The lengths that had to be taken to defeat the Axis powers in WWII can never fully be appreciated. The size and scope of the global operation that went on to win the war boggles the mind art every turn. Stripping away the grit, bravery, and gumption of the Allied forces and simply considering the logistical nightmares involved in getting men, equipment, and supplies to places that most Americans could hardly ID on the map back then was stunning. This video is proof positive of that and of so much more.
The famed “Flying Tigers” of WWII are best known for their P-51 Mustangs that wore the shark nose art on them. The whole 14th Air Force was signed off on by Roosevelt himself but it was not your typical part of the US Forces. It was technically part of the Chinese Air Force and it was specifically designed to defend the Chinese against the Japanese. The group was trained in secret before the USA actually entered the war. It was about as covert as things got back then.
The most interesting part of this video to us is the work that went in to getting the planes, bombs, fuel, and other stuff to China by land. It was multiple rail roads, ox carts, guys carrying stuff with sticks, amazing. The video is long but it is one that had us hanging on every word.
Here’s a load of detail from the description on the video:
The 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941–1942, famously nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was composed of pilots from the United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC), recruited under presidential authority and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The ground crew and headquarters staff were likewise mostly recruited from the U.S. military, along with some civilians.
The group consisted of three fighter squadrons with about 20 aircraft each. It trained in Burma before the American entry into World War II with the mission of defending China against Japanese forces. Arguably, the group was a private military contractor, and for that reason the volunteers have sometimes been called mercenaries. The members of the group had lucrative contracts with salaries ranging from $250 a month for a mechanic to $750 for a squadron commander, roughly three times what they had been making in the U.S. forces.
The Tigers’ shark-faced fighters remain among the most recognizable of any individual combat aircraft of World War II, and they demonstrated innovative tactical victories when the news in the U.S. was filled with little more than stories of defeat at the hands of the Japanese forces.
The group first saw combat on 20 December 1941, 12 days after Pearl Harbor (local time). It achieved notable success during the lowest period of the war for U.S. and Allied Forces, giving hope to Americans that they would eventually succeed against the Japanese. While cross-referencing records after the war revealed their actual kill numbers were substantially lower, the Tigers were paid combat bonuses for destroying nearly 300 enemy aircraft, while losing only 14 pilots on combat missions. In July 1942, the AVG was replaced by the U.S. Army 23rd Fighter Group, which was later absorbed into the U.S. 14th Air Force with General Chennault as commander. The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat success, while retaining the nose art and fighting name of the volunteer unit…
The American Volunteer Group was largely the creation of Claire L. Chennault, a retired U.S. Army Air Corps officer who had worked in China since August 1937, first as military aviation advisor to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek..
Since the U.S. was not at war, the “Special Air Unit” could not be organized overtly, but the request was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself…
I believe they flew Curtis P-40 Warhawks, as the P-51 Mustang did not exist at this phase of the war.
Yes, of course it was P-40’s, not P-51’s. The AVG has said over the years that if they had P-51’s, they would not have had nearly the same success they had during the war. The P-51’s Merlin was a maintainance nightmare, and thye didn’t have the supply lines or facilities to keep P-51’s running. The Allison, in comparison, was as rugged as a farm tractor. Eveyone gets wood over the sexy P-51. But the P-40 actually had a faster cruise speed.