Phil Cochran's P-40 in the "Joker Squadron"

[mebucko]

Good Morning!
I am going to be building Phil Cochran's P-40 that was used in the "Joker Squadron" in Tunisia, late in 1942.
I believe it was an "F". I don't know if it was a short-tailed or long-tailed, and I don't know of its markings. I think it was the one that he made a carrier take-off in - Royal Navy "Archer"?
Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Bill
bbhb17@comcast.net

[Mark Joyce]

Hi Bill,

Welcome to the P-40 Warhawk forums, and I'll see if I can add a little to your similar question over on Hyperscale!

Yes, the "Joker Squadron" flew off the HMS Archer and had long-tailed Fs. In Carl Molesworth's book "P-40 Warhawk Aces of the MTO" there is a photo of these P-40Fs on the Archer. I can't make it out in the photo but he indicates two of the serial numbers are 41-14491 and 41-14512, both of which are confirmed long-tails.

I'm not positive since the photo in the book isn't the best of quality, but it appears these P-40s had similar markings as the others flown by the 33rd FG during Operation Torch:  the white star in blue with a yellow surround and an American flag on both sides of the fuselage.

Unfortunately I haven't found any information on the specific P-40 that Cochran flew. I also checked my two-volume book copies by James Reed about the 33rd FG (he was one of the original pilots of the 33rd) with no further success. I believe this is the same book set mentioned by another poster to your question on Hyperscale.

If anyone knows the answers to your questions it's Carl Molesworth. He sometimes is found on Hyperscale, so if you post a comment there asking for him specifically in your header then you might get his attention.

HTH,

Mark

[mebucko]

Hi Mark,
Thank you so much for the reply!!
Yep, that was my post on Hyperscale. Yours is the first to mention the "long-tail", and I am so glad for your answer! Long-tail it will be! I was going to make a mistake and make it a "short", based on it might have been an early model leftover from "Torch".
I will update my post there to mention Carl Molesworth - hopefully he will see it.
I did have a response saying the "Jokers" had a question mark on the vertical stab.
Thanks again, and Cheers to you and yours!
Bill