered the conflict. It
was in the Pacific, however, that the aircraft became an icon.
Decorated with menacing shark mouths, P-40s served as workhorse
fighters of the American Volunteer Group – better known as the
“Flying Tigers,” who came to China in late 1941, following the
withdrawal of the Soviet Volunteer Group earlier that year, as
the USSR faced with the full onslaught of Nazi Germany, struggled

to maintain a precarious neutrality with Japan and avoid a
two-front war. Meanwhile, the P-40 was the first Allied fighter
to be supplied to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease for use
against the Germans. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army Air Force
flew the P-40 extensively in the Mediterranean Theater and during

Operation Torch and the subsequent advance northwards into
Europe. Illustrated with 168 photographs, numerous color
profiles, and detailed line drawings, this volume traces the
development of the various modifications of the P-40 throughout
the war years and carries on with a few contemporary shots of
surviving P-40s still going through their paces at airshows
today.

80 pages.
ISBN = 978-0-89747-804-5.