Alaskan Tigers explores a less familiar theater of the Second World War: the campaign for the Aleutian Islands. P-40 Warhawks were among the American fighters assigned to defend Alaska and oppose Japanese operations in the North Pacific.
The Aleutian Campaign
In June 1942, Japanese forces occupied Attu and Kiska in the western Aleutians, creating the only prolonged occupation of U.S. territory by enemy forces during the war. American and Canadian aircraft operated in some of the harshest flying conditions of the conflict, where fog, wind, cold and rapidly changing weather could be as dangerous as combat.
P-40s provided fighter defense and ground-attack capability from primitive and often weather-beaten airfields. The distinctive shark-mouth imagery associated with some Aleutian Warhawks gave the aircraft an especially recognizable appearance.
P-40 Warhawk material associated with the relic artwork.
The Relic
The artwork incorporates material from a P-40 Warhawk air-intake component. Rather than representing a specific Aleutian aircraft, the relic provides a physical connection to the Curtiss fighter type used throughout the campaign.
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