Les P-40F francais

[JDK]

A new one on me, and a couple of great colour shots of P-40Fs being handed over to the Free French Air Force in Casablanca.



More here: http://vintageaeroplanewriter.blogspot. ... olour.html

Anyone know where the colour images originally come from?

[CDF]

Groupe de Chasse GC II/5 'La Fayette' consisted of two escadrilles, the 3rd, with the Indian’s head, and the 4th, with the flying stork as emblem. Former Vichy units originally had no nickname, and got one added like Free French units, and the numerotation scheme changed: GC II/5 -> GC 2/5 "La Fayette". Casablanca and the date was January 9th, 1943. Despite the caption describing thirteen P-40s, there are only twelve Hawks in the photo. All were formerly with the USAAF 33rd FG and were officially handed over to the French GC II/5 'Groupe La Fayette' or 'La Fayette Escadrille' during this presentation ceremony.

Christopher Shores in USAAF Fighter Units in MTO 1941-1945 ISBN 0 85045 244 9, has 30 P-40F going to the French in Morocco from the 33FG. pg 6

source:
http://afrikaaxisallied.blogspot.com/20 ... yette.html

[BenG]

James,

The french air force flew also the -L.
Please note the Lafayette group is not a Free French group.

EDIT: found an interesting website thanks to Google (sorry in french): http://maquette72.free.fr/themes/lafaye ... avions.php

BG

[JDK]

Thanks CDF, Ben,

Appreciate the feedback. I'm interested that the Merlin Hawks are so under-documented (or perhaps better to say under recognised) and it's interesting to see where they come up. Certainly they were more widely used than I'd thought.

Dunno where my Lafayette group error came in, I must've been tired! I'll correct that.

Cheers
James

[mike furline]

There are a couple of D520's and a Hawk 75 inside the hangar.

James, your color (colour) picture most likely came from the US National Archives, either from the Air Force or Office of War Information(OWI) collections.

Last edited by mike furline on Tue Feb 08, 2011 6:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[mike furline]

Another on the French theme.

[JDK]

Great stuff, Mike, keep it coming...

Neat to see small-tail A-20/Bostons in use.

Cheers

[CDF]

James, EDIT: found an interesting website thanks to Google (sorry in french): http://maquette72.free.fr/themes/lafaye ... avions.php BG

Yeah thats all I did too, just a basic google search. I did a cross check with USAAF Fighter Units in MTO 1941-1945 ISBN 0 85045 244 9 as well

[Keith Gaff]

Hello James,

If you pop along to this years Friends of the RAAF Museum's George Merz Memorial Lecture in September we'll tell you all about Merlin engined Kittyhawks.

Regards,

Keith Gaff

[Invader26]

All FAF P-40's have number '114' on the fin???????

[mike furline]

All FAF P-40's have number '114' on the fin???????

Perhaps the AAC serial number (41-14xxxxx) or a FAF Squadron marking?

Regards,

[yankeepapa]

Great stuff, Mike, keep it coming...

Neat to see small-tail A-20/Bostons in use.

Cheers

DB 7 is I believe the right name. escape from france at the time of armistice with H75, D520 etc
YP