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For the airline, see Flying Tiger Line.

Flying Tigers was a nickname of the American Volunteer Group of fighter pilots that fought in Burma and China against Japanese forces during the first year of the United States participation in World War II.

The AVG was largely the creation of Claire Chennault, retired US Army Air Corps major who had become military aviation advisor to Chinese generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in the Sino-Japanese War. On occasion Chennault may have piloted a plane himself, though stories that he was a combat ace are probably apocryphal. Due to poor fighter material, results were not impressive.

In the winter of 1940-1941 Chennault helped negotiate a purchase of 100 Curtiss P-40B fighters (also known as Tomahawk IIB). He visited the United States and supervised the recruiting of 100 pilots — 40 from the Army Air Corps and 60 from the US Navy and Marine Corps — and 200 ground crew. The pilots were mostly reserve officers who were officially discharged to fight as mercenaries in the army of a foreign country. They were officially employees of Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company , and received a salary of $600 a month for pilots, $650 a month for flight leaders (such as Boyington), and $700 for Squadron leader — none of the 100 initial pilots were recruited at this level. They also were promised an additional $500 for each destroyed enemy aircraft, initially only for aircraft shot down, but Madame Chiang Kai-shek later made the announcement that it was also for aircraft destroyed on the ground.

Thus the First American Volunteer Group (AVG) was formed. (Plans for a bomber group and second fighter group were aborted after the Pearl Harbor attack.) Pilots arrived in China in the summer and fall of 1941 and began their training. They gave Chennault a nickname "Old Man". Pilots learned to take on enemy aircraft in teams rather than alone, since their aircraft were less adept at dogfighting than those of the Japanese. Additionally, they only received a small supply of replacement aircraft throughout their short existence.

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 never more than 62 combat-ready pilots 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 the Flying Tigers.

AVG fighter planes were painted with large shark teeth on the front of the plane. About the same time, they were dubbed "Flying Tigers" by their Washington support group, called China Defense Supplies. The Tigers had three squadrons — 1st Squadron (Adam & Eves); 2nd Squadron (Panda Bears) and 3rd Squadron (Hell's Angels). 21 pilots were killed, captured, or went MIA during the existence of the Flying Tigers.

When the United States officially entered the war, AVG had 82 pilots and 79 planes, though not all were combat-ready. Two squadrons were based at Kunming in China and a third at Mingaladon near Rangoon, before the Japanese captured southern Burma.

Flying Tigers had their first real fight in December 20 1941 when they shot down three Japanese bombers and damaged a fourth sufficiently that it crashed before returning to its airfield in northern Vietnam. The 3rd Squadron — 18 planes strong — defended Rangoon in December 23-25 and claimed approximately 90 planes, most of them heavy bombers. After the fall of Rangoon to Japanese in March 1942, the squadrons were redeployed to bases in China. Not surprisingly, later research has shown Japanese losses to have been smaller than believed at the time: author Daniel Ford calculated that the AVG destroyed about 115 enemy aircraft in the air and on the ground.

Chennault was reinstated into the USAAF as a colonel, promoted to brigadier and later major general as commander of the U.S. Army's Fourteenth Air Force. After July 14 1942, the AVG became the China Air Task Force and later the 23rd Fighter Group. Most pilots became transport pilots in China, went back to America into civilian jobs, or rejoined the military services and fought elsewhere in the war. Only five pilots accepted commissions in China. However, US pilots and US press went on using the name Flying Tigers afterwards the AVG's dissolution. Especially the 23rd Fighter Group was often called by the same nickname — they too were the "Flying Tigers".

Just before their 50th reunion in 1992, the AVG veterans were retroactively recognized as members of the U.S. military services during the seven months the group was in combat against the Japanese. Survivors were made eligible for veterans' benefits on the basis of that service, and were awarded medals for their participation.

External links

Annals of the Flying Tigers

Categories: World War II groups

Flying Tigers

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