Flying Tigers of WWII

This day in history – the first battle of the WWII “Flying Tigers” on 20 December 2010

The Flying Tigers were officially called the American Volunteer Group, and were known for their planes with iconic shark faces on them.  They were equipped and recruited in the spring and summer of 1941, with the express purposed of aiding the Chinese in theater against the Japanese. The group trained at a Royal Air Force airfield in Burma that fall, but it was not until after the Pearl Harbor attack on 07 December 1941 that the group went into combat.  They were led by Lieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958).

Flight leader Robert Smith with his P-40 fighter at Kunming, China. The Flying Tiger insignia was created by the Walt Disney Company. Photo Courtesy USAF.

During the Flying Tigers early battles in late 1941 and early 1942, they had success at what was otherwise a low point in the war.  They were paid combat bonuses for destroying almost 300 enemy aircraft, and lost only 14 pilots on combat missions.  There were 100 pilots – 60 from the US Navy and US Marine Corps, and 40 from the US Army Air Corps (the latter began at Fort Monmouth). 

The Flying Tigers used Curtiss P-40 fighter aircraft in Burma and China. Note the shark on the nose, and the Chinese Air Force 12-point sun on the wing.

Because the group were private military contractors, and not military, that these volunteers have occasionally been considered mercenaries. 

A ZG 76 Bf 110C with shark nose paint.

For more information about the Flying Tigers, the book The Lady and the Tigers was published by E.P. Dutton in 1943, with a new edition that was published in paperback with the title The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II, in April 2002.  Another book is called Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942 by Daniel Ford; this was revised and updated in August 2007.