The Curtiss Hawk was an American-built fighter aircraft of the 1930s. A contemporary of the Hawker Hurricane and the Messerschmitt Bf 109, it was one of the first of a new generation of combat aircraft - a sleek monoplane of metal construction and powered by a powerful piston engine. Obsolete at the onset of World War II and best-known as the predecessor of the Curtiss P-40, the Hawk was extensively used by the French Air Force before the Nazi invasion of 1940. Three hundred Hawks went into service for France in March 1939, even though they were twice as expensive as the equivalent French-designed planes. This book is the detailed illustrated history of this aircraft's French service before and during World War II, complete with full combat records.