Mohawk IV/Curtiss H-75A-7 'Overseas Service'

The Curtiss H-75 was the export version of the American P-36 Hawk (Curtiss Model 75) fighter of the mid-1930s. The biggest foreign customer was France, taking deliveries of aircraft designated the H-75A-1, 2, 3 and 4, with the first planes entering service in the spring of 1939. They were modified for French Air Force usage and fitted with different equipment and armament. The H-75A-4 was locally renamed the H-751, of which 97 were shipped from the U.S.A.; however, only a handful reached France before it surrendered to Nazi Germany in June 1940 while the rest (190 a/c) were taken over by the RAF as the Mohawk IV.

The H-75s (the A-7 model) were also ordered by the Netherlands, but they did not arrive in time in Europe and 20 of them were diverted to the Dutch East Indies in May 1940.

The H-75A-4/7 was a single-seat, all-metal low-wing monoplane with fabric-covered control surfaces. It had a retractable undercarriage with the main landing gear rotated 90° to fold flat into the wing. Powered by a Wright R-1820 Cyclone single-row radial engine, it was fitted with Curtiss Electric propeller. The H-75’s armament consisted of two machine guns in the nose and another two guns (H-75A-4) or one (H-75A-7) in each wing. Racks for two to five bombs could also be mounted under each outer section of the wing.

The Dutch H-75s saw action against Japan in 1941-42, but the remaining aircraft were withdrawn from operational use early in 1942. The RAF’s Mohawk Mk.IVs were sent to overseas and used in India and Burma while a great number of them was also supplied to the South African Air Force. In 1942, sixteen ex-RAF Mohawk IVs were delivered to Portugal and assigned to air defence duties in the Azores; they went out of service in 1945.