FLYING TIGERS

byname of American Volunteer Group, American civilian volunteer pilots recruited by Colonel Claire L. Chennault (q.v.) to fight the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and China during 194142, at a time when Japan's control over China's ports and transportation system had almost cut off China's Nationalist government from the outside world. Flying in battered planes and facing chronic shortages of fuel, parts, and pilots, this small company of air fighters nevertheless scored victory after victory over the far larger and better equipped Japanese air force. They flew supplies, provided air cover for the Burma Road, succeeded in protecting the Chinese capital of Chungking, and fought the Japanese over southwestern and other parts of China. Surprise, mobility, precision flying, and unorthodox tactics enabled the Tigers to outwit the Japanese and inflict considerable damage on their air and ground forces. On July 4, 1942, members of the unit who wished were absorbed into the U.S. 10th Air Force and became the nucleus of the China Air Task Force (reorganized in March 1943 as the 14th Air Force), still under the command of Chennault, who was promoted to brigadier general.