094 - Kitty Hawks and Never Hawks

Australia's Most valuable Plane

Prime Minister Curtin (right) with General MacArthur (l.)

Every bombing of Port Moresby established Imperial Japanese’s position at Australia’s doorstep. However, as the attacks on Darwin Harbor and Northern Australia had proven in late March, the Royal Australian Air Force was woefully inadequate. In addition, it was also evidence of Britain and America’s “Germany First” policy when it came to their involvement the Pacific War. When Singapore fell in February, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin requested better planes from Winston Churchill. In a simple telegram, Churchill replied “Hitler Comes First.”

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Still, Churchill used the Australian Air Force’s most skilled pilots for the aerial war over North Africa, Prime Minister Curtin was left with a meager Air Force at best. His fleet consisted mostly of the outdated Whirraways. Additionally, the Avro Ansons, a 1930s fighter bomber capable of 188 MPH maximum airspeed, as slow as Japan’s slow “Nell” Heavy Bombers.

In a telegram to American President Franklin Roosevelt, Curtin asked for P-40 Kitty Hawks, like the RAAF pilots used in North Africa. Roosevelt asked who would fly these planes. The Prime Minister replied, “You send me the planes and I’ll worry about filling them with able pilots.”

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Unfortunately, the wait was long. The planes were in the process of being shipped to the Dutch East Indies, when it was captured by the Japanese. The RAAF Pilots began to call the planes “Never Hawks” as they waited. Still, Churchill wanted the Kitty Hawks diverted to Burma, but Curtin demanded they be delivered to Australia and Roosevelt agreed. With only a single week of training, RAAF pilots engaged Japanese planes over Port Moresby throughout March, April, and May.

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