One of my favorite aircraft from the Second World War (and I do have several) is the Curtiss Hawk 75 (also known as the P-36). When in flight the sleek lines of this maneuverable yet rugged aircraft are apparent. Some confusion arises when trying to differentiate between the various armaments carried on each model, as well as how each model is designated.
The P-36 was nearly obsolete by the time the Second World War started, but it was used by several nations early in the war, and by the Finns with great success well into 1944. Developed in 1934 in response to the U. S. Army's request for a low wing all metal-fighter with retractable wheels, the Hawk's main competitor was the Seversky P-35. The Seversky was eventually selected, even though it was slower and more costly to manufacture. However, Curtiss did receive a contract to build three prototypes. An improved Curtiss, using a Pratt & Whitney 900hp Twin Wasp engine, won the 1937 competition, resulting in an order for 210 P-36A models. While the P-35 was also put into production, only 196 models of the Seversky were built. By comparison, over one thousand Hawks were produced. Eventual users were Argentina, Britain, Brazil, China, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Thailand, South Africa, and the United States.
The French received 316 Curtiss fighters where they were designated the Curtiss H75-C1. While the Curtiss made up 12.6% of the French single-seat fighter component, the H75 accounted nearly a third of the French kills during the 1940 campaign. The Vichy government would use the Curtiss in North Africa, where the H75 faced off against American Wildcats during Operation Torch.
The Finns, who nicknamed the Hawk "Sussu," received a wide variety of Hawk 75A models from captured French and Norwegian stocks. In 1942 they upgraded the armament to include one or two heavy machineguns, retaining the light machineguns in combination to provide a total of six weapons per plane. The Finns repeated mentioned the ruggedness of the Hawk, so a robustness rating of R1, while aligned with contemporary airframes, might be on the low side.
What follows is a chart listing the various models of the Hawk. I am thinking that the increased horsepower should result in better performance, so perhaps one might drop the (-) for agility on the models with the 1200 hp engine.
