The P-36 was delivered to Hawaii in February 1941 on board USS Enterprise (CV-6) aircraft carrier. The Hawks were loaded in California, and then flown off the carrier's deck when the Enterprise was close the shore of Hawaii. This kind of procedure was the first of its kind for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) and would later be replicated during World War 2 many times, like during the Siege of Malta, for example.
This procedure saved considerable time and resources compared to the traditional methos of having the fighters disassembled first, crated and then loaded by crane in a freighter ship, then unloaded and reassembled in Hawaii.
The only combat action saw by the P-36 in USAAC's markings took place on 7th December 1941, during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
During the second wave of Pearl Harbor, amidst the chaos at Wheeler Field, a total of four P-40Cs and two P-36s took off at 8:35 hours in the morning, this was preceded by two P-40s and four P-36 which took off five minutes earlier. One of those who took off flying a P-36 was 2 Lt. Harry W. Brown who took off from Haleiwa auxiliary field and, when headed for Wheeler he soon spotted another P-36 flown by 2 Lt. Bob Rogers and they both managed to shot down a Japanese Nakajima B5N 'Kate' torpedo-bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). 2 Lt. Brown would eventually become an ace and that marked his only aerial victory flying a P-36. After that, he landed back at Haleiwa where the other Curtiss fighters also landed to refuel.
At Wheeler 1 Lt. Lewis Sanders, managed to save many P-36s and got them ready for action. As he was the commander of the 46th Pursuit Squadron, he led four P-36s off at 8:50 am just when the second wave began its attack. One fighter was flown by 2 Lt. Philip Rasmussen who, given the urgence of the situation, had to fly wearing his pyjama and took off in an all-silver P-36A. Among other pilots was 2 Lt. Gordon Sterling who, in the chaos and confusion, manned 2 Lt. Norris' aircraft.
Most of pilots from Wheeler and Haleiwa had just passed their gunnery tests and were, theoretically, better qualified than many other pilots in Hawaii at that time.
In order to gain height advantage Sanders climbed hard for the first 20 minutes of the mission and then he attacked the leading Mitsubishi A6M Zero flown by Lt. Fujita, while 2 Lt. Thacker and Rasmussen were engaged with other IJN fighters. Meanwhile, Sterling managed to get behind another Zero, but got himself in trouble when Fujita's Zero slipped on his tail. Seeing his wingman under fire, Sanders dived on Fujita but couldn't save Sterling who died.
Both Sanders and Sterling were credited with victories, although both Japanese fighters survived, albeit with damage.
While all that combat was taking place, 2. Lt. Thacker experienced a beam attack from a Zero when he was flying in circles trying to re-cock his guns. This attacked damaged his P-36 and the Zero, thought to be flown by P.O. 2c Tanaka, then crossed the nose of 2 Lt. Rasmussen's P-36. In the ensuing fight, the result was uncertain, but Rasmussen remembered to have seen the Zero smoking.
Back at Wheeler, 2 Lt. Bill Haney (future ace) ran to a line of P-36 that were being armed, when the bombs were falling he managed to take off and join Sanders' small ad-hoc group of fighters, only to be struck by friendly anti-air fire coming from the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco. With his engine damaged Haney was forced to land. Just when he landed he sprinted towards another P-36 and took-off only to be hit another friendly anti-air fire which forced him to land again back at Wheeler field.
When the second wave retreated to the sea, seven P-36s and a pair of P-40s took off to chase them, however they failed to intercept the IJN fighters and flew an uneventful patrol.
The combat career of the P-36 with the USAAC lasted less than one hour, as the type was outdated and they were quickly replaced by the P-40 Warhawk or other types. By the Battle of Midway in June 1942 the 18th Pursuit Squadron based at Elmendorf Field, Alaska had only three exampled on strength, those being potentially the last American P-36 that saw some frontline action against the Japanese (although they just were employed for uneventful patrols over the southern shore of Alaska), as other USAAF's P-36 were still serving in frontline service, but were based in Panama Canal Zone with the 16th and 32nd Pursuit Groups, but experienced no combat.
During the year 1942 almost every P-36 was relegated to second line duties such as schools or used for mechanics training.
The Curtiss XP-42 was an experimental fighter, developed directly from the P-36. It was powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp engine and was fitted with a longer and streamlined cowling and a large propeller spinner, in order to improve the aerodynamics of the radial engine.
It flew for the first time in March 1939 and, although faster than the P-36, the P-40 proved to be faster and the new nose arrangement proved to be unresolvable in spite of at least 12 modifications, which eventually resulted in a shorter and less streamlined cowling closely resembling the original P-36. The XP-42 project was cancelled, however the prototype was retained by Curtiss and used as a test bed and was fitted with an all-moving tail. This aircraft was scrapped on 15th July 1947.
Sources:
1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_P-36_Hawk#United_States
2nd Osprey - Aircraf of the Aces 86 - P-36 Hawk Aces of World War II
3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss_XP-42
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