The American Volunteer Group

Members of the 76th Squadron of the 23rd Fighter Group of the 14th U.S. Air Force. 
(Source)

When I was a kid, the shark-toothed P-40s of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) fascinated me. The Warhawk, with that big front scoop, looked awesome with a shark's mouth and glaring eyes painted on. (Note that the two birds in the photo above have different eyes, the one on the left looks more like an actual shark's eye. Maybe that's just me.)

As a kid I was under the impression that the Americans were over there in China fighting the Japanese long before Pearl Harbor. Imagine my surprise to discover (later in life) that the first mission flown by the AVG was on the 20th of December...

1941.

Nearly two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course, the unit had been in the process of forming, recruiting pilots, getting aircraft, and the like long before the attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Aviation units aren't thrown together overnight. In reality the groundwork for the AVG was laid well before Pearl Harbor.

Claire L. Chennault in his Kunming office, May 1942.

Captain (as he was at the time) Chennault had led an aerial demonstration team near the end of his time in the Army Air Corps and which had been seen by a Chinese officer who was in the U.S. to purchase aircraft for the Chinese Air Force. (The Chinese at the time were fighting the Japanese, a war which started in 1937 and ended with the Japanese surrender in 1945.) Seems that this officer, Mao Bangchu, was impressed with Chennault's flying skills and invited him to come to China. As Chennault had been passed over for promotion he resigned from the Air Corps and went to China. (He may have retired rather than resigned, my sources weren't real clear on that. He had been on active duty from 1917 to 1937.)

He was back in the States in the winter of 1940-1941 supervising the purchase of aircraft and the recruiting of pilots and ground crew for what would become the AVG.

Of the pilots, 60 came from the Navy and Marine Corps and 40 from the Army Air Corps. (One army pilot was refused a passport because he had earlier flown as a mercenary in Spain, so only 99 actually sailed for Asia. Ten more army flight instructors were hired as check pilots for Chinese cadets, and several of these would ultimately join the AVG's combat squadrons.) The volunteers were discharged from the armed services, to be employed for "training and instruction" by a private military contractor, the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), which paid them $600 a month for pilot officers, $675 a month for flight leaders, $750 for squadron leaders (no pilot was recruited at this level), and about $250 for skilled ground crewmen. Some of the pilots were also orally promised a bounty of $500 for each enemy aircraft shot down, but no one knew if that would actually happen until they returned home and found the funds deposited in their bank.

During the summer and fall 1941, some 300 men carrying civilian passports boarded ships destined for Burma. They were initially based at a British airfield in Toungoo for training while their aircraft were assembled and test flown by CAMCO personnel at Mingaladon Airport outside Rangoon. Chennault set up a schoolhouse that was made necessary because many pilots had "lied about their flying experience, claiming pursuit experience when they had flown only bombers and sometimes much less powerful aeroplanes." They called Chennault "the Old Man" due to his much older age and leathery exterior obtained from years flying open cockpit pursuit aircraft in the Army Air Corps. Most believed that he had flown as a fighter pilot in China, although stories that he was a combat ace are probably apocryphal.

Of the 300 original members of the CAMCO personnel, 9 were Chinese-Americans recruited from America's Chinatowns. All 9 were trained at Allison Engineworks in Indianapolis, Indiana: all were P-40 mechanics. Upon arrival in Kunming, 2 other Chinese-Americans were hired, a Ford Motor truck specialist and a doctor. Total original Chinese-Americans were 11. Prior to 4 July 1942, 3 of the P-40 mechanics resigned. The official AVG roster lists the original 8.

The AVG was created by an executive order of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. He did not speak English, however, and Chennault never learned to speak Chinese. As a result, all communications between the two men were routed through Soong Mei-ling, "Madame Chiang" as she was known to Americans, and she was designated the group's "honorary commander." (Source)

That's something else I didn't know as a kid, that the bulk of the original AVG pilots were from the Navy/Marine Corps. Those naval aviators, they're everywhere. (As for the "old man" comment above, I'd take that with a grain of salt, it's kinda common to refer to the commander of a unit as "the old man." But Chennault was kinda old and leathery looking, so it fits.)

The AVG's "Flying Tigers" nickname wasn't something they come up with, nope -

Among the myths surrounding the American Volunteer Group is that their fighting name was bestowed on them by grateful Chinese civilians or by fearful Japanese airmen, or that it had something to do with the "tiger shark" warpaint on their Curtiss P-40s. Not really! Here's the story: When the AVG was organized in the winter of 1940-1941, a lobbyist and presidential advisor named Tommy Corcoran set up a front group to launder the money. This would shield the Roosevelt White House from a project that violated the spirit if not the letter of the Neutrality Acts previously passed by Congress. The new company was located in the Chinese embassy but staffed by Americans, including Corcoran's younger brother, David.

Among more serious matters, China Defense Supplies asked the Walt Disney Studios to design a shoulder patch for the group, which obliged them to come up with something more exciting than "American Volunteer Group." The first notion of course was a dragon, evocative of China, and that quickly evolved into a flying dragon. Then David Corcoran came up with an even better idea: a flying tiger. This was quickly agreed upon, and two Disney artists -- Roy Williams and Henry Porter -- worked up a painting of a Bengal cat leaping out of a V-for-victory sign. Blouse pins and airplane decals were duly ordered and shipped to China, where they arrived early in 1942. (Source)

Flight leader and fighter ace Robert "R.T." Smith stands next to his P-40 fighter at Kunming, China.
The "Flying Tiger" insignia was created by the Walt Disney Company.

Now about those shark's mouths painted on their aircraft. As a kid, I thought the Flying Tigers started that practice. As it turns out, they copied that from a British outfit in North Africa flying P-40s who had copied it from a German outfit flying Bf-110s!

A Kittyhawk Mark III of 112 Squadron.

A Messerschmitt Bf-110 heavy fighter of Zerstörergeschwader 76
(Oddly enough they didn't paint eyes on their aircraft.)
(Source)

When I was still on active duty (shortly after the last Ice Age) The Missus Herself had a younger sister whose husband was stationed at England AFB, Louisiana. He worked life support in the 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing there. Those guys flew A-10s. One of the first things I noticed about the 23rd's A-10s was the paint job -

At the time the 23rd's tail code was "EL," for England AFB. Since they shut that base down and moved the A-10s (and the wing itself) to Moody AFB in Georgia (a place juvat knows well) they changed the tail code on the 23rd's A-10s to "FT," which stands for "Flying Tigers."

Why does the 23rd carry on the traditions of the Flying Tigers?

On 4 July 1942 the AVG was disbanded and replaced by the 23rd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later absorbed into the U.S. Fourteenth Air Force with General Chennault as commander. The 23rd FG went on to achieve similar combat success, while retaining the nose art on the left-over P-40s. (Source)

I guess my old service isn't totally devoid of people with a sense of history and tradition. No doubt the shoe clerks don't approve.



Suggested Reading:

• Flying Tigers honored for support of China in WWII (Article)
• The last Flying Tigers of World War II (Article)
• Another side to Flying Tigers' Story (Article)
• Flying Tigers (Wikipedia)
• Arthur Chin (Wikipedia)
• American Volunteer Group: Claire L. Chennault and the Flying Tigers (Article)
• Quick History of the Shark Mouth (Article)
• Airmen, Fly Girls and Shark teeth (Article) (Covers nose art as well!)
• The Flying Tiger FAQ (Article)
• The American Volunteer Group in China, 1942 (Article)
• List of Flying Tigers pilots (Article) (Yes, "Pappy" Boyington is on that list.)