On Wed, 12 May 2004 15:35:02 +1000, "Geoffrey Sinclair"
wrote:

The big difference is the P-40 production June to August 1942,
Dean says 560 the Digest says 1,158. As a result mainly of
this Dean's P-40 production grand total is around 600 less than
other references at 13,143, versus 13,738 in the digest for
example.

Are these figures for production totals as calculated by the
manufacturer, or delivery totals to the USAAF?

I can't really help with this, other than to wonder if lend-lease
allocations might be responsible, in terms of aircraft delivered
against USAAF contracts being exported before being included in USAAF
delivery statistics. Even if that was the case, I don't know why
allocations should suddenly alter the totals in that period alone if
earlier lend-lease allocations (e.g. for the 400-plus P-40E's
delivered as Kittyhawk IA's to the British in early 1942) were
recorded in the statistics accurately.

Having said that, the British only got about 272 Kittyhawks in total
between the beginning of June and the end of August 1942, with a
further 36 or so from their allocations going to Australia and New
Zealand. Diversions to Canada from British Kittyhawk allocations seem
to have dried up by then. Equally, none of the British allocation
went to Russia at that point (although 170 of their allocation of
P-40M's did in 1943).

I don't know about US Kittyhawk allocations (e.g. lend-lease
diversions to Russia from USAAF allocations had been delivered and
taken on charge by the USAAF, as opposed to being delivered direct
from the factory as in the case of British lend-lease allocations) ,
but the British allocations seem to account for less than 50% of your
total discrepancy, so the issue of lend-lease allocation seems less
than credible.

On the other hand, procurement contract discrepancies might account
for it. Production of the F and K models should account for
deliveries in June - August 1942. I think 600 P-40F's were ear-marked
for an "R" designation for training. While that total would match
your total discrepancy, they should still be recorded against P40
deliveries to USAAF contracts, especially as I don't know if any were
actually re-designated in the event.

The P-40K's being produced at the same time had a similarly suggestive
number total associated with their procurement. While more than a
thousand K's were made, originally 600 of these were on order for
China (taken over by the USAAF after Pearl Harbor) and about 190 of
that total were diverted to the British to repay them for the 100
Tomahawks they'd had diverted to the AVG in 1941. Perhaps this
ex-Chinese order was complicating the paperwork; aircraft from this
order seem to be being delivered to the RAF for delivery to the Middle
East in August or September 1942 (where they turned up in operational
squadrons a couple of months later). Again, however, the same problem
arises in that these aircraft were still produced for and delivered
against existing USAAF contracts, and should be counted in both
production and service delivery statistics in either of your sources.

To continue on the 600-aircraft theme, I think 600 P-40M's were made,
and only for delivery via lend-lease (i.e. with no USAAF use) which
would tie in with your total discrepancy better than the F's (more
than that were delivered), but they only started production in August
(IIRC), so I can't see them causing such a major discrepancy in the
July-August delivery statistics. The K had been in scale production
for a couple of months before the start of the period in question, so
it seems a much more likely candidate.

None of this, of course, answers your question. Sorry.

My own personal feeling is that the 50% reduction in statistics for
P-40 deliveries in July-September 1942 seems to reflect somebody
missing out one or other of the two main variants being produced at
that time (the F and K) from the total. I suspect that the K's are
the most likely candidate, as the M's coming into scale production by
the last quarter and being included in the statisics might re-align
them with the USAAF totals if the F's or K's had been missed out for a
period.

Gavin Bailey





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