Transients?

At least twenty-two P-40s and two P-51As share the ramp at an airfield near Karachi, India
with a single UC-45, perhaps before moving on to various combat units. Another possibility
is that these pursuit ships are part of an in-theater operational training unit.

All of these Hawks are P-40Ns with the later canopy configuration... except one ship, at the left end
of the farthest row, which has the original canopy and possibly a short tail. If so, it is a P-40E. If it's
a long-tailed ship, then it's either an early P-40N, a P-40M, or possibly even a late long-tailed P-40K.

Worthy of note is the lack of national markings on a number of the Hawks, possibly indicating that, if
they are transients heading to a combat outfit, they might be destined for the CACW and have yet to have
Chinese insignia applied. Also, there is a single P-40 in the front row which wears early-war U.S. national
insignia without the bars, possibly dating this photo to sometime in late 1943, or perhaps very early in 1944.


National Archives and Records Administration via Fold3 - Larger Image
Even Larger Image

An Old Warrior

Keeping company with a rocket-carrying P-61 and an L-5, this unidentified weary-looking P-40E was
photographed by Corporal Antonio L. Villarreal who served with the 497th and 498th Air Service Squadrons
of the 44th Air Service Group, Tenth Air Force. The location may be either Dinjan or Jorhat, India.

My thanks to Cpl. Villarreal's Grand-daughter, Erika, for her kind permission to include these photos here.


Antonio L. Villarreal photo - Larger Image


Antonio L. Villarreal photo

Antonio L. Villarreal photo - Larger Image


Antonio L. Villarreal photo

Another Old Warrior

This P-40E, 41-5664, was photographed (most likely in 1944) by Jack Canary, a North American
Aviation tech rep serving in the CBI. See more photos HERE...


Jack Canary Special Collection, SDASM Archives

An anonymous Hawk driver climbs into the cockpit of his P-40N.


Project 914 Archives

Recce-Hawk

We don't know what outfit this P-40K was assigned to... possibly the 51st FG. But the ingenius
little drop tank camera it carries was apparently rigged up by the 10th Combat Camera Unit in India.


National Archives and Records Administration via Fold3 - Larger Image


National Archives and Records Administration via Fold3 - Larger Image

Hood in the Hawk

Brigadier General Reuben C. Hood Jr. sits in the cockpit of an anonymous P-40 in the
CBI; date and location are unknown to me. Early in the war he served as chief of staff, then
commander of the China-Burma-India Air Service Command, and later became CO of the
China Air Service Area, commanding all United States Army Air Forces air bases in China.


National Archives and Records Administration via Fold3 - Larger Image

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