In March 1941 P-35 had been assigned to the USAAC in the Philippines as the most modern fighter available till the arrival of the first P-40Bs (May 1941). Coming from the broken contract with Sweden 53 planes out of 57 were available for three Squadrons. With more planes than pilots now each pilot had an assigned plane. Well liked due to their flying characteristics these P-35s had nevertheless a big weakness: they lacked self sealing tanks.

Green pilots just arrived from the US as part of the fast-growing defensive structure being put in place for the clouds of war were looming. After graduating in P-26s they were transferred to the P-35s and eventually moved to the P-40 squadrons as these were formed and more Curtiss fighters were becoming available.

The 3rd PS had a high attrition rate due to accidents with their fighters. Luckily for them as the 20^th PS was receiving their P-40s they transferred their 35s to the 3^rd PS. By October the 17^th PS was transitioning from their P-35s to the more modern P-40Es. Accidents continued to reduce the number of Severskys available.

With the growing availability of P-40s the P-35s were being used for gunnery practice and by November they were not considered tactical planes. Their next life would start when all the Squadrons were equipped with P-40s. At that moment the 35s would be transferred to the PAAC (like the 26s in July 41).

Late November two more Squadrons arrived from the US: the 21^st and 34^th. Till they got their P-40s they were handed the 35s that were available. Based at Nicholls Field the 21^st was to received the planes from the 3^rd once this one was back from their gunnery training. The 17^th also passed on their 35s to the new arrived squadrons. But these found that due to the intensive training the engines were long overdue for an overhaul and the guns were also in pretty bad shape.

Early December the 34^th had 22 worn out P-35s at Del Carmen. Their CO was Sam Marett who was doing everything possible to prepare his men, planes and airfield for the inevitable Japanese attack.

When the fateful day arrived (MacArthur’s Pearl Harbor) the chaos and fruitless interceptions of the fighter squadrons in the Philippines are too long to describe here. Suffice to say that the 34^th flew a fruitless patrol mission early in the morning and returned to their base without seeing the enemy. At 11 AM they could hear and see the explosions at Clarke Field to their north. Without waiting for orders from their Group commander Marett took his men in 16 x P-35s to the air. Just shortly leaving the ground the CO and his wingman were jumped by Zeroes. The third element leader misidentified the Zeros with A-27 but when the plane behind him started to fire using the guns on the cowling her realized his mistake and successfully evaded the Japanese. Marett’s wingman received some hits but went to the aid of a colleague only to find (like Marett a few moments before) that his guns were not working. Crossland, his best friend, came to his rescue and managed to gain the tail of the Zero only to stall when he tried to fire in a steep turn.

Without Marett the Sqn was now being led by 1^st Lt Brown. He took them to Clark but due to the fact that the planes had no oxygen they could only fly at 8,000 ft. Suddenly the P-35s found 6 Zeros. With an advantage of 2:1 (after some of the 34^th planes had returned to their base) the Allied pilots found themselves fighting the nimble Zeros in their worn out 35 that had their guns out of commission in many instances. The P-35s were overwhelmed by the experienced Japanese pilots flying their more capable fighters. Nevertheless, Stewart Robb could have shot down a Zero who was in turn attacking a fellow pilot. Robb’s guns hit the enemy plane and smoke and fire started to come out of the engine. At that moment his windshield and instrument panel got shattered by the gun of another Zero. While turning the Zero overshoot but climbed steeply and came down on Robb in a way he had never seen. Hit again by the Japanese he managed to evade it and crash landed his heavily damaged (more than 20 hits) P-35. Though none were shot down all of the P-35s had suffered from Japanese lead intoxication. 2^nd Lt Henry swore he would never go up in a P-35 to fight the Zeros.

The 34th was moved to San Marcelino on December 9 as it was assumed that Del Carmen was going to eventually be attacked by the Japanese. While flying there they saw some large planes also heading to their new base. As they were approaching to land the AAA opened up on them and the P-35s had to dodge the friendly fire. Finally landing at San Marcelino they found that those large planes were B-17s. With no mess and basically little in terms of field installations the pilots had to gather money and go out to town to buy food for themselves.

With the Japanese now landing at Vigan, the 35s were sent to Del Carmen to be readied to attack them. Out of the 13 planes available one landed on a ditch and damaged the propeller but the pilots working together managed to straighten the blade using a rock! Twelve planes were to take part in the mission. CO Marett would lead the strafers while Ben Brown would lead the other half as protection. Due to engine problems the Marett had now 4 planes in his flight while Brown had only three. Diving on the Japanese they made their attacks. Judging to be attacking a 10,000-ton cruiser (it was actually a 630-mine sweeper) Marett’s guns hit the anti submarine depth charges stored on the deck. These exploded and the entire ship blew up…taking the wing off from Marett’s 35 who crashed to his death. Crossland, Hal and Pagel attacked till their ammo was expanded leaving two transport ships on fire. Brown came down to also attack the Japanese but he now was also facing engine trouble and returned to Del Carmen with the other 5 planes. For the loss of Marett it was quite a successful attack with the minesweeper sunk, two transport ships on fire and several launches damaged But it was just a mosquito bite on an elephant…

At Del Carmen the surviving P-35s were strafed by the Japanese around noon. This was the end of the 34^th PS as seven planes had been destroyed in this last attack, with three more badly damaged and 5 out of commission planes. Brown, now in charge of the Squadron, took his men on foot to the central plain of Del Carmen. What followed is another story. But thus ended the short combat career of the P-35 in the Philippines. They were also credited with two Zeros shot down (apparently by tail code “23”)