The Federalist: Before appeasement at Munich, before the invasion of Poland, before Dunkirk, and before the attack on Pearl Harbor, one American man was already fighting in World War II. That man’s name was Claire Chennault. His story, and that of his American Volunteer Group (AVG), is the subject of The Flying Tigers: The Untold Story of the American Pilots Who Waged a Secret War Against Japan, a fascinating new book by historian Sam Kleiner about the eponymous pilots.
The Flying Tigers, formally the AVG, recruited members mostly from the American Navy, Marines, and Army. Their covert actions began eight months before Pearl Harbor, and were authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt without the knowledge of the isolationist Congress. These men wanted to fight, to see the world, and to be paid well to do it.
So they resigned from the military, left their bases, and were contracted under the authority of the Chinese government to battle Imperial Japan. Readers unfamiliar with the group may recall the iconic images of their P-40 Tomahawk fighter planes, purchased by the Chinese through a third-party corporation, whose noses the airmen painted with shark teeth and eyes.
Sent halfway around the world, these roughly 100 pilots and their ground crew flagrantly violated their country’s official neutrality and trained in Burma during the second half of 1941. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they were perfectly positioned to enter combat, to keep China in the fight against Japan, and to ensure that America’s enemy could not focus all of its might on a shaken and unready United States.
The group’s origins can be traced back to December 1936. At that time, China’s premier couple, Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame Chiang, sought an American to build and train the faltering Chinese Air Force. They found Claire Chennault, an army pilot from Louisiana with a stalled career who made a name for himself developing concepts for aerial acrobats. Upon receiving their invitation, Chennault resigned from the army and left his family behind for “a great adventure.” MORE
As I remember after we declared war on Japan a lot of the Flying Tigers, that were shooting the shit out of Zeros, were shown no respect when they tried to join the “Army Air Corp”. The birth of Libtards? Maybe.
Pappy Boyington’s stomping grounds. If there was a backstabbing libtard in the mix, I’d suspect Chennault as a prime candidate.
There is a nice museum about the Flying Tigers and Claire Chennault in his hometown of Monroe LA not far off I-20. It is run by his granddaughter.
http://www.chennaultmuseum.org
I believe there is a museum about Chennault and the Flying Tigers in North Louisian where he is from. Maybe Monroe, LA. I would like to check it out one day.
I knew a guy who was a Tiger, not a pilot, ground crew.
Cookie Byrd, the son of Pop Byrd who started a cookie company in Savannah, 1924.
When he went there, they gave him the nickname of Cookie, you can figure out why.
He was a story teller and I spent many hours listening about that part of WWII.
According to him, Chennault and Boyington were both SOBs.
Fourth generation runs it now.
I used to live across the street from a pilot who told me the Flying Tigers pioneered what eventually became FedEx.
In fact, his FedEx routes were contracted transport for the military/Dept of Defense only. Not even his wife knew where he was at any given time.
When I was a youngster I read
“God Is My Copilot” by an AVG
fighter pilot. If you can still
find it, it is worth the read.
Old pictures fascinate me.
They all look old beyond their years.
How many in that pic survived the war?
How many tried to drink away the memories?
The guy in the safari hat sure looks British.
What does the guy with his head turned see?
Just questions without answers.
No doubt, all were real men.
I had 4 relatives that killed Japs. 1 was a Flying Tiger. Later president of SWA pilots union. Great man died my sr. year in college. Not as the NYT said 74 ears ago a xenophobia white nationalist!
Fun fact: The AVG was not the first to paint the P-40 with sharks teeth; that distinction goes to Australian Air Force units stationed in India. AVG saw it and adopted it as their trademark.
There’s a great John Wayne movie about them.