Episode 160 – The P-40 in RNZAF Service – Part Two

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Guest: David Duxbury

Host: Dave Homewood

Recorded: 3rd of August 2017

Released: 9th of September 2017

Duration: 1 hours 37 minutes 8 seconds

In Part Two of this Curtiss P-40 special, following on directly from Episode 159, aviation historian David Duxbury once again joins Dave Homewood to conclude this Duxbury Files story. Together they continue to look at the history of the Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk and Warhawk fighter series in Royal New Zealand Air Force service, with such topics as more interesting incidents, books, collisions in the air and on the ground, weapons they dropped, fighter and bombing tactics, individual aircraft names, and much more.

David and Dave also answer more questions that came in from listeners. And they look at surviving examples of the P-40, plus much more. As usual with any conversation with David Duxbury, this is packed with gems of info and snippets that most people will never have heard before, so it is well worth a listen for any fan of the Kittyhawk or Warhawk.

•  Air To Air – by Chris Rudge

•  Too Young To Die – by Bryan Cox

•  Kittyhawks And Coconuts – by Keith Mulligan

•  The Blue Arena – by Bob Spurdle

•  Tiger Moths And Butterflies – by Peter Norman

•  Wings Over The Pacific – by Alex Horn

•  RNZAF: The First Decade – by Charles Darby

•  RNZAF: A Short History – by Geoffrey Bentley

•  Portrait of an Air Force – – by Geoffrey Bentley and Maurice Conly

 

Quick Links:

•  The RNZAF Curtiss P-40’s on adf.serials

•  The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk on Wikipedia

•  The Royal New Zealand Air Force by S/Ldr J.M.S. Ross

•  The Air Force Museum of New Zealand

•  The Museum of Transport and Technology

•  Classic Flyers NZ Museum

Above: A No. 16 (Fighter) Squadron P-40E NZ3044 flight down the Marlborough coast (Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo, via John Saunders)

P-40E NZ3027 FE-V in a ditch at Ohakea after a taxiing accident on the 10th of January 1944. The pilot was Allan ‘Skip’ Watson, and this photo comes from his logbook.

Above: Allan “Skip” Watson with his personal P-40N aircraft NZ3237 “ESMA LEE”, which was E from No. 4 Servicing Unit.  Skip named his Warhawk after a girl he fancied back home in Auckland. From the collection of the late Allan Watson.

P-40M’s operated by No. 14 (Fighter) Squadron at Kukum Field, Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands in 1943 (photo via Kerry Carlyle)

RNZAF Curtiss P-40’s of No. 2 Servicing Unit lined up while USAAF Lockheed P-38 Lightnings fly over (from the collection of the late Graeme Cosgrove)

A great shot of an RNZAF P-40 in operational area stripes and the white tail. (Air Force Museum of New Zealand photo, via John Saunders)

Apologies for the slightly off sound quality in parts. This episode has proven a bit of a challenge to edit.