The first Model 75H was completed in June 1937 and was soon shipped to China. On 25th August 1937 it was shown in Nanjing where, Madame Soong Mei-Ling, General Secretary of the Aviation Commission for the Kuomintang Government acquired the demonstrator for $35,000 of the time and gifted it to Colonel Claire Chennault, back then, advisor to the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF). The Model 75H was interesting for the ROCAF as it was powered by the same engine that the Curtiss Hawk III biplane, the backbone of ROCAF fighter force, so it was familiar to both pilots and ground crew.
After having acquired the aircraft Chennault instructed American technicians to install weapons on the 75H, including one .5-caliber and one .3-inch machine gun in the nose, and one .3-inch fixed machine gun on each wing. He also invited his colleagues Billy McDonald and John Williamson as well as Col. Mao Bangchu and Major Huang Panyang from China to train on the aircraft.
Apparently, during the Battle of Shanghai Chennault himself flew the 75H on many reconnaissance flights, witnessing various stages of that battle. After the fall of Shanghai, the 75H was passed on to the leader of ROCAF's 17th Squadron, Huang Panyang who also employed the type for recon duties. Later it was passed on to 25th Squadron on 7th May 1938, where its leader Tang Busheng flew it too. During this time, the 75H was flown to Nanjing, under heavy Japanese anti-air fire and, when approaching to its homebase, it suffered a spin when landing, causing several damage beyond repair.
In September 1937, two weeks after the demonstration flight of the 75H, the Chinese Government ordered from Curtiss thirty Model 68 Hawk III biplanes and thirty Model 75M, which was the mass-production variant of the 75H having also a fixed landing gear. Those sixty aircraft arrived disassembled in Guangzhou during the early summer of 1938 and on 9th July 1938 the 25th Squadron received its first 75M in Hengyuang, province of Hunan, under the guidance of Chief Advisor Chennault.
The whole squadron was not fully equipped with the 75M until 5th August 1938.
It was then discovered that those aircraft were shipped directly from the United States without test flights and they were 20 mph (32 km/h) slower than expected. They were also prone to suffer many mechanical failures. Curtiss urgently dispatched an investigation team to China to handle the situation, which reached to the conclusion that the fighters were in perfect conditions and it was ground personnel's fault for not following maintenance procedures, specially on the mechanical maintenance section, as they did not have good understanding of the functions of the aircraft's components and lacked technical skills.
On 18th August 1938 a force consisting on 27 Japanese fighters attacked Hengyuang and Sqd. Ldr. Tang Busheng faced the enemy with a force consisting on three 75M and seven Polikarpov I-152. During the ensuing fight one 75M was shot down with another one damaged. Sqn. Ldr. Tang was killed in action and the other two 75M were forced to land.
On 24th August the 25th Squadron was rebased to Liuzhou, in the province of Guangxi. Later, on 18th September twenty-four Japanese bombers escorted by a force of twenty-two fighters bombed Liuzhou, destroying one 75M, causing the 25th Squadron to be rebased again, this time to Zhijiang in Hunan.
From Zhijiang both 25th and 16th Squadrons (this last one was recently equipped with the 75M) performed joint training under Chennault supervision. Later on 7th and 8th November thirty-six Japanese aircraft attacked Hengyand Zhijiang with both squadrons dispatching a total of eight 75Ms to engage them. During this battle two Japanese aircraft were shot down and another one was damaged, with one 75M being destroyed on the ground.
On 11th January 1939, Sqn. Ldr. Liu Yijun, deputy leader Zhang Mufei , Sqn. Ldr. Zhang Xuecheng, Mu Yuwen and Zhang Yaonan flew five 75M to Chongqing, province of Sichuan, where the 75M were handed over to the 18th Squadron, however, on the return trip the transport where those pilots were travelling back crashed killing all the officers. As a result, both 25th and 16th squadrons were short on personnel and equipment and had to be disbanded.
After the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, Hengyang was in range of Japanese bombers so it suffered frequent aerial attacks. That's why 16th Squadron, which was recently equipped with the 75M, and under command of Cpt. Yang Hongding, was transferred to Zhijiang. After completing joint training, it was transferred to Yibin, Sichuan during early 1939 to provide aerial defence in Chongqing, the wartime capital of the Republic of China back then. In June 1938 every aircraft and some personnel of 16th squadron was merged into 18th Squadron with the 16th being officially disbanded in August. The 18th squadron was officially established in November 1938, with Cpt. Yang Yibai in command. In January 1939 the unit was transferred to Kunming, province of Yunnan for advanced training and provide aerial defence of the city. In April they took part in the interception of enemy aircraft by a mixed formation led by Hu Zhuangru, the officer academy's fighter squadron leader. In May they were transferred back to Yibin to serve in the night-fighter role in Chongqing. In December 1939 they took part in the Guinan campaign and from January to May 1940 they served as aerial defence alerts in the Kunming area to protect the important Yunnan-Indochina railway. In June 1940 they returned to Chongqing to, once again, protect the capital and serve in aerial defence operations between Chengdu and Chongqing until the end of 1940.
Shortly after the squadron was disbanded too. The remaining aircraft were transferred to the 11th Squadron, dedicated to the training role in January 1941.
It was during this year that the remaining units of the ROCAF went to India to receive aircraft provided by the United States. The 75Ms were handed over to the 3rd Squadron, which remained in Chengdu. By 1942 a small number of 75Ms were still in service. Among them at least two were provided by the American personnel who were present in China at the time when the B-25 Mitchell bombers belonging to the famous Doolittle Raid made an emergency landing.
There was another variant that served in China, the Hawk 75Q. This variant featured a retractable undercarriage and was armed with one .5-inch and one .3-inch machine gun in the nose, plus two 23mm Danish-made Madsen cannons in the wings, similar to both the XP-36F and the Hawk 75A-5. It was shipped together with a Curtiss CW-21 light fighter to CAMCO's (China Aircraft Manufacturing Company) facilities in Leiyun, province of Yunnan to be assembled.
After flight tests it was flown to Chengdu to take part in mock aerial dogfights against the Soviet-made Polikarpov I-153 and I-16 of the ROCAF, proving the 75Q to be superior to both.
After those testing additional components of the 75A-5 were delivered to Leiyun but they were soon evacuated to Bangalore, India, due to Japanese bombing and their advancing army.
There, they were handed to Hindustan Aircraft, where they were completed.
For more information about their fate, check out our previous post about Asian users of the Curtiss Hawk 75.
Sources:
1st https://cwlam2000.epizy.com/caf35.htm (translated and adapted)
2nd AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 61 - Curtiss P-36 Hawk Part 1 (translated)
3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-36_Hawk
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