The P 400 is basically the export version of the P 39 that was sold to the RAF.
After the RAF cancelled the remainder of the order, they were taken over by the USAAF. They differed primarily by having a 20mm cannon in the nose instead of the 37mm gun, and, their real issue for USAAF use in the Pacific, they had RAF oxygen systems. These British systems were different than USAAf units and limited the P 400 to low levels only, not that they had much utility above 15000 feet anyway, but it kept them pretty much below 10,000ft.
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Personally speaking, the P-40 could contend on an equal footing with all the types of Messerschmitts, almost to the end of 1943.
~Nikolay Gerasimovitch Golodnikov
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