What I actually meant was that I only regarded the P-40 as a modern fighter on Dec 8, 1941. Rather than there being 100+ modern fighters as you wrote, I commented that the number of modern fighters (P-40s) was closer to half that.
On Dec 7 in the Philippines, there were 54 operational P-40E's, 18 P-40B's and 18 P-35's. The P-35's listed as operational were effectively useless due to worn out engines, worn out .30 cal machineguns, light armor and no self sealing fuel tanks but of the 18 P-35's that were listed as operational, only a few of them actually made it into combat with the others having to return to base or be abandoned due to mechanical problems.
One of the P-40 squadrons had just arrived and the engines had not yet been broken in nor guns sighted but were never-the-less listed as operational. Of the freshly arrived P-40's, only a few of them made it from scramble into combat due to brand new unbroken engines blowing out. Many American pilots would fire their guns for the first time against Japanese aircraft.
None of the fighters, P-40 or P-35 had oxygen for the pilots. Lack of oxygen limited use to about 15,000 feet. Even the P-40E's would not have lasted very long because the Japanese bombers could fly much higher than the American fighters and bomb airfields with impunity.
I have Bartsch’s book open before me. He has P-40 airframe numbers and materials receipts for every unit unloaded in Manila, with delivery dates.
P-40B - 31 delivered 5/17/1941
P-40E - 50 delivered 9/29/1941
P-40E - 24 delivered 11/25/1941
That’s 105 airframes, plus extra engines etc.
Bartsch effectively tracks every airframe.
Almost all were flyable or were soon made flyable at some point in the campaign; many were destroyed on the ground and in accidents but in few if any cases were delivered aircraft destroyed before they were made operational. So there were 100+ flyable P-40’s available. Not all at once, certainly.
As for the P-35’s, there certainly were many flyable units. It wasn’t a great aircraft but it was competitive with the standard Japanese Army fighter of the campaign, the “Nate”, which were used in larger numbers than Zeros. And like the P-40’s there were also many airframes brought back into service after engine overhauls and cannibalization.
The oxygen problem was again a failure brought about by negligence and inexperience. This was solved, later. It could have been solved before, but wasn’t.
And the pokey assembly/service/gunsight problems/lousy engine service/overhaul performance also were largely personnel and training problems. Also the lack of camouflaged airfields/dispersal, bad operations control, bad tactical/intercept control, lousy communications, etc. All much improved one month in. But by that time there were few airplanes left.