Curtiss P-36 Hawk/Hawk 75/Mohawk. Part Three. The P-36 in Brazil.

 

Brazil was very important to the United States as a guarantor of its interests in the Panama Canal area. It was expected, among other things, that the country would provide the USA with military bases in the south-eastern part. 
However, after the beginning of the war in Europe in September 1939, Brazil sympathised with the Axis powers, something that was very concerning for the United States' government. 
In order to increase its influence in the South American region and control any potential turmoil in the Caribbean, it was decided in 1941, that the United States Army Air Corps' (the immediate forerunner of the United States Army Air Force -USAAF) sent a mission to Brazil, who would receive some P-36A fighters and B-18 bombers, both of which would be employed to train Brazilian pilots. However, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941 disrupted these plans and the United States found itself in a state of war.
In this context, Brazil, which sympathised with the Axis powers, became a very unreliable business partner. 
In the Brazil-USA relations, however, the South-American country valued cooperation more than the USA and consequently had to revise its foreign policy to maintain good trade relations with its northern neighbour. As a gesture of goodwill, the Brazilians closed their coastal radio stations, which served as navigation points for German U-Boats operating in the south Atlantic and, on 28th January 1942 this change of orientation materialized in a political fact, as Brazil severed every diplomatic relation they had with all Axis countries on that very same day.
This change of alignment prompted the Americans to include the country in their Lend-Lease program and established a training base in the city of Fortaleza, in the State of Ceará.
This way, during the first half of march 1942 arrived at Fortaleza the first exemplars of the RP-36 (RP being the denomination given to regular P-36A fighters destined for training role) out of a total of ten. Those machines were second-hand machines coming from the 16th and 32nd Pursuit Groups, both based in Albrook Field, in Panama Canal Zone.  
In spite of staying first at Fortaleza airfield, the P-36A were quickly transferred to Agrupamento de Avioes de Adaptaçao (Adaptation Aircraft Group), an aerial unite created back on 4th February 1942. Under the tutelage of USAAC instructors, courses were given on these and other aircraft to update the knowledge of Brazilian personnel, providing them with better instruction on procedures and tactics that were being used in aerial combat over Europe at the time.
The presence of P-36A in Fortaleza was short as, in November 1942 they all were officially transferred to 6º Regimento de Aviaçao (6th Aviation Regiment or 6th RAV), a flying unit belonging to 10º Corpo de Base Aérea (10th Corps Air Base or 10th CAB) at Recife, in the state of Pernambuco. However, the arrival of the P-36 to the 6th RAV took place many weeks earlier, since they were all registered by the 10th CAB on 26th September 1942. 
On that occasion, four of the P-36As had already suffered accidents, causing the total loss of the machines killing, unfortunately, the pilots. In spite of the lack of a clear investigation on the causes of the accidents, it can be presumed that material difficulties found when the USAAC operated the P-36As, where also reproduced in Brazil. Furthermore, with the arrival of the first Curtiss P-40E and P-40K, more modern than the P-36A, caused a pronounced drop in the usage of the P-36.
In April 1943, there were only six P-36 operative and they were transferred again, this time to a Grupo Monoposto-Monomotor (Single-Seat Single-Engine Group - GMM) based at Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte. There they were kept as trainers for the Força Aérea Brazileira (Brazilian Air Force - FAB) and they were also employed to patrol the Brazilian septentrional coastline, just like they did in Fortaleza and Recife. 
On 30th September 1943 one P-36A crashed at the neighbourhood of Lagoa Seca in Natal and this accident prompted the FAB to ground the P-36As until further notice. In December 1943 it was decided that the last remaining five P-36A, which were found not unfit for flying, were transferred again, this time to Escola de Especialistas de Aeronáutica (School of Aeronautical Specialists - EEA), at Ponta do Galeao in Rio de Janeiro. There they were employed as fixed ground airframes to train mechanics. 
It's not known how long they were employed at the EEA but when that institution moved to Guaratinguetá, in Sao Paulo, they were not present, except for a few pieces, so most likely they were sold for scrap in during the late 1940s.

Sources:

1st AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 61 - Curtiss P-36 Hawk Part 1 (translated)
2nd Aeronaves Militares Brasileiras 1916-2015 (translated)