The most important American fighter of the USA’s first two years in World War II was without a doubt the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Its importance lay mainly in its sheer numbers, for it was not without shortcomings and these remained throughout the long operational life of the aircraft. The P-40E model was one of the models produced in large numbers with over 23,000 constructed.

Pictured in this Philip West inspired painting, is a group of P-40E Warhawks based in the Aleutian Islands. The airmen stationed in the great North Country of Alaska and Canada fought not only the Japanese enemy, but extreme weather, the wilderness and boredom. This remote territory was probably the war’s least known and least publicized combat zone. Most of those that served there had never seen anything like it before, nor would they want to see it ever again.