Malta Aircraft Defence

[Jim Oxley]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

Given bombers coming over at 17.000 ft, the P-40 would have had considerable problems dealing with them.

I think the poor performance of the P-40 above 15,000 ft has been greatly overplayed. While that was it's optimum performance height, it was still quite capable at greater heights.

The best example I can give to support that is the performance of the P-40 over Darwin at top end of Australia.

The 49th Fighter Group was based around Darwin and intercepted Japanese raids during 1942. The Japanese bombers commonly came flew at 25,000 ft, the Zero escorts around 27,000 ft; letting down to 22,000 ft for the bomb run and exit.

With the aid of radar the 49th FG intercepted incoming attacks on fifteen (15) occasions at heights around the 20-22,000 ft mark. Between the 18 March and 2 September 1942 they claimed 1 x Type 97 reconnaissance plane, 25 x Type 1 G4M bombers and 37 x Type 0 fighters.
NB: Figures taken from S.W. Ferguson's "Protect And Avenge, The 49th FG In WWII".

In return they lost 17 P-40's in combat.

That is quite an impressive performance for a fighter rated 'poor' above 15,000 ft. Even allowing for over-claiming.