Empire of Fu Manchu

The War Department
Washington DC, United States of America
March 17th, 1940


‘General Arnold will see you now, captain!’ the secretary announced with a warmer smile than she had to. Captain William "Buck" Rogers smiled back, taking for granted the effect his appearance had always had on women. He rose from his chair and put down the magazine he had used to kill time in the waiting room of General “Hap” Arnold, commander of the Army Air Corps. He looked down on his uniform, looking for any spots or specks of dust and found several. He made a half-hearted attempt at brushing them away before walking into the Generals office. As the secretary held open the door for him, he fought down an impulse to pat her behind as he walked past. It was a very cute behind, he decided.

The door closed behind him and Buck came to attention in front of General Arnold’s desk. The office was fairly anonymous, the only decorations being a few mementos from his time in the Philippines some thirty years earlier on display on the wall – native masks, Kris knifes and the such.

‘Reporting as ordered, Sir!’ Buck fairly much shouted.

‘Very good, Captain, at ease,’ Arnold said, looking up from his stack of papers. He was in his mid fifties, with greying hair and a face that looked flint hard, except for the smile-wrinkled grandpa eyes.


General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the US Army Air Corps

‘Captain Rogers, I’ll be brief, since we both have much to do and little time to do it in. Now that you have flown it in combat and scored three kills, by the way, congratulations - What’s your opinion of the Curtis P-40?’

‘I was shot down, Sir. I hardly think congratulations are in Order!’ Buck said a little bit more hotly than he had intended to.

‘And you blame your aircraft for it, don’t you, Captain?’ Arnold asked, arching a grey eyebrow.

Buck clenched his teeth. ‘Sir, well, yes sir! It’s not that the P-40 is not a good plane. It’s sturdy as hell, and has good armour protection, but it’s a slow climber and it can’t turn with the Mitsubishi Type 0 – not even close, sir! And what’s worse, it can’t outrun it either. With their Army crate, the Nakajima Type 97, at least I knew I had a good 70 mph speed advantage, but the Type 0 can outturn and out climb the P-40 and stay with it in a chase – I don’t think it’s faster, but if it’s slower, it’s not by much.’

‘Go on, Captain, these are all very useful observations,’ Arnold said taking notes. ‘Does the P-40 have any performance advantage at all?’

‘Sir, I think it can dive much faster than the Type 0. Stands to reason since it’s much heavier. Perhaps we could shake one by diving, but since they climb so much better than us, we’d be put at an irreversible height disadvantage.’

‘What else?’

‘Well, armament wise, the Type 0 has two 20mm cannons where the P-40 has two .50 calibre Brownings, although I still think the Brownings are easier to score hits with, so in fact the range advantage might be with us.’

‘That’s also the conclusion we’ve reached, especially since the Pan-Asian planes seem to carry little or no armour. We don’t need to put heavy guns on our planes to down theirs.’

‘Yes Sir. Finally, the P-40 has no self-sealing tanks. A few MG holes in the wing and it starts leaking fuel. Only by God’s own grace did my crate not catch fire when I got a chunk shot off my right wing.’

‘Very well.' Arnold closed his notebook. ‘Here’s the deal. There’s already an improved version, the Curtis P-40B coming off the lines. It was designed before the war, so it didn’t benefit from combat feedback, but it will have the self-sealing tanks you asked for, an extra pair of .30 calibres in the wings and more armour. Unfortunately, we still have the same Alison engine, so it will be slower, not faster than the P-40 and I’m not sure that manoeuvrability will be served by the extra weight either.’

Buck groaned. ‘That’s no good, Sir! We might never be able to turn with the enemy, but then at least we have to be able to outrun him!’

‘Quite. Anyway, we have a more immediate problem though. You will be serving with the Nazi flyers of the Eagle Legion. I’ll make no secret off the fact that I don’t like to see them here, but if the President and General Marshall want them, who am I to say otherwise? Anyway, they’re bringing their very latest fighter plane, the Messerschmitt Bf-109F. Apparently, it’s one hell of a bird – a little light on guns but faster than anything the enemy can put in the air. And I won’t have you, my boy, flying an inferior machine, or Heaven forbid, be forced to borrow one of their crates because ours can’t keep up!’ Arnold looked furious at the mere thought.

‘So here’s the deal, and a sweet one for you it is: we’ve bought a batch of British Packard Merlin engines that have almost the same dimensions as the Alison, but are much more powerful. We’ve customized a P-40B to be fitted with it, we call it the P-40B(P), and it should be able to keep up with those Messerschmitts so we’re not put to shame.’

‘Why don’t we put Merlins in all the P-40Bs, Sir?’ Buck wondered, happy about his hot new plane but angered that other USAAC pilots would not benefit from the same improvement.

‘I’m sorry son; the Brits are using their entire production for themselves. They’re desperately trying to upgrade their forces to be able to fight the Pan-Asians too, and have little to spare for us. A handful of engines is one thing – whole series of hundreds of them something quite different. But Alison is putting together a better engine for the P-40C, so we’ll get there on our own eventually.’

‘Glad to hear it, Sir!’

‘Fine, fine. Now, get going. The Nazi’s are setting up shop at Arlington Airfield. Your plane should be waiting for you there, and remember: you’re a liaison. That Nazi bitch might outrank you, but she’s sure as hell not your commanding officer! So don’t you go taking no shit from her. Oh, and no “fraternisation”! Yes, Captain, I know your reputation as a ladies man, but remember, you’ve got to uphold American dignity above all things!’

‘Yes Sir, General Sir!’

‘Dismissed!’

A unique, customised plane just for him! As he left the office, Buck Rogers had trouble wiping a silly grin of his face. He was sure he’d be able to show Oberst Hannah Reitsch a thing or two. He quickly banished the thought that he’d like her to show him a thing or two too as inappropriate and un-American.​