DING HAO!

Flying Tigers movie poster

I found a movie on YouTube today. Yes, they do have actual entertaiment. It's not all alien conspiracies or flat earthers. It was "The Flying Tigers" a romanticized WWII film starting John Wayne. The version on YouTube has Chinese sub-titles. Not sure which "China" it was meant for. I can see Taiwan doing this, not sure Beijing would allow it. I was hoping it was dubbed. That would have been kinda fun. I guess you can't have The Duke speak anything but English. That accent of his probably won't translate well to Chinese. I would think there's not many Chinese comedians doing John Wayne impressions.

General Claire Chennault

The Chinese (at least the Taiwanese) would consider members of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) heros. General Claire Chennault formed the unit for Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Republican Air Force in April of 1941, but they didn't officially see combat until later on that year. I had the mis-conception they were flying against the Japanese Empire before Pearl Harbor. As I understand it there were delays getting the group off the ground, so to speak. Their baptism by fire occurred on 20 December, 1941, after the US had declared war. The Chinese, however, had been fighting Japan since July, 1937. Some historians put the date as early as 1931, when some "rogue" Japanese military units invaded Manchuria.

Letter of "Resignation"

Chennaults pilots were all service personnel from various arms of the US military who entered China using civilian passports. The US wasn't at war yet, so there was no official approval of a fighting force comprised of American military. They "resigned" from the service so they could become  trainers and instructors under contract with Chennaults "Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company". Many of them fudged their flight experience to qualify for the AVG. They had flown bombers or light single engine aircraft and had no experience whatsoever with a fighter. Chennault had to train them in tactics and piloting for pursuit planes. This was fortunate for Chennault. His tactics, learned by observing Japanese pilots, were quite different from conventional training. His major precept was Never dog fight the more maneuverable Jap planes. Instead he taught his pilots to dive at the enemy firing as they passed and using the energy of the dive to climb back up above the enemy for another pass. It worked quite well. The AVG averaged 25 victories for every P-40 lost.

Blood Chit 

AVG pilots had readily visible "chits" that resembled the flag of China on the back of their flight jackets. They were lettered with a notification in Chinese. For the AVG the characters spelled out these words;

"This foreign person has come to China to help in the war effort. Soldiers and civilians, one and all, should rescue, protect, and provide him with medical care."

A similar chit was worn by the B-25 pilots and crews of the Doolittle raid. In both cases the Chinese were more than happy to help Americans and hide them from the Japanese, they took care of them and got them back to Allied lines.

You may have seen them somewhere (the jackets, not the pilots). You can sometimes find them (or replicas) on EBay and other online sites. If they're genuine WWII issue, they are priced accordingly.

Blood chits are still in use today. The CIA has one posted on their site that was used in Afghanistan

AVG P-40 Tomahawk IIb fighters

The P-40 fighters they flew had a sharks face painted on the nose with Chinese markings and roundels on their wings. They originally called themselves "Tiger Sharks" other pilots, however, referred to them as "Flying Tigers" and it stuck. A cartoon of the beast (a decal provided by Disney) on the side of the fuselage behind the cockpit.

Disney "Flying Tiger" decal applied to a P-40

Over half of the AVG pilots made ace with at least 5 victory's to their credit. Two of them received the Congressional Medal of Honor, though not while members of the group. "Pappy" Boyington being one of them, Jim Howard the other. Oddly enough neither one of them attained ace flying with the Tigers. Boyington went on to command the famous Marine squadron"The Black Sheep". 

Bob Prescott, another ace, along with nine other ex-AVG pilots, founded Flying Tiger Lines in 1945. The air freight company was in business long enough to be purchased and merged with FedEx in 1988-'89. Chuck Older, with 10 victories to his credit, became a judge and presided in Charles Manson's murder trial. Tex Hill went on to become commander of the 23rd Fighter Group, The "Flying Tigers" of the 14th Army Air Force.

23rd Flight Group, 1943

The Tigers were absorbed into the US Army Air Force in July 1942, and five of the original AVG pilots joined the new unit, the 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th US Army Air Force. The P-40's flown by the 23rd also bore the sharks teeth but without the cartoon and bearing American insignia. The moniker "Flying Tigers" was still used to refer to the 23rd, mostly because of the press. The 14th adopted the name in general though it still referred to the 23rd in particular. The 23rd continues today, still displaying the sharks teeth on their aircraft.

23rd Fighter Group, 2006

I've read that members of the original AVG don't consider pilots of the 14th "real" Tigers. The veterans of the AVG, especially Tex Hill, got pretty upset when a book titled "God is My Co-Pilot" was published in 1943. In the book Robert Scott claimed he had flown with the Tigers. In fact he had actually transferred into the 23rd Fighter Group after the AVG was disbanded on July of 1942, Scott's record shows he joined the 23rd in July. His name does not appear in the list of AVG pilots. I personally was disappointed to learn this. I had read the book as a kid. Scott is one of my heroes. Although he still flew against the enemy, it kinda dims my image of him.

Robert Scotts book, published 1943

Some people today would consider the men of the AVG mercenaries. Considering the financial aspects of the story that opinion seems to make sense. The AVG personnel were paid 3 times as much as an equivalent American unit. In addition, the Chinese government gave an AVG pilot $500 per target destroyed as a "combat bonus". Whether this was a leading factor in their 296 kills (AVG lost only 12 of 60) is up for discussion. Back in December of 1941 anybody who was shooting at the Japanese was considered heroic, merc or not. Like so many men of that time, they felt they had a job to do. Eddie Rickenbacher wrote that, unlike he and other pilots who served in the first world war, these men weren't interested in the "glory" of fighting the enemy. They just wanted to win so they could get it over with and go home. They were all just regular Joe's, caught up in a mess the Axis had started. Many of them were mad as hell that their lives had been interrupted. They wanted to put an end to it all and live in peace.

Fortunately for us, they did just that.