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Watched a documentary yesterday on the P-40 'Tomahawk' and mention was made that the French ordered 140 of these A/C and I wonder if anyone knows if they ever actually recieved them. If so, how successful were they vis a vis against the FW-190 and the Bf109? Also what happened to them after the collapse of the French? Probably never know all the details but an intersting subject. Lord, give me patience 'cuz if you give me strength I'll need bail money!! 'TrapperP' | ||
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The French never got them according to Wikipedia.They went to the British. The ME109 piloted by Erich Hartmann, the world's greates ace ever, ate their lunch on the Eastern Front. Russian pilots were not up to German standards. It really depended on the altitude of the fights, the speed, and turning capability of the respective planes fighting. Usually, the best pilot won. The P40 was slowly phased down as more powerful, high altitude, longer range fighters replaced them. In one on ones with Zeros, the Flying Tigers were vastly superior because of better pilots and their knowledge of how to take advantage of the P40's assets. Earlier variants of the ME109 could not hold their own with the P40, but then the ME109's improved. | |||
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The fame Japanese ace pilot Sakai said that at low altitudes the P-40 was one of their most feared adversaries. At high altitudes it was the P-38 and at any altitude the F4U. | |||
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I just happened to have read for the 3rd or 4th time a few weeks ago, GOD IS MY CO-PILOT by Colonel Robert L Scott. A movie was made about it, too. If there ever was a human being who lived to fly, it was him. He loved the P40 and talked about it in detail in the second part of the book and he killed with it to the max. For anyone interested in the P40, it is a must read. | |||
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The 353rd FG in Europe had a lone P40 that they would use in familiarization combat against the new pilots in P51's, and according to those guys the P40 could turn inside the 51 until the new guys learned how to drop some flaps in a turning fight. for every hour in front of the computer you should have 3 hours outside | |||
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Yep thats right the French order went to the Brits who promptly decided they were useless in the ETO. So they sent theirs of to N. Africa where they got much luv for ground attack. H.J. Marsielle the greatest German ace potted quite a few of them several at a time on a few occasions IIRC. I remember years ago an article written in a air mag where they did a interview/story of the P-40 and the orig. designer. He said the P-40 got hammered by politics in that it was scheduled for a better engine but someone hi up nixed that. His claim was if it had got the engine it would have been superior to the P-51. I can't for the life of me remember the engine it was supposed to get..Merlin maybe or a turbo'd version of an uprated Allison. | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Other Topics Aviation French Airforces and the P-40
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