Document created: 4 September 03
Published: Air & Space Power Journal - Fall 2003

P-40 Warhawk Aces of the MTO, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces Series no. 43, by Carl Molesworth. Osprey Publishing (http://www.ospreypublishing. com/index.shtml), Elms Court, Chapel Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 9LP, United Kingdom, 2002, 96 pages, $18.95.

Osprey Publishing has done it again. Adding to perhaps the best series of military aviation books to hit the streets in recent years, Osprey has produced yet another excellent study that details aces and aircraft from a specific area. Carl Molesworth, an expert on the P-40 and its pilots, has written several books on this subject and is currently at work on his third book for Osprey- it will cover P-40 pilots in the Pacific; his first Osprey book dealt with P-40 aces of the China-Burma-India theater. P-40 Warhawk Aces is an excellent volume although a more appropriate title may have been American P-40 Warhawk Aces. Several Desert Air Force (DAF) fighter squadrons (South African, Australian, Canadian, and British) had success using the P-40 in the Mediterranean theater of operations (MTO) before the Americans arrived, but this book focuses on the American pilots of the 33d, 57th, 79th, 324th, and 325th Fighter Groups, the earliest of which did not arrive in-theater until late 1942.

The successes of the P-47s and P-51s that came into service later in the war tend to overshadow the story of the P-40. Most people do not realize that when the first operational American units arrived in North Africa in September 1942, the pilots of Ninth Air Force and Twelfth Air Force entered combat against German and Italian units with the only aircraft available at the time- the venerable P-40. In their battles with Axis forces, American P-40 pilots claimed 592 aerial victories, including the “Palm Sunday Massacre,” in which no fewer than 76 Luftwaffe aircraft were shot down in a 20-minute period over the Gulf of Tunis. American pilots, new to combat, held their own against enemy forces. I found it especially interesting to read accounts of American pilots shooting down Stukas, an honor usually reserved for pilots of the DAF or the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain.

Like the other books in this series, P-40 Warhawk Aces is laden with superb pictures and color aircraft profiles. Jim Laurier’s 40 color plates of P-40s used in the MTO add a detailed dimension to the book, as do the excellent scale drawings by Mark Styling. However, maps of the area and landing grounds emphasized by Molesworth would have been helpful. More important than the visual aesthetics, I found Molesworth’s writing to be clear, informative, and easy to read.

Given the quality of the research, pictures, color plates, scale drawings, and pilot accounts, readers cannot go wrong by including P-40 Warhawk Aces of the MTO in their collection. I look forward to the author’s next volume and hope he is planning to write about P-40 aces of the DAF from 1941 to 1942.

Lt Col Robert Tate, USAFR
Maxwell AFB, Alabama

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.