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Lt. Col. William N. Hite first joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) while attending Stanford University, where he earned degrees in Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering. Lt. Col. Hite hoped to become an aeronautical engineer and an experienced pilot, so he joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1940. In February 1941, Lt. Col. Hite married his Stanford sweetheart Ruth Wattis Harris, who is painted on either side of the aircraft.
During World War II, Lt. Col. Hite had extensive experience flying the P-40. He was an expert at flying not only this airplane, but the P-38 and the P-47 as well. He was discharged from the service in December 1945, after the war ended.
As a pursuit plane, the purpose of the P-40 was to destroy the enemy. The P-40B introduced armor protection for the pilot and doubled the wing firepower from two to four .30 caliber machine guns as well as two .50 caliber guns mounted on the engine cowling. The P-40E increased the wing firepower with six free-firing .50 caliber machine guns–three on each side. To reduce the weight of the aircraft and increase its speed, the new design removed one gun from each side of early P-40N models . Unlike other models, all six guns on the P-40N had to fire at once. The P-40N could also carry up to 500 pounds of bombs.
As early as World War I, pilots painted shark mouths on the nose of their aircraft. Later, the Flying Tigers, who flew P-40s in China, made this type of nose art famous during World War II. Pilots used nose art for a variety of reasons, one being intimidation which the teeth of predatory animals on the front of the aircraft often did.
While looking through a magazine, Pilot Charles Bond of the Flying Tigers saw an Australian aircraft with animal teeth painted on it and decided to paint teeth on his aircraft, and other members of the Flying Tigers followed suit. At the time, Bond was unaware that China had independently commissioned Walt Disney to design an emblem for their aircraft and tagged them as the Flying Tigers. Aircraft then belonging to the Flying Tigers had shark mouths painted on the nose and a tiger with wings on the side.
Assigned to Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, Alaska, the 11th Air Force participated in the Alaska Campaign to protect the Aleutian Islands from Japanese forces. Weather was the main adversary in the Aleutian Campaign as the severe cold and strong winds were tough on equipment and personnel. Inclement weather made military operations increasingly difficult and dangerous.
To prepare for an attack by the Japanese somewhere in the Pacific in the 1940s, the United States began to deploy military aircraft to Alaska. Due to the increased air power in Alaska, the War Department activated the Alaskan Air Force at Elmendorf Field near Anchorage on 15 January 1942 and later assigned this base to the 11th Air Force in February 1942. 11th Air Force flew 297 combat missions and dropped 3,662 tons of bombs. Only 35 aircraft in this group were lost in combat compared to 150 in operational accidents–mostly due to the severe Aleutian weather. In July 1943, the U.S. began launching bombing raids against Japanese home islands, and by August 1943, the U.S. had driven Japanese forces from Alaska.
Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, Alaska, 1941
Curtiss equipped the P-40N with the Allison V-1710 engine. As the product of an extensive Army program to develop a high-power, liquid-cooled engine, the V-1710 was derived from a model designed in 1930 for airship use. The Air Corps first used the V-1710 in 1932.
During World War II, this engine was used primarily in the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the Bell P-39 Airacobra and the twin-engine Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was also used in early versions of the North American P-51 Mustang.
Photo from Project 914 Archives (S. Donacik Collection).
During World War II, Hill Field performed vital maintenance with round-the-clock operations geared to supporting the war effort. Battle weary aircraft, including the P-40, depended on the men and women of Hill Field for structural repair, engine overhaul, and parts.
In 1942, Hill Field started a production line for modifying, repairing, and storing P-40 aircraft for service in the World War II Alaskan Theater. Two years later, in 1944, Hill Field became responsible for the long-term storage of surplus aircraft and support equipment. Hill Field set up a production line for preparing approximately 250 operational-ready P-40s, as well as other aircraft, for storage . By the end of 1947, Hill Field preserved more than $200 million worth of aircraft in near perfect condition for possible future use.
Photo of aircraft storage at Hill Field during the mid- to late- 1940s.
Members of the 11th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the11th Air Force, participated in the Alaskan Campaign to reclaim and protect the Aleutian Islands from the Japanese during the Second World War. Known as the Aleutian Tigers, they painted their P-40s with tiger heads and mouths in place of the more-common shark mouth. Under the command of Major John “Jack” Chenault, he once said, “As long as I live, there'll never be another like the “We'll Be There” Squadron. We went through so much and were so ill prepared in everything but morale, but we had that. The hardships the men had to put up with and the manner which they accepted them made you proud to be an American.”
This aircraft is a composite of two aircraft, a fiberglass P-40E replica and major parts of a P-40N that crashed in Alaska during World War II. It bears the serial number of the P-40N that flew with the 11th Fighter Squadron. Major John “Jack” Chenault, son of General Claire Chenault who led the Flying Tigers in China, was the commander of this group. Assigned to Elmendorf AAF, Alaska, tail #70 flew from 1 July 1943 to 21 October 1944 .
Curtiss produced 13,783 P-40s in various configurations, known as the Warhawk, Kittyhawk and Tomahawk, which flew with no less than 28 Allied nations. These pursuit aircraft served throughout the war on every front, including in Alaska with the 11th Air Force, China with the Flying Tigers, and North Africa with the 99th Fighter Squadron, the first African American U.S. fighter unit.
(Serial number 42-105270)