Page 72 - History of War - Issue 30-16

THE FLYING TIGERS

during dangerous straing runs. Its top scoring Burma to Kunming, snaked through mountains to rank or station, and there was simply no
aces accounted for more than 60 Japanese and valleys. such thing as a regulation uniform. Footwear
aircraft. They included Robert Neale with 13 The irst Flying Tiger missions were lown on included Cowboy boots with thick heels.
victories, Ed Rector with 10.5, David Lee ‘Tex’ 8 December 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. The pilots also engaged in aerial antics,
Hill with 10.25, and George Burgard, Robert As word of their success became public, the performing aerobatic feats and slow, low victory
Little, and Charles Older each with ten. pilots were lionised in the press. Following one rolls to celebrate kills when they returned from
In turn, the Flying Tigers lost four pilots in notable air battle, a newspaper crowed, “Last combat missions.
the air to Japanese planes, six who were killed week ten Japanese bombers came winging Alcohol lowed freely, and one story relates
during straing runs against ground targets, their carefree way up into Yunnan, heading that a group of Flying Tigers persuaded the
three who perished in training accidents, and directly for Kunming, the terminus of the Burma pilot of a C-47 transport plane to conduct a
three who died during enemy bombing raids. Road. 30 miles south of Kunming, the Flying nocturnal ‘air raid’ on Hanoi. The Americans
Three AVG pilots were shot down and taken Tigers swooped, let the Japanese have it,” the scrounged for any explosives they could ind,
prisoner. A dozen P-40s were lost in aerial paper continued. “Of the ten bombers, four including old ordnance of French and even
combat, while another 61 were destroyed on plummeted to Earth in lames. The rest turned Russian manufacture. Fortiied with liquid
the ground during enemy air raids, in training tail and led. Tiger casualties: none.” courage, they packed the C-47’s cargo hold
accidents, or deliberately when the airield at Even the Japanese grudgingly acknowledged with bombs. When they arrived above their
Loiwing was hastily evacuated with the fall of the toll the Flying Tigers were taking as the target, they reportedly opened the side door,
Burma in May 1942. aggressive pilots employed Chennault’s maxim, kicking and rolling the explosives into the night.
Chennault initially deployed the Flying Tigers “Use your speed and diving power to make a Before Chennault withdrew all AVG ighters
into two groups, defending both Rangoon pass, shoot, and break away! Never, never, from Burma in the spring of 1942, the Flying
and western China, where the Burma Road, in a P-40, try to outmanoeuvre and perform Tigers engaged in several large-scale aerial
the tortuous overland lifeline of supplies that acrobatics with a Jap Zero. Such tactics, take it battles with the Japanese, and their RAF allies
stretched 600 miles from Lashio in northern from me, are strictly non-habit forming.” joined in as well. On 23 December 1941, a
Radio Tokyo issued a stern warning that AVG light of 12 Hell’s Angels P-40s along with
“ADDING TO THE FLYING personnel rather enjoyed. “The American pilots Brewster Buffalo ighters of No 67 Squadron
RAF engaged a formation of Japanese Ki-21
in Chinese planes are unprincipled bandits,”
TIGER MYSTIQUE WAS THE the propagandist blared. “Unless they cease bombers headed for Rangoon. The Allied planes
their unorthodox tactics they will be treated as
shot down ive bombers and four escorting
CAVALIER ATTITUDE OF THE guerrillas.” The broadcast was a veiled threat ighters, but a pair of P-40s was lost. Despite
that if a Flying Tiger pilot was captured he might the better kill results, Chennault considered the
PILOTS AND THEIR DISDAIN well be executed. mission a setback since he had few planes or
pilots to spare.
Adding to the Flying Tiger mystique was the
FOR MILITARY PROTOCOL” cavalier attitude of the pilots and their disdain Japanese ighters and bombers attacked
On 25 February 1942, a force of 166
for military protocol. Little attention was paid

Maintenance on a Curtiss
P-40 at Kunming, China,
circa 1941

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