Flying Tigers in action
The American volunteer flyers who fought for China against the Japanese invasion were known as the ‘Flying Tigers.’ They saw their first combat on December 20th, 1941. They had originally thought this would be earlier, but various delays meant that it happened a few days after the US and Japan were officially at war.
The Tigers, officially the American Volunteer Group (AVG), were the brainchild of Claire L Chennault, a retired US officer working in China. He’d acted as military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek, then as director of the Chinese Flight School. 100 volunteers were all recruited from US air forces, officially discharged so they could become civilian volunteers to fight with the Chinese. They were employed for “training and instruction” by a civilian military contractor (CAMCO), which paid them roughly twice what their US pay would have been.
Chennault took charge of the purchase of 100 Curtiss P-40 ‘Tomahawk’ fighter planes. They were marked in Chinese colours, and painted with the distinctive shark face up front after pilots has seen a photo of an RAF P-40 similarly decorated. Chennault was a good tactical commander, and trained his pilots to take advantage of the P-40’s rugged strengths. It featured armour and self-sealing fuel tanks, and had a higher diving speed that most Japanese fighters.
Chennault forbade his flyers from engaging the more nimble enemy in a turning fight, but trained them to dive into attack, then pull away for another attack. His early warning system had Chinese villagers give warning of oncoming planes so his own planes could have an altitude advantage when they arrived. Although this manoeuvre went against US and RAF teaching, he’s seen the Soviets use it successfully. It worked, and saw his Flying Tigers credited with downing 296 enemy aircraft for the loss on only 14 of his own pilots. When his pilots eventually returned to the US, they found a bonus of $500 had been paid into their bank accounts for every enemy plane they shot down.
At a time when Japanese forces were streaming seemingly unchecked across Asia in a series of victories and conquests, news of the successes enjoyed by the Flying Tigers provided America with a much-needed morale boost, showing that the Japanese enemy could be beaten. It also cemented in the minds of Americans that the Chinese were allies facing a common enemy. A friend pf mine at St Andrews used to display a Coca-Cola poster from the period showing US pilots fraternizing with Chinese soldiers by drinking Coke together, with the caption, “Have a Coke - Good winds have blown you here.”
It was neither the first time, not the last, when brave Americans have fought for the freedom of other peoples. It was Jefferson’s US Navy that took on and ultimately routed the Libyan pirates wreaking havoc on Mediterranean shipping in the early 1800s. It was US forces that tipped the balance in two World Wars, and it was a US-led coalition that liberated Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. What was different about the Flying Tigers was that they were volunteers, fighting an enemy superior in numbers and equipment.
The Flying Tigers received many honours American and Chinese. About to celebrate their 50th reunion in 1992, they were retroactively recognized as members of the U.S. military services during the seven months in combat against the Japanese. Their team was then awarded a Presidential Unit Citation for "professionalism, dedication to duty, and extraordinary heroism." And in 1996 their pilots received the Distinguished Flying Cross and their ground crew were all awarded the Bronze Star Medal.