Tag Archives: P-63 Kingcobra

Red Stars over Niagara

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Just call it Operation Honeymoon.

The curious, but very normal, 1944-45 sight of Lend-Leased Bell P-63 Kingcobras flying over Niagara Falls, clad in the Red Stars and tactical dark green livery of the Soviet Air Force.
Bell assembled the P-63 at the company’s factory in Wheatfield, New York.

P-63A-10-BE at Bell’s Wheatfield, New York factory

From there, after passing inspections by first an American and the Soviet AF officer, these P-63s would be immediately attached to twin 285-liter drop tanks, flown by USAAF Air Transport Command ferry pilots across the Dakotas to Great Falls, Montana, then to RCAF Station Edmonton, Alberta, and finally to Ladd Field at Fairbanks Alaska– a trip of over 4,000 miles– where the “Reds” picked them up and flew them on to Siberia and points west.
Notably, on both the American and Soviet ends of the Alaska-Siberia route, a predominance of ferry pilots was female.

WASP “skippers” on Wheatfield P-39s and P-63s

Besides the P-63s and the earlier P-39s, P-40s, A-20s, C-47s, and B-25s were also ferried from CONUS and then across the Bering Sea, with 7,983 aircraft successfully delivered to the Russians, and only 133 of all types were lost to weather or pilot error.

Warming pre-flight

P-63 Kingcobra fighters in flight during a ferry flight along the Alaska-Siberia air route, with Avachinskaya Sopka in Kamchatka in the background

Being slow compared to the P-38 and P-51 and less of a brute than the P-47, the Kingcobra saw negligible service with the USAAF. However, the Russkis loved the tough, heavily-armed, and reliable aircraft, which was well-suited to their particular brand of tactical aviation.

Of the 3,303 production aircraft, some three-quarters, at least 2,397 airframes, were delivered new to Uncle Joe and the gang, with only the hours racked up in the ferry flights from Niagara. They endured in Soviet service so long that they picked up a NATO F-code (fighter) reporting name in the 1950s (Fred).

Ace pilots of the 9th Guard Aviation Division at the Bell P-39 fighter Airacobra by GA Rechkalova. From left to right: Alexander Fedorovich Klubov (twice Hero of the Union, shot down 31 airplanes personally, 19 in a group), Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov (twice a Hero, shot down 56 airplanes personally and 6 in a group), Andrei Ivanovich Trud (Hero of the USSR, shot down 25 airplanes individually and 1 in a group) and commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Squad Air Regiment Boris Borisovich Glinka (Hero of the Soviet Union, shot down 30 airplanes personally and 1 in a group). The 2nd Ukrainian Front. The photo was taken in June 1944 – the number of stars on Rechkalov’s plane corresponds to his achievements at that time (46 planes shot down personally, 6 in a group).

Soviet Red Air Force ace Alexander Pokryshkin chalked up 65 victories on the Eastern Front, almost all in P-39 Aircobras and P-63 Kings

Soviet P-63 Kingcobra of the VVS. Artist Vladimir Voronin.

A PT break

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Bristling with 20mm and 37mm cannon, .50 cal machine guns and torpedoes, the 80~ foot long plywood wonders that were WWII mosquito boats were pound for pound one of the stoutest warships ever to serve the Navy.

NHHC Photograph Collection, L-File, Unnamed U.S. Navy vessels

Note the huge 30-round 37mm drums and boxes of ammo at the ready. NHHC Photograph Collection, L-File, Unnamed U.S. Navy vessels

Secured to their tender, five PTs float in the calm waters of the Pacific as they are refueled and given rudimentary repairs. The brief recess from the wars is a boon to the officers and men of the PT unit as well. A group of them is gathered under the canvas “canopy” on the center boat, circa early Summer 1945. In the foreground, a crewman gives a gun the check-over.

They are equipped with a 37 mm M4 Automatic Gun– a huge 213-pound autocannon designed by John Browing and taken from P-39 Airacobra and P-63 Kingcobra fighters, as well as at least two 20mm Oerlikon forward, likely a 40mm Bofors single aft, and two twin M2 .50 cal tubs.

The Elco boats look to be those of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron THIRTY THREE (PTRon 33) under the command of Lt. A. Murray Preston, USNR. They served at Aitape, New Guinea; Morotai in the Halmaheras; and San Pedro Bay and Panay in the Philippines.