[takata_1940]

Hello Alex,
Well, I get the funny side of you post with "four and six" but I also read what you quoted from Air Enthusiast :

"From Air Enthusiast Vol 2 No:1 (Jan 72).
"...Thirty were in process of being unloaded at La Rochelle in June when the vessel that had transported them across the Atlantic was sunk, taking most of the fighters with it to the bottom of the harbour."

This part is a pure Legend as it is supposed to be the Champlain sinking but I can tell you that absolutely no H-75s' were ever on board of this merchant when she sank and all arrived safe. I verified this particular fact myself on the archives. Albeit you can read the same story on the best French source mentioned by Modeldad (Cuny / Beauchamps)

"Also of the 135 A-3s two were kept in the USA for testing."
This other point in wrong too : all A-3 were delivered.

and from your other post :
"You may have made discoveries in the USA but then the aircraft was built there so that is where the information would be."

In fact, most of the discoveries came from the French archives ; the last information provided from the USA is the one given to The Fighter Collection (S. Grey) by the Curtiss-Wright Historical Association which give the C/n 12881 to the French H-75A-1 N°82...
Again, it's proved to be wrong. Lionel Persyn found exactly what this recovered wreck C/n is : 13887 ; it's a A-4 transfered from North Africa after being re-engined with a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 in 1945. There is zero doubt now that the real N°82 C/n 12879 was the Finnish CUc-568.

On the other part, I agree that Air Britain "The British Air Commission and Lend-Lease" is the most accurate source about what was delivered to Britain, beside it's mentioned in the Mohawk profile part that 204 were Mohawk III and IV which contradict their listing were it's 204 Mohawk IV (French) plus 5 Mohawk III (from Norway). There is little confusion with their numbers and type given as they did not sort out that contract F-158 was only Mohawk IV.

For a complete and detailed account of what was finnaly used by l'Armée de l'Air, you will have to wait for the publication of Lionel Persyn's work which is outstanding concerning this aircraft in French service. I guess CJE will publish an article about that in the near future.

Regards,
Olivier Bacca.