rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Good evening,

according to that website
http://www.warbirdsandairshows.com/a...torieswwii.htm
the ultrarare birds Boeing P-26, Seversky P-35 and Republic P-43 achieved 2, 1 and 6 victories, respectively.
Who were the lucky scorers ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

I'm sure no P-26 victories were scored by US pilots and these two victories were scored by Filipinos. It look like that Jesús Antonio VILLAMOR claimed two, they are probably his.

It quite possible the P-35 victory was scored by a Filipino too. I have no data on this topic.

The P-43 victories (I have 3 in Robert Allen's file) were scored by chinese units, but there was a "Chinese American Composite Wing" mostly crewed by Chinese but with few US airmen which flew the P-43. So are these 6 (or 3) victories were the total scored by Chinese and American or only by US pilots ? I don't know.

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Jeffery O Wellborn, 76th FS, shot down one Japanese plane while flying a P-43 on 2 January 1943.
It was his only credit of the war.

See reference to Wellborn on this page:
http://www.warbirdforum.com/dunnp434.htm

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Thanks for the correction, I forgot this only USAAF unit confirmed victory for a P-43. What I wrote is still true for the other P-43 victories.

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

I scanned through Osprey's Chines Aces book by Raymond Cheung and found several references to Chinese pilots and P-43s.
It looks like they got them some time in 1942. Bad reputation for fuel leaking onto exhausts and catching fire.
You-hsin KAO in a P-43 (coded 2101?) claimed a Ki-43 on 12/1/43 (and later 2x Ki-43's in a P-40N and another in a P-51). A photo caption states he made several claims in a P-43, but I can't see any more detail. KAO's total claims were 8 or 8.33, and only a credit for 0.33 is recorded for him in earlier aircraft (usually I-15s), so 4 claims are unknown.
Chi-kai CHOW in a P-43 coded 2401 claimed a Ki-46-III in Oct 1942.
Cheers
Peter

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Good morning,

this website
http://aces.safarikovi.org/victories...pines-ww2.html
indicates four P-26 kills for the Phillipine Army Air Corps but only one of them for Villamor whereas wikipedia attributes two kills to him.
Wong Sun-Shui scored one kill in the Boeing 281 and Wong Pan-Yang four.
Because Alfred assessed that there were no US victories in that plane, it should be deleted from the list of US aircraft kills (see post 1).

The P-35 kills remains a mystery.

The P-43 was flown by Kao You-Hsin (two kills in the type) and Chow Chi-Kai (1 kill) of the Cinese Air Force. However only Jeffrey Wellborn's P-43 kill should remain in the list, shouldn't it ?

Kind regards,

Michael

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Good afternoon Gentlemen,

I found out that the two official US P-26 kills were the one claim that was scored by Jesus Villamor and the claim that was shared by six Filipino pilots.

Still nothing about the sole P-35 claim...

Cheers,

Michael

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Cover of the Mini in Action ( Squadron Signal ) about the P-35
caption on p.2 : A P-35A of the 34th PS engages a Zero fighter during the initial Japanese attack on Del Carmen Field, The Philippines on 8 december 1941.
Two pilots from the 34th were credited with kills during this engagment, 2nd Lt Ben S. Brown and Lt Stewart W. Robb.

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

Good morning,

Ben Brown's claim is listed in "USAF credits for the destruction of enemy aircraft, World War 2" by the Office of Air Force History USAF.
He's the guy I was looking for !

Thanks a lot for that,

Michael

Re: rare birds - P-26, P-35, P-43
 

...I heard that Barnum and O'Connell might have claimed shared kills in the P-43 but cannot positively verify this info.

Who knows more ?

Michael