The P-40 in Soviet Aviation

The P-40 in Soviet Aviation. "...During World War II, the Soviet Union was actually the second country (after Great Britain) to import the Curtiss P-40 fighter. In all, the USSR received 247 P40C (Tomahawk IIB) and 2,178 P-40E, -K, -L, and -N aircraft from 1941 through 1944, which ranks this type in fourth position (after the P-39, Hurricane, and P-63) among foreign aircraft delivered to the Soviet Union. Deliveries were made by year in the following quantities: 1941-230 Tomahawks and 15 P-40E; 1942-17 Tomahawks and 487 P-40E, E-1, K, and L; 1943-939 P-40E-1, K, L, M, and N; 1944-446 primarily P-40M and. During the war years the P-40 fighter was included in the inventories of the three basic branches of Soviet aviation: VVS Red Army (VVS KA), VVS Navy (VVS VMF), and PVO (national air defense) aviation, and fought practically on all fronts from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea. It is a little known fact that the Tomahawks and Kittyhawks with red stars participated in all the decisive battles: the battle for Moscow, at Stalingrad, the defense of Leningrad, in the Kuban, at the Kursk bulge, and beyond to the liberation of eastern Prussia." From Lend-Lease to the Soviet Union.