The flying
Tigers
History
Flying Tigers
was a nickname of American Volunteer Group of fighter pilots that fought
in China
against Japanese forces in the beginning of US entry into World
War Two. It had links to OSS.
Flying Tigers was a creation of Claire
Chennault, retired US Air Corps major who had become military
aviation advisor to Chinese generalissimos Chiang
Kai-shek in the Sino-Japanese
War. In occasion Chennault may have piloted a plane himself. Due to poor
fighter material, results were not impressive.
In 1941 Chennault negotiated a purchase of 100 Curtiss
P-40C fighters (also known as Tomahawk II ). He visited USA and recruited
100 pilots - 40 from US
Army Air Corps and 60 from Navy
- and 150 more for the ground crew. All were officers in reserve who were officially
discharged to fight as mercenaries
in the army of a foreign country. They received a salary of $600 a month plus
$500 for each destroyed enemy aircraft. American Volunteer Group (AVG) was formed.
Unfortunately, many AVG pilots were either inexperienced or quit at the first
opportunity. In addition, fighter planes were slow in coming. Real average strength
of AVG was about 62-80 men and fighters.
One of the more famous pilots was Pappy
Boyington, who was dishonorably discharged in April 1942. He went on to
create the Black
Sheep Squadron, modeled after Flying Tigers.
AVG fighter planes were painted with large shark teeth on the front of the plane,
which later lead to the nickname of The Flying Tigers . Chennault also
gave the planes large numbers to give an impression of much larger force. Flying
Tigers had three squadrons - 1st Squadron (Adam & Eves); 2nd Squadron (Panda
Bears) and 3rd Squadron (Hell's Angels). All pilots had blood
chits. 21 pilots were killed or went MIA during the existence of Flying
Tigers.
When USA officially entered the war, AVG had 82 pilots and 79 planes. Two squadrons
in protected the Burma Road from Rangoon
to Chongqing
and a third at Mingaladon
defended Mandalay
before Japanese captured the air field.
Flying Tigers had their first real fight in December 20 1941 when they shot
down three or four Japanese bombers. Afterwards The 3rd Squadron - 18 planes
strong - defended Rangoon in December 23-25 and shot down maybe 90 planes, most
of them heavy bombers. After the fall of Rangoon to Japanese in March 1942,
squadrons moved back to Kunming. They had destroyed maybe 115 enemy aircraft.
Chennault was reinstated into USAAF major general and became a commander of
the U.S. Army's 14th Air Force. After July 14 1942, Flying Tigers became China
Air Task Force and later 23rd Fighter Group. Most pilots were transferred to
air transport duties or went back to USA into civilian jobs. Only five remained
in China. However, many US pilots and US press went on using the name Flying
Tigers afterwards.
Information courtesy of http://www.nebulasearch.com/
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