eBay: Curtiss P-40

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MIflyer said:
1. The P-40 was a better fighter bomber than the Spitfire, in any model, especially if high altitude performance was not a factor in the missions.
2. Sometimes good enough is good enough.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone is disagreeing, but that's not why the P-40 was not replaced in theatre within the RAF. It was not replaced because of numbers. Having more is better. Let's not forget the Spitfire was a better fighter than the P-40 hands down and was not designed as a ground attack aircraft, but, as you said, sometimes good enough is good enough.
 
It was obvious that as Operation Overlord approached the RAF had built themselves a serious dilemma. They were heavily equipped with a superb interceptor that was going to be of limited use in supporting the invasion. It was a poor fighter bomber - the Spit IX with two 500 lb bombs had an operational radius of about 90 miles and was very vulnerable to ground fire. Their best indigenous fighter bomber, the Typhoon, had relatively poor high altitude performance, the result of its single stage supercharger, very poor ditching characteristics, and an engine so unreliable that pilots were afraid to cross the Channel if the powerplant was acting up the least little bit. So in some respects, at least, the Tiffie was inferior to the Whirlwind it replaced.

So the RAF had to reconfigure itself as a Tactical Air Force to support the invasion while still performing their most important mission, The Air Defense of Great Britain. And they had to use Spitfires for both of those missions, just because, as you say, the numbers.

The attached superb photo of a Mustang Mk 1 shows one deployed to France for use in directing naval gunfire along the still-occupied coast of France and Holland north of Normandy. It replaced the Spit IX aircraft used by that unit previously. There was not a snowball's chance in hell of doing any daylight air fighting along that route. A P-40 would have been even better.

 
942 Pilots & P40E Kittyhawk USAAF 49th FG 7th FS Batchelor airfield Darwin






Press Photo 1942 Pilots & P40E Kittyhawk USAAF 49th FG 7th FS Batchelor Darwin | eBay

<p>Original Press Photo from 1943 shows what I believe to be a Curtiss P40E Kittyhawk fighter of USAAF 49th Fighter Pursuit Group, 7th Fighter Squadron based at Batchelor Airfield near Darwin, Northern Territory of Australia. </p><p>The large number 26 on the aircraft’s nose engine cowling...
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Snautzer01 said:
AH913 Western Desert Campaign G Geoffrey Sinclair might be of interest to you thread on Britmodeller.com - Modelling with a British Flavour
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Well the EBAY titles are wrong, it was a Tomahawk IIA, originally sent to Britain in 1940, then sent to the Middle East/Takoradi in September 1941 but reported still not arrived as of mid January 1942. A date on the photographs would be nice, stating the obvious it looks like those in messages 583 and 587 are the same aircraft.
 
Camera carring in Pod like droptank

Camera carrying P40

Saw this one on Footnote and thought it would make a great and original model Information on this by Cmasher P-40 belly tank is modified to carry a motion picture camera by the 10th Combat Camera Unit in India. Aircraft is most likely assigned to the 51st Fighter Group.
ww2aircraft.net
 
Army droptank nr 84


ORIGINAL WW2 CURTIS P-40 WARHAWK PLANES PHOTOS (2) | eBay

<p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">WW2 WAR PLANE PHOTOS LOT OF 2</p> <br> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">CURTIS P-40 WARHAWK </p> <p dir="ltr" style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0;">DOUGLAS SBD DAUNTLESS OR A T6 TEXAN ??</p> <br> <p dir="ltr"...
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The P-40 served on because, it was tough, dependable and good enough.
99% of the time it never saw an enemy fighter as its went about its day job bombing the Germans and harassing their lines of communications.
And when it did meet a Luftwaffe fighter? It was OK, nothing stellar, but good enough, it could hold its own to the end.
The little Grumman F4F Wildcat was also a deadly foe to the very end in the ETO, shooting down Me109G's right up to near VE Day, yet on paper, it too was totally outclassed.
 
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