Stolen from
Canadian Aviation Historical Society - Preserving Canada's Flying Heritage
The Bell P-39 Airacobra in the RCAF (Updated)
By Jerry Vernon
Quite by chance I stumbled across the article on the CAHS website recently,
about the Bell Airacobra and the RCAF.
During one of my visits to the Directorate of History in 1983, I was given a copy of
a couple of research papers by Dr. Steve Harris on the procurement of fighter
and other aircraft for the RCAF early in the Second World War. Most of this
information was later incorporated in the appropriate places in the 3-volume
official RCAF history, and can be read there in more detail.
The papers are titled "Research Note 7 - Canada, Britain and the Home War
Establishment" and "Research Note 1 - Canada and American Fighters - the P-
39 and the P-40"
Several years later, while I was poking through RCAF Record Cards and RCAF
Accident Cards at DHist, I stumbled by chance upon the accident card for a P-39
that was written off by an RCAF pilot near Rockcliffe, while the RCAF were
evaluating the type.
My Comments on Research Note 7:
In late 1940/early 1941, the Canadian view of the need for the Home War
Establishment (HWE) was the following:
151 Bolingbrokes
?? Stranraers
50+ PBYs(to be built in Canada)
144 Airacobras(to be built in Canada)
200 Martin Marauders(to be built in Canada)
Britain wanted Canada to build heavy bombers, and proposed that Canada get
the P-39s and B-26s from British contracts in the US instead. Later, the B-26s
became Lancasters and the P-39s became P-40s. There was also a proposal to
built the obsolete Short Stirling in Canada, before the plan was switched to
Lancasters. The 160 obsolete Hampdens were built as an "educational
exercise", in order to built up expertise in large all-metal aircraft in the Canadian
aircraft industry.
In order to keep the CanCar plant in operation, C. D. Howe ordered 400
additional Hurricanes and 300 Harvards, with no definite RCAF or RAF need for
the Hurricanes.... they were for foreign sale to Holland, China or whoever. This
posed another problem, to get 400 Rolls Royce or Packard Merlins for the
Hurricanes.
A deal was struck to trade 50 PBYs to the UK for 240 Merlins, and later the UK
agreed to take 200 of the Hurricanes (they are listed in Griffin's book as "Free
Issue"), which were shipped to Russia, India, etc., using older Merlins from UK
stocks. In Sep 42, the RCAF agreed to give up 200 Hurricanes, if replacements
were made available by Mar 43.
In August 1942, the RCAF was looking at a HWE of 35 squadrons, vs. an earlier
view of 49 squadrons, which included five Kittyhawk and/or Mosquito units … at
total of 575 aircraft.
In more recent years, I have found documentation that a later allotment was
made to supply the RCAF with P-51D and P-51K Mustangs in 1945 for the HWE,
but the war wound down and this never happened. Pity!! We later bought
Mustangs in 1947 and 1950.
My comments on Research Note 1:
In 1939, Canada were looking into obtaining Seversky or Curtiss fighters off US
contracts, since the supply of British aircraft did not look promising at that time.
They stopped looking in January 40. After No. 1(F) Sqn. went overseas with its
Hurricanes in mid-1940, we started looking again, this time at the Vultee Model
48 (P-66) Vanguard or at manufacturing the Lockheed P-38 in Canada.
However, the "most available" fighters were the P-39 Airacobra and P-40
Kittyhawk
In November 1940, the USAAC advised Canada that the P-40(modified) would
be superior to the P-39. … however, W/C Larry Dunlap(postwar Chief of Air
Staff) advised that the P-40 was "very poor" compared to the P-39!!! Dunlap was
the RCAF's Director of Armament from 1939 to 1942, and his opinions were
generally accepted. Based on Dunlap's recommendation, Canada decided in
Dec 40 to seek a production agreement to build P-39s in Canada, using
American engines. C. D. Howe opposed this, and preferred to obtain aircraft
transferred off British orders instead.
Also touted about and available in the 1940–41 period were the Vultee P-
48 Vanguard, Vultee A-31 Vengeance, Grumman G-36A Wildcat and G-45A (the
land-based XP-50 version of the twin-engined XF5F Skyrocket).
A total of 144 P-39s were needed. If obtained off British orders, this would be
okay … this was before the RAF decided that the P-39 was a dud. If obtained
after the British and US production orders were completed, as a separate RCAF
order, this would be too late for the RCAF's projected need.
In March 1941, Canada was advised that they could not get P-39s until 1943,
and that they should look at Canadian-built Hurricanes instead. That same
month, Canada asked for 50 Hurricanes and 144 Airacobras, later reduced to
110 Airacobras in April 1941.
In April 1941, it had become apparent that P-39 production was delayed, due to
Allison engine problems, and also it became clear that British and US needs
would use up all production capacity until 1943. However, the RAF did offer 72
of their P-39s to Canada, for delivery before 1943.
Within a few days, it became apparent that the supply of 50 Hurricanes was also
in doubt, and it was suggested that Canada take 50 early model P-40
Tomahawks instead. Canada counter-offered to take 50 more P-39s, which was
what we really wanted.
By June 1941, the total P-39 program was back up to 144, but no Hurricanes.
However, the UK advised that we could have none of these until late 1942, and
should consider taking the P-40 instead.
In August 1941, Canada advised that they would take 72 P-40s, but only if they
could be traded for 72 P-39s later, plus a further 72 P-39s to come later. This
was about the time that the RAF concluded that the P-39 wasn't such a great
performer after all.
In September 1941, the RCAF negotiated to get 12 P-40s per month, starting
immediately. The total number to come would depend on the P-39 situation, and
the Brits did agree to replace P-40s with P-39s as they came available.
In November 1941, RCAF staff advised the Chief of Air Staff that Canada should
take the additional 72 P-40s as well, and not wait for P-39 production to catch
up. If we didn't take them, the US would, and we would get nothing more. At the
time, the decision was deferred, since the RCAF lacked the aircrew and ground
crew to handle them.
By April 1942, the RCAF had taken delivery of all 72 P-40s, and by May 1942, we
had dropped the bid for 144 P-39s and asked for the full 144 to be P-40s
instead. By that time, we had taken delivery of 72 Kittyhawk Mk. I aircraft plus 12
Mk. IA(P-40E-1) aircraft.
That's the end of my summary of my notes on Steve Harris' Research Notes, so
it has been summarized twice!!
Just the digress for a moment, the Kittyhawk Mk. I(Model H87A-2) was not strictly
a P-40E …it was a bit of a hybrid between the 4-gun P-40D(Model H87A-1) and
the 6-gun P-40E (Model H-87A-3). In fact, the first 20 had been delivered with
only 4 wing guns, but the rest had 6 guns when the RAF modified their order to
take advantage of the P-40E improvements. These aircraft were part of an RAF
order for 560 Kittyhawk Mk. I aircraft… they were not Lend Lease (or Lease
Lend, depending on which end of the pipe you were at). The Kittyhawk Mk. IA
was a P-40E-1 and they were Lend Lease aircraft, with both a USAAC s/n and a
RAF s/n. The Mk. I Kittyhawks had only an RAF s/n and were later given RCAF
s/ns when they became part of the HWE. The later Kittyhawk Mk. III and Mk. IV
aircraft were also from Lend Lease orders, and had USAAC, RAF and eventually
RCAF s/ns assigned.
In a way, this looks like a bit of a beancounter's exercise … and it is amazing
how much the beancounters influenced the action on aircraft deliveries, etc. … I
have often wondered if they realized that there was a war going on!!
A total of 144 Airacobras became 72 Kittyhawks, with a promise of 72 more to
come later. Later deliveries, as you have noted, were 15 Kittyhawk Mk. III (P-
40M) and 35 Kittyhawk Mk. IV (P-40N) aircraft, for a total of 134. Thinking like a
beancounter, this is how I have rationalized it … 134 were delivered to the RCAF
+ 9 borrowed from the US in the Aleutians (some of which we destroyed) + the
one P-39 that the RCAF destroyed at Rockcliffe = 144 aircraft, so we got our full
amount!
Caption: Bell Aircraft publicity photograph of RAF AH621.
What about the one RCAF Airacobra?? It was RAF s/n AH621 and it was being
tested at Rockcliffe in 1941. The RCAF Accident Card shows that the aircraft
crashed at 1100 hrs, 26 November 1941, 2 1/2 miles from Rockcliffe. The pilot
was F/L R. B. Middleton of 12 Comm Sqn., slightly injured. The card says that
the aircraft suffered a forced landing in a field, with the undercarriage up,
following "engine failure due to gasoline stoppage". Category A (writeoff)
I have not looked for a Court of Inquiry file on AH621, but there may be one. The
Finding Aid does not indicate that there is a C of I file, but it does indicate a
couple of RCAF correspondence files on the Airacobra, one on Policy and one on
Technical Aspects.
Caption: Bell Airacobra I RAF AH621 (Stan Piet Collection)
Referring directly to statements in the article, The Bell P-39 Airacobra in the
RCAF…
The substitution of Kittyhawks for P-39s appears to have been mainly a result of
delayed P-39 production and deliveries coupled with the availability of Kittyhawks
that could be diverted to the RCAF from the RAF's order. One of the RCAF's
senior technical officers had recommended that the P-39 was superior to the
Kittyhawk, but we had to take what was available. It was not what we wanted,
but I think it worked out better in the end!!