Those who are not familiar with this title may be excused for thinking that it is the name of a circus troupe. After all, in WW1 the Red Baron’s squadron was popularly referred to as The Flying Circus so such an assumption is reasonable.
Those who are familiar with it will know that it was a name given to a group of American airmen fighting with the Chinese forces against the Japanese during and before WW2.
In Australia most knowledgement of this group is pretty thin and the full impact of their efforts on the outcome of the Pacific war is largely unknown. Their persistence in the face of impossible odds had a significant impact on the Pacific war in that they kept China fighting and by that means tied up somewhere between 500,000 and 750,000 Japanese troops that would have been otherwise available to fight the allies elsewhere.
Episode 1. 1937 -1940
The Sino-Japanese war started in 1931 when Japan invaded Manchuria and in a contrived incident skirmishes began to break out between Chinese and Japanese troops. The Japanese presence in China and Manchuria began when it was granted all former German possessions after the end of WW1. Germany had a large concession based around Beijing and its port, Tianjin, where its Pacific naval squadron was based. China was supported by Britain, Russia and the USA in the 1931 outbreak.
In 1937, another contrived incident known as the Marco Polo Bridge incident, elevated these disputes into full scale war.
The Japanese quickly overcame the Chinese forces and captured all the major cities on the north-east coast. The Japanese did not have the manpower to occupy a country as vast as China and were content to retain control of the major cities and population centres. China, at the time, was not a unified country. It was ruled by a collection of warlords the most powerful of which was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang. The next largest group was the Communist Party which occupied the north of the country.
In 1937, retired US Army Air Corps officer,Colonel Claire Chenault, a retired US Army Air Corps officer, was present in China. He saw what the Japanese were doing and did not like it. At that time the USA was constrained by its Neutrality Act from intervening. There were many American missionaries active in China who reported back to Washington the many atrocities that were being perpetrated by the Japanese Army. Chenault reported to Washington that the Japanese needed to be stopped and advocated a pre-emptive strike against Tokyo. His advice was accepted by all senior American officers and the President with one exception.
That was General George Marshall, Chief of the US armed forces, who stated that if Japan was attacked it would retaliate and outright war would develop between the two countries. He stated that America was not in a fit state to undertake a war with Japan and his opinion prevailed. The prospect of American aircraft flown by American crews against Japan would amount to an act of war. An alternative plan had to be developed.
Unable to provide direct assistance, the USA began providing advisors to train and assist the Chinese government forces. In August, 1937, Colonel Chennault, was appointed military aviation advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and later, director of the Chinese Air Force flight school. Chennault had retired from the US Army for health and disputation reasons. He had studied fighter tactics since the end of WW1 and had many radical ideas. He was very dogmatic and aggressive in putting his point of view across and made many enemies among the officer corps of the US Army Air Force but his knowledge and ideas impressed Chiang Kai-Shek who appointed him to a position where he was the de facto commander of the Chinese air force.
Claire Lee Chennault first went to China to survey the Chinese Air Force's readiness, and stayed on to lead the creation of the American Volunteer Group.
His first task was to do a survey of the Chinese air force (CAF). He concluded that the CAF had about 500 planes but only 91 were able to fly.
Up to that time the Chinese Air force had been supplied fighter and bomber aircraft by the Soviet Union and other nations. Its air force was a mishmash of aircraft types and the crews were poorly trained. Chennault requested a supply of 100 Curtis P-40 Kittyhawk fighters, 100 pilots and 200 ground crew to man them. These men were all volunteers and formed what became known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG).
Recruits were interviewed in the USA by Chennault’s staff and were not confined to ex-military service personnel. To avoid any prospect of these men being part of a USA fighting force they were engaged as employees of a private military contractor, Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) and flew as part of the Chinese Air Force in aircraft bearing Chinese markings. CAMCO was, in fact, a front company owned by the Curtis Aircraft Co. Chiang Kai-shek did not speak English, Chennault did not speak Chinese so Chiang’s wife, an American educated Chinese lady, was appointed as the group’s honorary commander. Madame Chiang became the go-between for all communications between the two men.
As the AVG members were all private citizens travelling on civilian passports there was no rank in the organisation so there was no division between officers and enlisted men. They were all mercenaries employed and paid by the Chinese government. They had two bases, one at Kunming in the south-west of China, well beyond the areas of conflict with the Japanese and the other at Rangoon in Burma.
As the aircraft had been purchased and paid for with Chinese money and the aircrews were private citizens employed and paid by the Chinese government, the US could maintain a façade of neutrality. The Curtis P-40 is well known for the shark face painted on its cowl. This was adopted as an official decoration by AVG after seeing photographs of it painted on RAF Kittyhawks operating in North Africa. The 100 P-40’s were freighted to Burma in 3rd party country freighters where they were assembled and tested before delivery to Chinese airfields. Of the 100 planes delivered to Burma only 62 were delivered to AVG in China, the deficiency arising from training accidents.
Members of the American Volunteer Group flew Curtiss P-40 planes, pictured. By performing certain maneuvers, they were able to exploit some weaknesses in the Japanese aircraft.
Three Lions/Getty Images
There was no shortage of volunteers to join the AVG. There were dozens of frustrated American pilots itching to be engaged in some kind of conflict and the biggest problem confronting Chennault was weeding out those who exaggerated their qualifications and were not fit for service. In the end 100 pilots and 180 ground crew were recruited. Their Chinese pay was more than double that of the US Army Air Force. One notable recruit was Major “Pappy” Boyington, later to become famous as the leader of the Black Sheep squadron. He made no secret of the fact that he joined up for the money. Pilots were offered US$600 per month, flight leaders US$675 per month and all a bonus of US$500 for each confirmed kill.
Boyington and crew of Black Sheep Squadron with F4U-1 1944
Throughout 1938, 1939 and 1940 Japan waged an all-out aerial war against Chinese cities. The Japanese bombers were largely unescorted because the CAF did not have the planes or the pilots to oppose them. Chennault’s steady training of Chinese aircrew and intermingling of US pilots within Chinese squadrons began to pay dividends.
Even with antiquated bi-planes the Chinese defenders were able to inflict severe losses on the Japanese raiders but the war on the ground was being lost and the Chinese armies were steadily driven west. The Chinese government established itself at Chungking which was beyond the range of Japanese fighters but unescorted bombers attacked the city daily losing many aircraft to the improved Chinese pilots.
They established an air force base at Kunming, near the Burmese border. Supplies had to be brought by a single French rail line from Saigon, by road across the mountains from Lashio in Burma and by air. Japan protested to France that its railway was helping the Chinese war effort so the service was closed. At the same time 200,000 labourers were employed in widening and improving the road from Burma which became known as The Burma Road.
Things were so bad that Chiang Kai-Shek instructed Chennault to go to America and plead for help. He dealt directly with General Marshall who supported his request for modern fighter aircraft and experienced crews. Marshall and the Chiefs of Staff authorised Chennault to recruit air crew from existing army and navy units much to the objection of the commanders of these arms. Recruiting for the AVG began in April, 1941.
Chennault’s energetic development of the Chinese Air Force made great strides in halting the spread of Japanese forces but it was not enough to stem the tide.
Episode 2, 1941 – 1945
Apart from training his pilots in tactics that could allow the P-40 aircraft to compete with the superior Japanese Zero, Chennault devised and created an early warning system for Japanese bombers attacking Chinese cities. He set out a series of concentric circles around each major city. He equipped every village and hamlet within those areas with radios with instructions to report immediately anything unusual happening in their area. By plotting these reports he could soon see where an incoming attack was being launched from and its target. That gave time for the P-40’s to take off, gain altitude and wait for the incoming attackers. The tactics were highly successful and the early warning system was better than radar which, in pre WW2 days was not highly developed and of limited use in mountainous country.
The US pilots equipped with the P-40’s were very successful and the amount of air raids reduced significantly but sheer weight of numbers allowed them to continue at a much reduced rate. In addition, the Japanese ground forces continued to make strong advances forcing the Chinese to retreat to the west and by 1940 Japan occupied the entire east and southern coasts of the country.
This severely restricted the Chinese ability to sustain supply and the only viable route was through Burma, then a British colony. The Burma Road became the most vital link and in the face of the continuing success of the Japanese, Chiang persuaded Chennault to make a trip to the USA to gather more support.
On 23rd December, 1940 President Roosevelt agreed to provide secret aid to China. On 15th April, 1941, he signed an executive order authorising reserve officers from all US Army, Navy and Marine air corps to resign their commissions and join the AVG.
In the summer of 1941 the AVG volunteers converged on San Francisco. Their passports contained bogus information as to their occupations. None were described as air crew of any kind. In November, 1941, they arrived in Burma after a 3 month journey. The 100 P-40 aircraft were shipped to Burma in ships sailing under the flags of neutral countries and delivered to Rangoon.
From there the crates of aircraft were shipped to a RAF auxiliary air base about 180 miles north of Rangoon. There they were assembled and tested. The AVG was divided into three squadrons, one based in Burma and the other two sent on to Kunming in China.
One aircraft was lost when it fell overboard on unloading in Rangoon and several others were lost in training accidents. The squadron in Burma was left with 33 serviceable aircraft and their task was to protect the Burma Road. Although Burma was a British colony the RAF could not help much as British aircrew were fully engaged in fighting the Battle of Britain. The RAF contribution was limited to 20 outdated Brewster Buffalos.
Chennault did not receive any cooperation from US Air force officers back in the USA. The top brass resented his presence and the fact that he was commanding a bunch of civilians. A Zero had been shot down in largely intact condition. Chennault had been studying tactics against the Zero and from the wreck gained a lot of information about the type. He conveyed this back to the US command but it was completely ignored. His basic tactic was not to engage Zeros in a dog fight but to gain altitude and dive from above at high speed.
The Japanese had been in the habit of bombing Kunming and Chungking with unescorted bombers because they knew that the Chinese air force could not bring any opposition against them. On 20th December, 1941 a formation of 10 Betty bombers approached to attack Kunming. Chennault had been alerted by his spies in Hanoi that they were coming. Before they reached Kunming the P-40’s attacked shooting down 9 0f the 10 attackers without loss. Pearl Harbour had occurred only 2 weeks before and the Japanese had declared war on the USA. They could see that the pilots were not Chinese but American and no further raids were launched against Kunming. It was this incident that caused the Chinese to give the name “Flying Tigers” to the AVG, the tiger holding a paramount place in Chinese mythology.
T.V. Soong, Chiang Kai-shek’s brother-in-law, who had earlier worked with Chennault in Washington to gather the planes, helped get The Walt Disney Company to design the group's logo of a Bengal Tiger jumping through a V for victory sign. John Wayne played a character based on Chennault in the 1942 movie Flying Tigers.
The weight of Japanese aggression now turned to Burma. Their plan was to conquer India and join up with Axis forces advancing from Russia. The British defenders of Burma were confident that the Japanese could not succeed as they had Rangoon well covered by the Royal Navy and the mountains surrounding Burma were considered to be impenetrable.
Starting on 23rd December, 1941 Japanese planes raided Rangoon repeatedly. On that day the AVG shot down 30 bombers and some fighters for the loss of two of their own. In 31 encounters involving over 1,000 Jap bombers and fighters over Rangoon, the AVG shot down 217 Jap planes for a total loss of only four of their own.
In January, 1942 the AVG began attacking Jap air bases in Thailand. Thailand and USA were never at war in WW2. The Japanese did not invade Thailand. They were there with permission of the Thai government but the government was split on this. The Thai government declared war on the USA and sent the declaration to its ambassador in Washington to deliver. The ambassador was in the “NO” camp and refused to deliver it thus the USA and Thailand were never officially at war. The British position was different, war had been declared between the two and in 1945 Britain attempted to annex Thai territory as “spoils of war”. The USA resisted this as they were strongly opposed to colonisation and the British plan failed. In 1942 therefore Thailand was technically a neutral country but the AVG were part of the Chinese Air Force. Later in the war US forces openly attacked Japanese bases in Thailand but in 1942 AVG excursions over Thailand were reconnaissance only.
In March, 1942 the Japanese succeeded in invading Burma from the deep south where the border with Thailand straddles the Malay Peninsula. Rangoon fell.
In May, 1942 Burma fell and the Burma Road was no longer available. The key obstacle on the Burma Road was the bridge over the Salween River at the bottom of the Salween Gorge. The gorge is 1,000 feet deep. The road down to the river is steep, winding and about 20 miles long. The Chinese blew the bridge and destroyed it. The Japanese erected pontoons to replace it but the volume of traffic that could be carried was a trickle by comparison.
23rd Dec. 1941. The first bombing of Rangoon, this photo was taken from a Japanese aircraft.
The Japanese 5th Army was trapped in an impossible situation. The steep and winding road clogged by the army and its equipment was aggravated by thousands of refugees. The army could neither advance nor retreat. Bombing and strafing by the AVG cause landslides that further blocked the road. The 5th Army was wiped out and China was saved but the supply problem then had to revert to the only possible alternative; air lift over The Hump. The Hump was the air route over the Himalayas from Calcutta in India. Every nut and bolt, every gallon of fuel and everything else needed by the Flying Tigers at Kunming was transported by air. The time in transit was measured in weeks at a time as the supplies had to be taken from Calcutta to a base closer to China. The attrition of transport aircraft trying to cross the mountains was as great, if not greater than the air raids over Europe so bad were the flying conditions. The Flying Tigers mounted the fighter escorts on these flights when they could but they also had to protect and defend Chungking and Kunming from raids by Japanese bombers.
Eventually they prevailed and the Japanese losses in raids over these two cities became so great they stopped the attacks. Key to the defences was once again Chennault’s early warning system of hundreds of watchful eyes equipped with radios reporting to a central co-ordinating centre. He had spies in all the major coastal cities where Jap planes were based. At Canton the spy network was so effective that when a Jap plane started to warm up Kunming had been informed of its approach.
The AVG was formally disbanded by Presidential decree on 4th July, 1942. Since its official inauguration barely 6 months before, it had shot down 299 Jap aircraft and kept China in the war by its destruction of the Japanese 5th Army in the Salween Gorge.
In March 1943 the 14 US Air Force was created. It was the smallest of all of the American air forces. The AVG pilots were absorbed into it each with the rank of Major. Clair Chennault was reinstated to full operational duty and promoted to Brigadier General in command of the 14th. The name Flying Tigers went with them and the tactics and ethic inculcated by Chennault in the AVG was soon the ethic of the 14th.
Today the US Air Force 23rd Fighter Group is nicknamed The Flying Tigers.
The 14th Air Force was moved back to the USA in December, 1945 and was inactivated on 6th January, 1946. It was reactivated on 24th May, 1946 and assigned to Air Defence Command.
In July, 1991 the AVG was officially given American Air Force veteran status. On 26th July, 1999 the AVG was inducted into the United States Air Force Hall of Fame. Despite the current tensions between China and the USA the Flying Tigers are still revered in China because they are now part of Chinese history.
Two Curtiss P-40s, one flown by legendary kiwi warbird pilot Ray Hanna (as one of his last public displays), are shown here during its display at the Classic Fighters airshow held at Omaka Aerodrome, Blenheim, New Zealand at Easter 2005.
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