AF041
King & Country
This is the third version of the CURTISS P-40 “Tomahawk” that K&C has made. Previous models have included an RAF “Desert Air Force” one and the classic “Flying Tigers” version. This new model is in the standard olive drab and light grey colour scheme typical of US Army Air Corps aircraft at this time. The model bears the code number “160” of the aircraft 2nd Lieut . George Welch flew on 7 December and belongs to the 15th Pursuit Squadron. The Air Corps officially credited Lieut. Welch with 4 “kills” and several others damaged.
This “Pearl Harbor P40” comes complete with a standing figure of a US Army Air Corps pilot wearing a non standard “Hawaiian” shirt over his khakis and carrying a.45 Colt Automatic.
Note: Just 150 of this aircraft are being released.
On Sunday morning 7 December 1941, an “urgent” radiogram went out to all U.S. Navy ships in Hawaiian waters. The message was sent minutes after Japanese aircraft first started dropping bombs and launching torpedoes on the US Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor. Caught completely by surprise on that fateful Sunday morning the military response was, at first, slow and painful ... Just a handful of US fighter aircraft managed to get into the air to combat the marauding Japanese “Zeroes”, “Vals” and “Kates”. Among the pilots who took to the skies over Hawaii were Lieutenants Ken Taylor and George Welch flying their P40 “Tomahawks”.