Curtiss Hawk 75A/Mohawk. Part thirteen. The Hawk in France. Part one.

 

In late 1937 the French Conseil Supérieur de l'Air (Air Council - depending of the Ministry of the Air), realised that French aircraft manufacturers alone could not equip the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) with enough fighters, specially after the objectives of the so-called "Plan V", which was in force at the time, could not be achieved. It was decided therefore to ask for help to foreign manufacturers, so several diplomatic missions were set off, including one to the USSR. With the exception of the Netherlands, from which fifty Koolhoven FK-58 fighters were purchased, no other European country seemed able to supply the desired amount of aircraft in the required period. This made the Conseil to turn their interests towards the United States, where unofficial negotiations were already underway since late 1937 by Baron de la Grange, a personal friend of Presiden Roosevelt. 
The newly appointed Air Minister, Guy la Chambre, set instructions for several hundred of foreign modern fighters to be purchased. Given the short delivery dates the French demanded, the choice was limited to just two fighter models, with very similar performance rates: the Seversky P-35 and the Curtiss H-75. The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) picked the P-35, so the French turned towards the Curtiss H-75.
Negotiations were specially long an difficult, as the French complained that the unit purchase price was much higher than that of a Morane-Saulnier Ms.406 or a Bloch M.B.152, however, the delays suffered by the French national aircraft industry, together with the deterioration of the European political situation, meant that the Frenchs agreed, and an initial contract for a hundred machines, called H-75A-1 was finally signed in May 1938. These fighters were identical to the P-36A, differing only in being equipped with French equipment such as radio, sights, gauges set in metric system and so on. It was powered by the Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp R-1830 SC3G radial engine rated at 1,050 hp and had the throttle reversed to comply the general practice of the Armée de l'Air. These machines were armed with four 7.5mm Browning machine guns, two in the engine cowling and two in the wings, built under license in France. 
The prototype of this batch was tested at Buffalo, New York in November 1938 by one of Curtiss' test pilots and later, the first plane intended for France was tested by one pilot of Centre d'Expérimentation du Materiel Aérien (CEMA - Air Equipment Experimental Centre). The machines were dismantled, packed into crates and shipped to le Havre, France, where they arrived on 24th December just to be sent to the SNCAC (Société Nationale de Construction Aéronautique du Centre) at Bourges, which was tasked with re-assembling the Hawks in early 1939.
After the Munich Crisis in September 1938 the international situation deteriorated significantly, and French aircraft manufacturers still could not meet the objectives, so further negotiations were held to purchase the new Curtiss fighter, the H-81 (P-40 Warhawk), however, this project never came into fruition due to delays in the manufacture of the Allison engine it was powered by. Therefore, the Frenchs opted for an improved version of the H-75, which was already foresaw when the first contract was signed.
This improved version featured a reinforced rear fuselage and was powered by a Twin Wasp SG3G radial engine, which was slightly more powerful than its predecessor and, from machine number 141 onwards, was armed with two extra machine guns in the wings, with some older models being retrofitted to this new weapon arrangement. 
These new machines were designated as H-75A-2 and a new order was placed for one hundred more machines.
When the war began in September 1939 all the ordered fighters had already been delivered to the France and were taken in charge by the Armée de l'Air with Groupe de Chasse (GC) I/5, II/5 and I/4 in March and April 1939 being the first ones to be equipped with them. Those squadrons were still equipped with the outdated Dewoitine D.500 or D.501 and were going to be equipped by the new Bloch M.B. 151 and M.B. 152, but their entry into service was being delayed. Those units were followed by GC II/4 which received its new machines in early summer 1939. 
In August 1939 a new French commission was sent to the USA to purchase further new fighters as national production could not still meet the objectives of Plan V, which were expected to achieve the following spring.
In spite of difficult negotiations aggravated by the recent state of war and the declaration of neutrality of the USA, the Frenchs managed to sign a contract - more expensive than the previous ones - in early October 1939 for a total of 535 H-75s, with deliveries taking place over the following year, and one hundred of the new H-81 which was becoming available. Moreover one thousand engines and propellers were also ordered with a production license for the Twin Wasp engine to be manufactured by Talbot-Lago. (To be continued)

Sources:
1st Histoire & Collections - Avions et Pilotes 7 - French Aircraft from 1939 to 1942 Volume1 Amiot to Curtiss
2nd AJ-Press - Monografie Lotnicze 61 - Curtiss P-36 Hawk Part 1