The P-63 Bell King Cobra

[General Savage]

The unusual lend lease agreement for King Cobras to the Soviet Union

The first version to be supplied in quantity to the USSR was the P-63A-7 with a higher vertical tail, and reinforced wings and fuselage.
Air Transport Command ferry pilots, including U.S. women pilots of the WASP program, picked up the planes at the Bell factory at Niagara Falls, New York, and flew them to Great Falls, Montana and then onward via the Alaska-Siberia Route (ALSIB), through Canada, over Alaska where Russian ferry pilots, many of them women, would take delivery of the aircraft at Nome and fly them to the Soviet Union over the Bering Strait. A total of 2,397 such aircraft were delivered to USSR.
Amazingly, by a 1943 agreement, P-63s were disallowed for Soviet use against Germany and were supposed to be concentrated in the Soviet Far East for an eventual attack on Japan. However, there are many unconfirmed reports from both the Soviet and German side that P-63s did indeed see service against the Luftwaffe. Most notably, one of Pokryshkin's pilots reports in his memoirs published in the 1990s that the entire 4th GvIAP was secretly converted to P-63s in 1944, while officially still flying P-39s. One account states they were in action at Königsberg, in Poland and in the final assault on Berlin. There are German reports of P-63s shot down by both fighters and flak. Nevertheless, all Soviet records show nothing but P-39s used against Germany.

[mars]

It is interesting that an entire fighter regiment could "secretley" converted to P-63s in the war, considering whatever cover would be blown apart as soon as they were committed into combat.

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

Genral Savage,
Please give references and details of this "1943 secret agreement" concerning P-63 to be used only in the Far East!
Carl

[General Savage]

Sure thing Carl.
I site Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-63_Kingcobra

Please scroll down to 'Operational Service".

[Graham Boak]

And it says "citation needed". In other words, it was overheard in a bar once but no-one has been able to track down any evidence it really existed.

Just why would the US want to make such a stipulation? It wasn't applied to any other of the types supplied.

[General Savage]

That's why I said 'amazingly'. After all it wasn't a secret weapon that they didn't want to fall into enemy hands or something.
I'd have thought that the prime concern would have been to see the Soviets win the war against Germany.
I just printed it how I saw it.

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

The cited Wikipedia story about the "disallowance of P-63 use in Europe" does not sound at all credible to me.

BTW "4 GIAP" did NEVER use Airacobras nor Kingcobras; 4 GIAP belonged to VVS KBF (Baltic Fleet Air Force, ex-13 IAP, which used La-5s from 1943 and converted to La-7s in autumn 1944). Furthermore Pokryhskin had NOTHING to do with the Soviet Naval AF.

On the other hand 4th Guards Aviation Regiment of VVS RKKA was an Bomber Regiment (ex 31 PBAP).

To the best of my knowledge the story of P-63s in USSR is as follows (updated and corrected section of my book Red Stars Vol 4 - Lend-lease aircraft in USSR):

"Bell P-63 Kingcobra
Over two-thirds of the total Kingcobra production was sent to USSR over the ALSIB-route. The total number of Kingcobras allocated was 2421 of which 2400 arrived in Russia.

As mentioned above in the Airacobra section, a number of mid-air disintegration accidents with Airacobras, and in particular A.G.Kochetkov’s narrow escape during a test flight at the Bell Factory in Buffalo, N.Y. with P-63 A-10 Kingcobra 42-68939, led to reinforcement of the rear fuselages of all early Kingcobras (P-63A-10 subtype included) in USSR as required by strength analysis made by TsAGI. Only the later P-63C subtypes (with considerably redesigned tail) fulfilled Soviet g-load requirements as delivered.

Only a handful Kingcobras joined VVS regiments in the European theatre during WW II (e.g. 6 GIAK got six Kingcobras in March 1945, used by 67 GIAP in the Berlin operation). In the short Manchurian campaign against Japan in August 1945 several of the fighter regiments of the Pacific Fleet were equipped with Kingcobras, which remained in service until the early 1950s.

A total of some hundreds (!) of two-seater Kingcobra modifications were produced in various VVS Aircraft Repair Depots (ARP). The two-seater Kingcobras (called P-63 UTI or UP-63) were used for e.g. intermediate pilot training during conversion to nose-wheel MiG-15 fighters in VVS TOF, where the pilots performed 6-12 training flights in UP-63s before independent MiG-15 flights.

From July to December 1947 comparative air combat exercises were performed in GK NII VVS between MiG-9 (c/n 106005), La-9, P-63 C-1 Kingcobra, Spitfire Mk. IX, Jak-15, “156” with afterburner and Tu-2.

Identified Kingcobra operators:
6 GIAK:
- 273 IAD: 67 GIAP (ex 436 IAP, Berlin 1945)
PVO: 17 IAP (Aug 1945-), 28 IAP (Moscow, spring 1945-), 39 IAP (Moscow, 1945-), 821 IAP (Aug 1945-)
12 VA:
- 190 IAD (June 1945-): 17 and 21 IAP;
- 128 SAD (July 1945-): 410 and 888 IAP
- 245 IAD (1945-): 781 and 940 IAP;


VVS TOF: 7 IAP (Aug 1945-), 37 OAE, 43 AP, 19 ABr, 50 AP, 27 AP, 888 IAP

Post-war:
81 IAP (fighter unit for comparable testing of Soviet and Lend-Lease fighters, 1945)
VVS ChF: 6 GIAP, 11 GIAP
VVS KBF: 314 GIAP (ex 21 GIAP), 246 GIAP

Other identified units:
- 53 SAK: 307 and 308 IAP (Kurile islands, early 1950s)
- 83 IAK (Port-Arthur)
- 1 GIAD (East Germany),
- 5 GIAD (Baltic Military District)
- 6 GIAD (Ukraine)
- 269 IAD (Armenia)
- 329 IAD: 57 GIAP (Peenemünde May-June 1945), 66 IAP (Peenemünde May-June 1945), 101 GIAP (Peenemünde May-June 1945)
- 18 IAP (PVO Khabarovsk, June 1950-)
- 28 GIAP (Brüster Ort, East Prussia; 1945-1947)
- 81 GIAP (Lvov 1947)
- 116 GIAP (1946)
- 149 GIAP (PVO, Chirlik 1950-52)
- 307 and 308 IAP (Kurile Islands)
- 821 IAP 54 VA (Vladivostok, Primorsk, early 1950s)
also Soviet fighter regiments in Moldavia, Austria, China."

---
The Kingcobra "disallowance" reminds me of the oral information of the Finnish Diplomatic Mission in Washington D.C. in 1941-1943 (it is a remarkable - albeit virtually unknown - fact that USA and Finland had diplomatic relations until Jun 1944, and USA never declared war on Finland, athough both countries had allies which were in war with each other, i.a. USSR and Germany!).


According to this story (as published by Lt.Eng. N-E. Stenback, Finnish Assistant Military Attache in USA 1940-1943) President Roosevelt promised the Finnish diplomats that no Lend-lease weapon system delivered to USSR shall be used against Finland. However, when Stenback in the 1990s wrote his memoirs (published 2000 in Finnish and Swedish) he was unable to find any documents to support this information. The fact is that Airacobra fighters, Mitchell and Boston bombers, Sherman tanks, Studebaker trucks etc. were widely used against Finland by Leningrad and Karelian Fronts of the Red Army, ADD, Baltic Fleet etc.

I would be most grateful if someone can draw light on the above mentioned obscure allegations of "disallowance"
1. to use Kingcobras aganist Germany
2. to use Lend-lease weapons at all against Finland


Carl

[musec04]

Hello Carl,

Any prospect of a re-print of Red Stars Vol.4 in the near future?

Regards,

Clint

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

Clint,
so far unfortunately no positive decision of the publisher with regard to a new edition of RS Vol. 4,
Carl

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
Any comments on the photo in the leading post ?
An experimental tail unit on what is now a museum aircraft.
Alex