I always had great respect for the Curtis Hawk series.
The amateur historians treat it poorly, but most not having served have no idea the difference between a great airplane and a great weapon. Sure, they don't perform at the altitudes of, say, a Mustang nor are they agile like a Spit. But, and it is a huge "but", they held their own with a favourable kill rate and could be flown from forward bases in the rudest environments with the meanest of facilities.
You didn't see the Spits in the desert; Hawks and Hurricanes. You didn't see Mustangs in the Aleutians; it was Hawks. Same in the Solomons and New Guinea; Hawks, P39s, and Wildcats. Hurricanes in Burma, not Spits.
Why? One group were superior performers by the stats and the other were superior weapons. For that reason, I have a soft spot for the solid old performers upon which historians' glory is never bestowed, the Hurricane, the Hawk, the Wildcat.
That is why the Hawk was built through the war from beginning to end, as were the Wildcat/Martlet. Truly rare, for a fighter especially.
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