Conceived by Lawrence Dale Bell and made practicable by his
gifted chief engineer, Robert J. Woods, the P-39 emerged from two ideas for
fighters that sought to improve maneuverability by locating the engine near the
center of gravity, using a ten-foot shaft to connect it to the propeller. The
Bell Model 3, with the cockpit placed far aft behind the engine, afforded poor
visibility for the pilot, so the Model 4, with the pilot sitting just ahead of
the engine, was selected for development, using an Allison V-1710-E4 engine with
a B5 turbosupercharger. Never a man to stop at one novel approach when a second
or third would be even better, Bell also proposed installing a 25mm cannon,
which would fire through the propeller shaft, and a tricycle landing gear
arrangement. His proposal was approved on October 7, 1939, and the first XP-39
was completed in March 1939, with the cannon’s bore increased to 37mm at the
Army Air Corps’ request, along with two synchronized .50-caliber machine guns
placed in the nose.
The prototype was flown under a veil of secrecy on April 6,
with James Taylor at the controls, and achieved a speed of 390 miles per hour
at twenty thousand feet. Severe cooling problems were encountered, so the
oil-cooler scoops on the fuselage sides were enlarged. As the promising design
made the transition from testing to acceptance, the Army abandoned the
supercharger, a measure that facilitated production and maintenance, but which
sacrificed a critical amount of performance. The oil-cooler intakes were
relocated from the fuselage sides to the wing roots, a carburetor intake was
installed behind the canopy, and covers were added over the main wheels. Two
additional .30-caliber machine guns were also installed in the fuselage.
While the turbosupercharger had been removed, the extensive
modifications that the Army Air Corps had had done to the P-39 raised its empty
weight from about 4,000 pounds to over 5,600 pounds. Its maximum speed was
reduced to 375 miles per hour at 15,000 feet, but the Army Air Corps was
satisfied and ordered 80 P-45s, as the revised fighters were initially called,
although that designation was later changed back to P-39C. After 20 P-39Cs were
built, a small dorsal fillet was added to the vertical stabilizer, and the gun
arrangement was changed to one 37mm cannon and two .50-caliber machine guns in
the nose, and four .30-caliber machine guns in the wings. In that form, the
remaining 60 planes—followed by 369 in a follow-up order—were designated P-39D.
In addition to the American order, on May 8, 1940, the British Purchasing
Commission ordered 675 of the fighters under the name of Caribou, later changed
to Airacobra Mark I. Export Airacobras were to use a 20mm cannon in place of
the 37mm, and 175 of them were repossessed by the US Army Air Forces in
December 1941 and given the designation P-400.
The only operational British unit equipped with Airacobras
was No. 601 “County of London” Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, which
received its new planes in August 1941. The squadron flew its first desultory
low-level strafing mission, or “Rhubarb,” on October 9, when two planes left
Marston airfield, crossed the Channel and attacked a German trawler, although
its ultimate fate went unrecorded. Two more Airacobras flew over the same area
the next day, but found nothing and returned without firing a shot. On October
11, two Airacobras attacked German barges near Gravelines and Calais, while
three planes scouted the area around Ostende.
Those four missions in three days constituted the entirety
of the Airacobra’s fighting career in the RAF. Problems with the plane’s
compass was the official reason for grounding 601 Squadron’s fighters. But in
spite of the superior maneuverability displayed by the Airacobra when pitted
against a captured Messerschmitt Me 109E, its rate of climb was inferior to
those of both the Me 109E and the Supermarine Spitfire Mark VB, and it was
clearly no match for the new Me 109Fs and Focke-Wulf Fw 190As that it would be
more likely to encounter. “Iron Dog” became the third British term for the P-400,
courtesy of its disgusted pilots, as 601 Squadron stood down until it was
reequipped with Spitfire VBs in March 1942.
While the Channel Front had stabilized enough for Britain to
afford to hold off using its Airacobras in earnest, the situation in the South
Pacific in early 1942 offered no such luxury. In March, the American 8th
Pursuit Group was shipped to Australia. From there, in early April it moved to
Port Moresby, New Guinea, which had been under increasing pressure from units
of the Japanese Navy Air Force, operating from bases at Lae and Salamaua, since
February 3.
Petty Officer First Class Saburo Sakai’s memoirs refer to
victories over P-39s as early as April 11, 1942, but these have since turned
out to be Curtiss Kittyhawks of the Royal Australian Air Force. The 35th and
36th Pursuit Squadrons of the 8th Pursuit Group settled in at Port Moresby much
later, on April 26, and the first encounter between the group’s Airacobras and
the vaunted Zeros actually occurred on April 30, when Lt. Col. Boyd D. Wagner,
commander of V Fighter Command, led eleven drop-tank-equipped P-39Ds of the
35th and 36th Squadrons on their first major sweep. Crossing the Owen Stanley
Mountains at twenty thousand feet and then descending to a hundred feet above
Huon Gulf, they surprised the Japanese at Lae, with four Airacobras leading the
pack to draw off any patrolling Japanese fighters they encountered; the rest of
“Buzz” Wagner’s force achieved complete surprise, heavily damaging nine bombers
and three fighters on Lae airfield.
As Wagner led his pilots to carry out a similar strafe of
Salamaua, the Tainan Kokutai scrambled up after the departing Airacobras,
catching up with and attacking the last four in the formation as it was
departing Salamaua. Seven other P-39 pilots turned to assist their comrades,
and the resulting dogfight ranged thirty miles up the coast and back. Although
a number of Americans claimed to have scored hits on their opponents, only
Wagner’s somewhat ambiguous claims were officially confirmed, adding three
victories to the five already credited to him over the Philippines. The Tainan
Kokutai’s only recorded loss in the action was Petty Officer 2nd Class Hideo
Izumi, killed in action.
The Americans lost four planes, but only one pilot, 2nd Lt.
Edwin D. Durand of the 35th Squadron, was killed; last seen going down twenty
miles south of Salamaua, he was later reported to have been captured and
executed by the Japanese. First Lieutenant Arthur E. Andres, his 35th Squadron
P-39 hit by antiaircraft fire, force landed eighteen miles south of Buna, but
with the help of local natives he made his way back to Port Moresby on May 27.
In the 36th Squadron, 1st Lt. James J. Bevlock ran out of fuel and crash-landed
on a beach, but natives helped him get back on May 2, while 1st Lt. Paul G.
Brown went down due to coolant loss. He, too, returned after running into
Australian soldiers, who sent him home with the added charge of a Japanese
pilot they had captured.
All things considered, the P-39 had acquitted itself
reasonably well in its first action, but the shoe was on the other foot on May
1, when Port Moresby’s Seven-Mile Drome came under a strafing attack by seven
Tainan Kokutai Zeros. Five P-39s of the 36th Pursuit Squadron intercepted them,
and in the low-level melee that followed, 2nd Lt. Donald McGee chased a Zero
that was on another Airacobra’s tail, and after scoring hits in its fuselage,
saw it veer off to the left and explode in the jungle. He, in turn, was
attacked by Zeros that shattered his canopy and damaged his plane before they
departed, probably short of fuel. First Lieutenant David Campbell of the 36th
also claimed a Zero, and the Americans claimed three others damaged. The only
Japanese loss, however, was McGee’s victim, Petty Officer 1st Class Yoshisuke
Arita, whose body was later found about a mile from Seven-Mile Drome.
The Tainan Kokutai, including its most skilled ace, Petty
Officer 1st Class Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, made the more extravagant claim of eight
victories. The principal American losses were the P-39 of 1st Lt. John
Mainwaring, who crash-landed, and McGee’s, which was badly shot up but was
restored to flyability using parts cannibalized from Mainwaring’s wreck.
In the month that followed, the 8th Pursuit Group claimed
forty Japanese planes destroyed, but at a cost of twenty-five of its own planes
in combat, eight in forced landings, and three destroyed on the ground. The
group was relieved by the 35th Pursuit Group shortly thereafter, but that
outfit was to fare no better with its P-39Ds and P-400s, the latter of which
was derisively referred to by its crews as “a P-39 with a Zero on its tail.”
By July 1942, the USAAF had issued orders that P-39 pilots
were not to engage enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat over any front, unless
circumstances compelled them to do so. In spite of the appalling losses they
suffered, the Airacobra pilots did their best to hold the line in the Pacific
until the arrival of better fighters made it possible for them to relegate
their planes to the fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles. The RAF had
already abandoned the Airacobra, but Free French pilots flew P-39s over North
Africa and the Mediterranean when there was nothing else available, and so did
members of the Regia Aeronautica after Italy changed over to the Allied side in
September 1943. There is only one American P-39 ace, William Fiedler at
Guadalcanal, killed in an accident on June 30, 1943, hit by a P-38 while
waiting for take-off. Francis Dubisher had 4 victories on the P-39. Don McGee
had three victories, one of which was on the P-400.
The Bell Airacobra was despised by both the Americans and
the RAF, the RAF so much so that they refused to accept it, even during a
period of great need in the summer of 1941. Yet, it proved the most appreciated
of all lend-lease aircraft provided to the Russians, and one of the most
successful fighters in VVS service. The Russians actually preferred it to the
P-47. Consequently, the Russians received over half of all Airacobras produced
(212 Airacobra I, 108 P-39D, 40 P-39K, 347 P-39L, 157 P-39M, 1113 P-39N and
3291 P-39Q), and about three quarters of the later Kingcobra. Unfortunately,
histories of these Bell fighters give only passing, and generally erroneous
mention of the Eastern Front. Interesting though the South Pacific campaign is,
the Cobra’s record really was written in Russia.
First let’s correct the popular myth that the Russians were
so successful with the P-39 because they used it as a ground attack aircraft
taking advantage of the tank-killing qualities of its heavy cannon. Please!
First, the P-39’s cannon was not effective against anything but lightly armored
vehicles. Remember the Hurricane IID’s 40mm proved ineffective against serious
armor, as did the 30mm guns of the HS-129A. The Ju-87G used a special
tungsten-core ammunition, and even then could breach the armor on Soviet tanks
only at the thinnest points. Dr. Alfred Price recently published statistics
calling into question the myth of the WW II aerial tank-buster. Even the Il-2
Shturmovik found its guns, with anti-armor ammunition, generally ineffective.
For anti-tank work it used the RS-82 and RS-132 rockets, and more importantly
the PTAB-100 anti-tank cluster bomb, with shaped-charge bomblets. As
“tank-busters” all of these aircraft were “busts”.
Thin-skin vehicles and other soft ground targets were a different matter
entirely. But for those targets even light caliber machine guns would also be
effective. An I-153 could be as effective a truck-buster as a shturmovik or
P-39. Also, there is no instance of the VVS equipping any ground attack unit
with the Cobra. In 1945 one such regiment was re-equipped with the P-63, but
was redesignated as a fighter regiment. Since the Soviets produced over 36,000
Il-2 shturmoviks, they did not need to assign any P-39s. Part of the confusion
is due to the fact that the Soviets used the term “ground support” to
include not only ground attack in the western sense, but also air coverage of
their own troops, interception of German recon and spotting missions, and any
other air combat mission in immediate support of their ground forces, including
escort of Il-2s. Of course, it is true that during the course of the war Soviet
Cobra units did conduct many ground attack missions, but so did every other
fighter used at the front. The same can be said for the American P-51s and
P-47s of the 8th Fighter Command, which have never been considered
“ground attackers”. The truth is simpler. During the war, capable
fighters were what the Russians needed most, and they used and loved the P-39
as a fighter.
Three of the Russians’ top four aces, Aleksandr Pokryshkin
(59 individual and 6 shared), Nikolai Gulaev (57 & 4), and Grigorii
Rechkalov (56 & 5) used the Airacobra for the majority of their kills. Of
the 14 Soviet aces who scored more than 40 individual victories, thus ranking
as the “all-allied” leading aces, 6 were P-39 pilots, (Dmitrii Glinka
with 50; Pavel Golovachev with 43; and Aleksei Aleliukhin with 40 & 17
victories). Of their top 43 aces scoring 25 or more kills, 16, better than a
third were “Cobrsty”. It was flown during the war by at least 44
fighter regiments (IAP) of 441 that have been identified, and 8 of 36 naval
fighter air regiments. There might have been even more, since I have been
unable to identify the type of aircraft flown by 43 of the PVO interceptor
fighter regiments located in quiet regions. Some of these may have had
Airacobras as well.
The first Airacobras received were 212 of the British
Airacobra Mk I rejects which were shipped to Arkhangel in December 1941. They
wore the standard RAF camouflage and kept their RAF serials which were in the
AH, AP, BW & BX blocks.. Some even kept the “Sky Type S” fuselage
band. Stars were placed on both wing surfaces and the fuselage. Confusingly, on
some machines, the standard RAF camouflage was the older dark green and dark
earth, while others sported the newer dark green and ocean gray. They were soon
joined by 108 ex-USAAC, P-39D-1 and P-39D-2 Airacobras wearing standard
American olive drab camouflage. On the P-39Ds, the red star was painted in all
six positions. Where there had been US insignia it was painted directly over
the white star, appearing within the dark blue circle. On the P-39Ds, the white
“bort number” was painted on the fuselage behind the star, but in the
case of the ex-British aircraft, the number was painted on the tail fin where
the RAF fin flash had been previously. Even though these aircraft arrived in
winter, they were not given the winter whitewash since they were in a rear
area, and when they finally entered combat, it was May 1942, but the next
winter white camouflage was already going out of style. While there have been
documented instances of Airacobras in winter camouflage, they seem to have been
the exception.
One peculiarity was that the Soviets initially did not equip
their regiments completely with Airacobras. Each regiment receiving Airacobras
had to take a squadron of Kittyhawks as well, so that a regiment would have
only its first two squadrons with Cobras. This was intended to stretch the
supply of the preferred Cobra and to find a home for the less desired
Kittyhawk. When the later models of the P-39 became available in large
quantity, IAPs converted to a pure Cobra organization.
The 19 Guards IAP (145 IAP till 3/7/42) was the first Soviet
unit to take the Airacobra into action, entering combat near Murmansk on May
15, 1942. The regiment had 16 Airacobras (AH618, 619, 660, 664, 679, 692, 697,
703, 707-709, 713, 724) and 10 Kittyhawks. On their second day in action the
regiment lost AH660, flown by I. D. Gaidaenko, who was shot down by BF-109s and
made a forced landing. Among the most famous pilots of the 19th
Guards was Pavel Kutakhov who finished the war as a Major with 14 individual
and 28 shared victories, and later in the 1970s was promoted to Marshal and
C-in-C of the Russian Air Forces. By the end of 1943 the regiment had flown
7451 sorties and claimed 171 kills, for the loss of 46 pilots (35 in combat),
and lost 86 aircraft (59 shot down). Of their losses, 20 were Airacobras (3
non-combat).
Even more famous were the units which received the P-39Ds
and operated in the south, over the Caucasus, and the Kuban. The most famous
units here were the16 GIAP,100 GIAP, and 104 GIAP which were formed into the 9
Guards Fighter Air Division (9 GIAD), the Soviet counterpart of the 56 Fighter
Group or JG-52. During the war the 9 GIAD flew 33,654 sorties, claimed 1147
kills, and included 46 pilots with the HSU, 3 twice-HSU, and one three times
HSU – Aleksandr Pokryshkin. The 16 GIAP, Pokryskhin’s regiment, alone accounted
for 697 of the kills and had 15 of the HSUs, 2 of the 2xHSUs, and 1 3xHSU
pilot. All three units had distinguished themselves from the first day of the
war flying other aircraft. The first of its regiments to convert to the Cobra
was the 45 IAP (100 G IAP from 7/43) which was withdrawn from combat in late
October 1942 and returned in February 1943 with 10 P-39D-2, 11 P-39K-1, and 9
P-40E. Next was the 298 IAP (104 G IAP from 8/21/43) which re-equipped with the
P-39D-2 and P-39K-1 and returned to the southern front in March 1943. The
Regimental officers and squadron commanders and political officers received the
K model, while the flight leaders and line pilots got the Ds. In April the
famous 16 Guards IAP followed, receiving 14 P-39L-1, 7 P-39K-1, and 11 P-39D-2.
They returned to the combat over the Kuban and Crimea which the Russians
consider to have been the battles which broke the back of the Luftwaffe in
Russia, and much of the credit is given to the 9 GIAD. Another equally famous
regiment flying over the Kuban and Crimea was the 9 Guards Fighter Regiment,
which began the war flying the I-16 over the Crimea and converted to the P-39
from the Yak-1. During the war the 9 GIAP scored 558 Kills and had 26 pilots
with HSU, including Aleliukhin (40 & 17 kills), Lavrinenkov (35 & 11
kills), and Amet-Khan (30 & 19 kills) who each received the award twice.
One reason the P-39 prospered in Russia was that combat
seldom took place above 10,000 feet, and usually lower. When strafing, flying
FLAK suppression, or escorting Il-2s, they often flew at virtual ground level,
called “shaving”. The Russians liked the P-39’s heavy armament, and
considered it to be quite maneuverable, particularly in the vertical plane.
When the later versions arrived with the underwing gondola machine guns, these
were removed by the Russians. Also very notable to the Soviets were the P-39’s
radio, far superior to native product and superior instrumentation and
accommodations. Even though the cockpit may have been cramped by American
standards, the physically smaller Russians considered it comfortable, and in
winter warm, and throughout the war Western cockpit glass was better quality
and more transparent than on Russian aircraft. Initially, they had some
difficulty adjusting to its spinning characteristics and to the nosewheel gear,
but soon mastered these. Another Russian insight was that you did not want to
bail out of an Airacobra, since exiting the side door made hitting the tail
much more likely. However, they considered it’s shape perfect for belly-landing
.
A summary list of the Soviet units flying the P-39 is 1 GIAD
(54, 55 GIAP & 53, 56 GIAPS with Yak-9), 5 GIAD (28, 67, 68, 72 GIAP), 9
GIAD (16, 100, 104, and later 159 GIAP), 22 GIAD (129, 212, 213 GIAP & 116
GIAP with Yak-3), 23 GIAD (21, 69 GIAP), 329 IAD (57G, 101G, 66 IAP), 190 IAD
(17 IAP & 2 unidentified), 9 GIAP (303 IAD), 19 GIAP, 20 GIAP, 30 GIAP, 102
G IAP, 103 G IAP, 9, 159, 185 (disbanded), 191, 196, 246, 255 (transferred to
naval aviation), 295, 352, 416, 484, 494, 821 IAPs of Frontal Aviation, 28,
403, 631, 738, & 908 IAPs of PVO, and 2 G IAP (NF), 11 GIAP (BSF), 7 (NF),
20 (NF), 31 (POF), 43 (BSF), 78 (NF), and 255 (NF) IAPs of Naval aviation.
Since the Airacobra was such a success in Russia, naturally
the Soviets would be a major recipient of its bigger brother, the P-63. They
were sent 2456 Kingcobras, flown across the Al-Sib ferry route, of which 2421
actually arrived, including both major variants, the P-63A and P-63C. However,
contrary to Dorr and other western authors, it did not prove to be a potent
tank-buster. It never got a chance. Only in September 1944 did the first P-63
begin it’s long journey across two continents, from Buffalo, New York to
Russia. By May 1945 there were only 51 P-63As in service, assigned to PVO air
defense regiments, which by that stage of the war had little real chance of
combat. Consequently, the P-63 never got to show its stuff against either a
panzer or a “messer”. However, the P-63 did see brief combat in
Russian service. Soviet units continued reequipping after the German surrender.
Many P-63s went to Soviet units assigned to the Far East and Transbaikal Fronts
preparing for war against Japan. The 12th Air Army of the
Trasnbaikal Front equipped its 245 IAD, consisting of the 940 and 781 IAPS.
This Air Army was reinforced after the German surrender by the transfer from
the west of the 190 IAD which included the 17 IAP and 21 IAP, both of which
replaced their P-39Q and La-5 fighters with the Kingcobra. One of the pilots of
the 17 IAP was Captain Viacheslav Sirotin, HSU, a 21 victory ace. On August 15,
he and his wingman, Junior Lieutenant Miroshnichenko caught 2 Japanese fighters
(either Ki-27 or Ki-43, the records are unclear), and shot down one of them.
This was the Kingcobra’s only aerial victory – ever.
In July 1945 the 128 SAD (mixed air division), with the 888
IAP and 410 ShAP (assault air regiment) based on Kamchatka converted to the
P-63. The Shturmovik Regiment at this time was redesignated as Fighter.
Interestingly, the 888 IAP was the very last regiment flying the old I-16;
transition to the 410 mph, tricycle gear P-63A must have made an impression!
Also, during the summer of 1945 the 7 IAD of the Pacific Ocean Fleet received
several dozen aircraft in time to fly them during the brief hostilities.
After the war re-equipment with the Kingcobra continued at
an accelerated pace, including several former P-39 air divisions, and other
units as well. Notable were the 5 GIAD based in the Baltic district, the 269
IAD in Armenia, the 6 GIAD in the Ukraine, and the 1 GIAD based at Neuhausen,
Germany. Other units based in Austria and China also flew the P-63. During this
time 25 P-63s were converted to P-63U two seat conversion trainers. By the
early 1950s the P-63 was replaced by the MiG-9 and MiG-15, but a few regiments
continued to use them fairly late. The 307 and 308 IAPs continued flying the
P-63 in the Kurile Islands through the end of 1951. There has been no report of
the P-63 being passed along to the Koreans, Chinese or European satellite air
arms.
One of the last incidents of the Kingcobra’s career happened
in 1952 when two USAF jets mistakenly (?!) shot up Sukhaya Rechka airfield
outside of Vladivostok. The Soviet losses consisted of 8 P-63s, which they
maintain had already been decommssioned. A sad and ignominious end for a
warbird’s career.
Bell P-63 Kingcobra in the Soviet Union
Sources: Wings of
Fame 10 with its article on the P-39 by Robert Doerr; Roman, V., Aerokobry
vstupaiut v boi: Bell P-400, P-39D-1, P-39D-2, Seriia istrebiteli 1,
Aerokhobbi, Kiev 1993; Bakurskaia, Evgeniia, Chief Editor. Kryl’ia – daidzhezt
vypusk 3, Seriia Samolety mira Istrebitel’ P-63, AviaKosm, Moscow 1997, and notes
from a number of Soviet aces’ memoirs. FIGHTER AIRCRAFT COMBAT DEBUTS, 1915–1945.
Innovation in Air Warfare Before the Jet Age, JON GUTTMAN.
