So following up on my previous post, I'm starting to see two or three timelines emerging with two different narratives about the Kittyhawk variants adaptation to carrying heavier bomb loads in the MTO. This is a bit different from what happened in CBI and the Pacific but I'll have to circle back to those Theaters later.
According to Shark Squadron Pilot, typical armament in early 1943 for Kittyhawk IIIs (I believe P-40K at this point) in North Africa consisted of one 500 lb bomb or two 250 lb bombs on the center line, with another six 40 lb bombs (three on each wing). The 250 lb bombs often had 12" or 18" detonation rods mounted. An example of this is listed on page 63.
By August he also describes carrying a 63 gallon (!) fuel tank on the centerline.
He refers to Cab Rank operations in September (44?) on page 125. In the next few pages he discusses increased bomb armament being carried.
He notes that Warrant Officer Smith, the squadron engineer for 112 Sqn, 'invented' a special bomb rack for Kittyhawks to carry two 250 lb bombs on the centerline in North Africa, for which he received the MBE.
He notes that several things were removed in North Africa to lighten the aircraft which had to be put back in for Italy- artificial horizon, a smaller battery (which had to be upgraded back to a bigger one), aluminum wheels replaced the steel wheels, but as bomb loads went up in Italy, these cracked so had to be replaced with steel rims again. He states the following:
"In North Africa the weather was so good we didn't need our artificial horizons on the instrument panel. When it was decided to uplift the bomb-load to two 500 pounders under the wings the authorities decided to remove the artificial horizon and other equipment to compensate for the additional bomb-load."
So I take this to mean that they were already carrying 500 lb bombs on the wing in North Africa. No explanation is given to any modification to the aircraft to carry 500 lbs on the wings, but it seems to be a decision taken in the field which was later officially followed up with the Kittyhawk Mk IV / P-40N.
He goes on to note that in Italy, they were now carrying either a 500 lb under the centerline, plus another 500 lb under each wing, or a 1,000 lb bomb under the fueselage, plus a 500 lb bomb under each wing. This is still with the Kittyhawk III though it's not clear if this is a P-40K or M, (however, I believe I can follow up on that and find out). He notes that this is almost as much bomb load as the B-25s they sometimes escorted.
He notes (page 127) that to takeoff with this load they had to add some flap and stand on the brakes until the revs had mounted up before moving forward. He discusses one incident where a Kittyhawk failed to take off and skidded off the field and into some tents, which luckily didn't cause any casualties. But he doesn't mention many other issues.
One other thing which comes up is that by this point in Italy they were operating largely from Marsden mats due to the issue of mud. These were very good but they made the prospect of a belly landing much more perilous, and even more so with bombs still on board. He mentions one colleague belly landing outside of the base on a nearby beach. Something I'd never thought of.
He mentions a bit later (page 149) having to spiral up slowly to altitude with the heavy bomb load, and their climbing over the saddle on a mountain range, and they were waffling over that very slowly with a 1,500 lb bomb load, the Germans had dragged a light AAA gun up to the mountain and wiped out one of their fighters before the other could get away.
They still occasionally used 40 lb bombs on the wings (so the 500 lb wing mounting must have still allowd this?) later in the book on page 161, describing another raid with 500 lb bombs on the wings the next day.
It is not until almost at the end of his tour, on page 163, that he describes their unit receiving Kittyhawk IVs. These were 'officially' rated for the 1,000 lb bomb on the centerline and 500 on each wing. (an important distinction). Unfortunately they had a lot of problems with the Kittyhawk IVs with several things not working properly - this isn't the first time I've read about problems like this with the type.
I found a similar narrative with equivalent detail about the Kittyhawk II / P-40F and L but I'll have to post that tomorrow.