Product Description

The Curtiss P-36 was considered a revolution in performance design in comparison to other US fighters. Yet, by the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the P-40 was increasingly supplanting the P-36, which the US then exported to France under the guise of the Hawk 75. Flown by the French, captured by the Germans, sold to the Finns, transferred to India and Africa, and even incorporated into the RAF, the Hawk 75 saw service in every theatre of operations and in a variety of combat environments. This book depicts the fascinating life of a plane that fought on both sides in the war, with colour artwork, photographs and first-hand accounts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #131258 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

usual Osprey overview - a type that warrants better treatment in English
The latest Osprey 'Aces' title is devoted to the P-36 Curtiss Hawk. The section on the Battle of France is compiled by Lionel Persyn, a talented young French author who recently published a magisterial 400-page overview of the H-75 (as the Hawk was known) in Armée de l'Air service for French publisher Lela Presse (see http://www.avions-bateaux.com). The English language photo captions in that work amount to some 35 pages of text alone..rather more than devoted to French service here..
As usual with Osprey the book provides a somewhat cursory overview of the operational 'history' of the P-36/H-75 (including service in Finland & North Africa among others). A decent - if rather truncated - effort. Not a bad buy at the Amazon discount...otherwise over-priced as ever with Osprey

P-36 - A lesser known warbird
This is a good informative book on one of the unsung aviation heroes of WW2 - the P-36 Hawk. A lot of its fighting was done before the more famous fighters (Spitfire, Mustang, etc..) came to the fore.
It certainly opened my eyes to the heroic struggle of the Armee de l'Air prior to the fall of France. It also highlighted the strange situation when for a period, the French pilots were adversaries of the RAF, particularly in North Africa.
As always with Osprey, not a definitive text, but a worthwhile read nevertheless.