How P-40 Warhawks Blunted Japan’s Advance and Crushed a German Air Armada WWII planes like the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk helped turn the tide of World War 2. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, one of the most battle-tested World War 2 fighter planes, fought from the opening shots of the Pacific war to the great desert battles of North Africa. On December 7, 1941, P-40 pilots at Pearl Harbor scrambled into the sky against Japanese carrier aircraft. The next day, December 8, 1941, Warhawks in the Philippines en