ebooks Napoleon’s Mercenaries: Foreign Units in the French Army Under the Consulate and Empire; 1799 to 1814 (The Napoleonic Library) by Guy Dempsey in History

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Although the P-40 and the Bf 109 both joined the air war over North Africa at nearly the same time in early 1941; the venerable German fighter was already fully sorted with a combat career dating back to 1937 in Spain; while the American fighter was making its combat debut in the hands of the RAF's Desert Air Force. Both aircraft were low-wing designs powered by a single liquid-cooled engine of roughly the same output; but there the similarities ended. The Bf 109 was small and agile; capable of operating at high altitudes. The P-40's weight and engine limited it to middle-altitude operations; but it was more manoeuvrable than the Bf 109 and extremely capable in the fighter-bomber role. In typical encounters; Bf 109 pilots would climb above a formation of P-40s and then dive into battle; seeking to maintain the initiative and a speed advantage. The P-40 pilots would respond by trying to turn into the attack. The tide turned in the autumn of 1942; by which time USAAF P-40 squadrons had joined the fight in time for the final Allied push from El Alamein and the Operation Torch landings in Morocco.