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Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group
Book by Daniel Ford
450 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1991
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Daniel Ford
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September 20, 2025
The Flying Tigers are still on patrol. Seventy years ago, the heroic pilots of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) provided a glimmer of hope to the people of the United States, China, and other Allied nations during the grim early days of the Second World War. They were daredevil U.S. pilots; they flew P-40 Tomahawks adorned with the twelve-pointed star of the Chinese Air Force, and decorated with a ferocious shark-mouth emblem painted on each plane’s air scoop. They guarded "the Burma Road” and “the Hump,” the fragile routes by which war supplies were transported from India across Burma to beleaguered China. Under the command of Claire Lee Chennault, a maverick U.S. Army Air Corps officer who schooled his airmen in unconventional tactics, they fought back against a Japanese air force that had hitherto seemed invincible. And in the process, they established a legacy of real-life heroism that endures to this day.
In Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942, Daniel Ford provides a compelling account of the Tigers’ establishment, and of the manner in which a small group of American pilots and air crews successfully disrupted the military plans of the Japanese Empire. The story of the Tigers takes place against the backdrop of the Japanese war against China – a war that the Japanese had waged with singular cruelty. Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek needed all the help he could get, and it was fortunate that Chennault, after resigning from the American military and moving to China in 1937, quickly forged a friendship not only with the Generalissimo himself but also with Chiang’s wife, the Wellesley-educated Madame Chiang, who would consistently be a champion of the American Volunteer Group.
The pilots themselves were recruited from the ranks of the American military; they were allowed to resign, and officially signed “contracts” with a variety of Chinese private enterprises that existed only on paper. In fact, of course, they were there to fly fighter planes and attack the bombing squadrons that were making life hell for ordinary Chinese in those cities like Chongqing and Kunming that were still under the control of China’s nationalist government. They would be paid, as stated on the book’s back-cover blurb, “$600 a month and a bounty of $500 for each Japanese plane they shot down – fantastic money in an era when a Manhattan hotel room cost three dollars a night.” Did that make the AVG mercenaries? Technically, yes. But they were mercenaries on the right side of history, and their heroism captured the world’s imagination.
Some of the most engaging passages of Flying Tigers deal with AVG culture as it developed during the Tigers’ tenure in China. Many readers, for example, would recognize the “blood chit” that was displayed on the back of AVG flight jackets – “a silk panel containing the twelve-pointed Nationalist sun and a message [in Chinese] identifying [each AVG pilot] as a friendly airman who, if forced down, should be taken to the nearest army post” (p. 158). Viewers of Steven Spielberg’s film Empire of the Sun (1987) will remember that Christian Bale’s character, a British boy held in a Japanese prison camp in occupied China, wears such a jacket, a gift from Japanese pilots. But readers may not know the story of why the dashing “blood chit” became part of the Flying Tigers’ uniform: “It was first issued to AVG pilots after [pilot] Erik Shilling’s misadventure with Chinese mountaineers” (p. 158), who took him prisoner after his P-40 was shot down, believing he was Japanese!
Comparably engaging are the stories of the “Flying Tigers” name and logo, and of the shark-mouth emblem that still makes their planes among the most recognizable of the Second World War. The shark mouths were inspired when “Charlie Bond thumbed through the Illustrated Weekly of India and spotted a photograph of a Tomahawk in North Africa, its air scoop painted to represent the mouth of a shark” (p. 82). Is it fair that the Royal Air Force’s 112th Squadron gets so little credit for inspiring an aircraft insignia that is now universally associated with the Flying Tigers? Probably not, but oh, well.
Similarly, it would be nice to think that patriotic Chinese, inspired by the AVG’s successful defense of their homeland, spontaneously gave the pilots the nickname of 飛虎隊, Fēi hǔ duì, Flying Tigers. In fact, however, the name came from Washington, D.C., suggested by David Corcoran, one of the AVG’s liaisons in the American capital. “Months before, the men at China Defense Supplies had asked the Walt Disney studio to design a unit emblem. A dragon was the obvious choice – a flying dragon, with connotations of China and aerial combat. David Corcoran suggested a tiger instead....The request went to Hollywood, and in October two Disney employees...sketched a darling Bengal cat with wasplike wings and extended claws, leaping from a V-for-Victory sign” (p. 158). Ford, a conscientious historian, wants to tell the Flying Tigers’ true, unadorned story, and to strip away the layers of myth and legend that have attached over time to the AVG saga: “Over the years, journalists and historians have tried to find a source for the name in China, but its derivation is less exotic: the Tigers were christened by a well-paid suit in Washington” (p. 158).
That wish to demythologize also contributes to one of the most controversial aspects of Daniel Ford’s Flying Tigers -- the manner in which author Ford, on the basis of his review of Japanese military records, concludes that “there’s a discrepancy between Flying Tiger combat claims and the losses actually suffered by Japanese air units in Southeast Asia and southwestern China” (p. ix), and that the proverbial “fog of war” accounts for AVG claims that they shot down almost 300 planes, while the evidence, according to Ford, indicates a total closer to 115. The historian’s duty, of course, is to tell the truth as he or she sees it, on the basis of the available evidence. But knowing what we all know about the pride with which fighter pilots set forth their kill totals, perhaps it is no wonder that AVG veterans and others responded to Ford’s claims with “an astonishing amount of flak”, with Ford, the Smithsonian Institution Press, and the Smithsonian itself “accused of having sold out to the Japanese” (p. ix).
That controversy aside, Flying Tigers is a powerful book. Ford, a pilot himself, describes aerial combat in a compelling way, capturing the drama and tension of mid-air dogfights without overwhelming the reader with technical terminology, as in this passage: “Greene worried the bombers for four or five passes, then broke off to defend himself from the Nates. On a climbing attack he poured machine gun fire into a Japanese fighter from 300 yards, saw the fixed-gear plane fall away, and immediately engaged another at close range” (p. 117). Quick, clipped, no-nonsense, vivid, and evocative. For me, it was like reading Hemingway’s writing about war.
In their own time, the AVG were well-known enough that they inspired a Hollywood movie, John Wayne’s Flying Tigers (1942). The film, Wayne’s first war picture, benefited from the presence of AVG veterans as technical advisors; and in an America that was desperate for good news from the battlefronts, Flying Tigers was one of the biggest box-office hits of the year.
Eighty years later, the Tigers still inspire. Visiting the National Air and Space Museum’s Dulles Annex in Northern Virginia, and later the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, I was delighted to find AVG P-40 Tomahawks in places of honour in both museums. Those planes seemed to capture with special intensity the glory and the danger of aerial combat. Well-written and well-illustrated with maps and photographs, Daniel Ford’s Flying Tigers deserves a place on the shelf of anyone with an interest in World War II history.
In Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942, Daniel Ford provides a compelling account of the Tigers’ establishment, and of the manner in which a small group of American pilots and air crews successfully disrupted the military plans of the Japanese Empire. The story of the Tigers takes place against the backdrop of the Japanese war against China – a war that the Japanese had waged with singular cruelty. Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek needed all the help he could get, and it was fortunate that Chennault, after resigning from the American military and moving to China in 1937, quickly forged a friendship not only with the Generalissimo himself but also with Chiang’s wife, the Wellesley-educated Madame Chiang, who would consistently be a champion of the American Volunteer Group.
The pilots themselves were recruited from the ranks of the American military; they were allowed to resign, and officially signed “contracts” with a variety of Chinese private enterprises that existed only on paper. In fact, of course, they were there to fly fighter planes and attack the bombing squadrons that were making life hell for ordinary Chinese in those cities like Chongqing and Kunming that were still under the control of China’s nationalist government. They would be paid, as stated on the book’s back-cover blurb, “$600 a month and a bounty of $500 for each Japanese plane they shot down – fantastic money in an era when a Manhattan hotel room cost three dollars a night.” Did that make the AVG mercenaries? Technically, yes. But they were mercenaries on the right side of history, and their heroism captured the world’s imagination.
Some of the most engaging passages of Flying Tigers deal with AVG culture as it developed during the Tigers’ tenure in China. Many readers, for example, would recognize the “blood chit” that was displayed on the back of AVG flight jackets – “a silk panel containing the twelve-pointed Nationalist sun and a message [in Chinese] identifying [each AVG pilot] as a friendly airman who, if forced down, should be taken to the nearest army post” (p. 158). Viewers of Steven Spielberg’s film Empire of the Sun (1987) will remember that Christian Bale’s character, a British boy held in a Japanese prison camp in occupied China, wears such a jacket, a gift from Japanese pilots. But readers may not know the story of why the dashing “blood chit” became part of the Flying Tigers’ uniform: “It was first issued to AVG pilots after [pilot] Erik Shilling’s misadventure with Chinese mountaineers” (p. 158), who took him prisoner after his P-40 was shot down, believing he was Japanese!
Comparably engaging are the stories of the “Flying Tigers” name and logo, and of the shark-mouth emblem that still makes their planes among the most recognizable of the Second World War. The shark mouths were inspired when “Charlie Bond thumbed through the Illustrated Weekly of India and spotted a photograph of a Tomahawk in North Africa, its air scoop painted to represent the mouth of a shark” (p. 82). Is it fair that the Royal Air Force’s 112th Squadron gets so little credit for inspiring an aircraft insignia that is now universally associated with the Flying Tigers? Probably not, but oh, well.
Similarly, it would be nice to think that patriotic Chinese, inspired by the AVG’s successful defense of their homeland, spontaneously gave the pilots the nickname of 飛虎隊, Fēi hǔ duì, Flying Tigers. In fact, however, the name came from Washington, D.C., suggested by David Corcoran, one of the AVG’s liaisons in the American capital. “Months before, the men at China Defense Supplies had asked the Walt Disney studio to design a unit emblem. A dragon was the obvious choice – a flying dragon, with connotations of China and aerial combat. David Corcoran suggested a tiger instead....The request went to Hollywood, and in October two Disney employees...sketched a darling Bengal cat with wasplike wings and extended claws, leaping from a V-for-Victory sign” (p. 158). Ford, a conscientious historian, wants to tell the Flying Tigers’ true, unadorned story, and to strip away the layers of myth and legend that have attached over time to the AVG saga: “Over the years, journalists and historians have tried to find a source for the name in China, but its derivation is less exotic: the Tigers were christened by a well-paid suit in Washington” (p. 158).
That wish to demythologize also contributes to one of the most controversial aspects of Daniel Ford’s Flying Tigers -- the manner in which author Ford, on the basis of his review of Japanese military records, concludes that “there’s a discrepancy between Flying Tiger combat claims and the losses actually suffered by Japanese air units in Southeast Asia and southwestern China” (p. ix), and that the proverbial “fog of war” accounts for AVG claims that they shot down almost 300 planes, while the evidence, according to Ford, indicates a total closer to 115. The historian’s duty, of course, is to tell the truth as he or she sees it, on the basis of the available evidence. But knowing what we all know about the pride with which fighter pilots set forth their kill totals, perhaps it is no wonder that AVG veterans and others responded to Ford’s claims with “an astonishing amount of flak”, with Ford, the Smithsonian Institution Press, and the Smithsonian itself “accused of having sold out to the Japanese” (p. ix).
That controversy aside, Flying Tigers is a powerful book. Ford, a pilot himself, describes aerial combat in a compelling way, capturing the drama and tension of mid-air dogfights without overwhelming the reader with technical terminology, as in this passage: “Greene worried the bombers for four or five passes, then broke off to defend himself from the Nates. On a climbing attack he poured machine gun fire into a Japanese fighter from 300 yards, saw the fixed-gear plane fall away, and immediately engaged another at close range” (p. 117). Quick, clipped, no-nonsense, vivid, and evocative. For me, it was like reading Hemingway’s writing about war.
In their own time, the AVG were well-known enough that they inspired a Hollywood movie, John Wayne’s Flying Tigers (1942). The film, Wayne’s first war picture, benefited from the presence of AVG veterans as technical advisors; and in an America that was desperate for good news from the battlefronts, Flying Tigers was one of the biggest box-office hits of the year.
Eighty years later, the Tigers still inspire. Visiting the National Air and Space Museum’s Dulles Annex in Northern Virginia, and later the National Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, I was delighted to find AVG P-40 Tomahawks in places of honour in both museums. Those planes seemed to capture with special intensity the glory and the danger of aerial combat. Well-written and well-illustrated with maps and photographs, Daniel Ford’s Flying Tigers deserves a place on the shelf of anyone with an interest in World War II history.
July 1, 2025
Thanks to Hollywood and Americans’ hunger for wins in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers enjoy a presence in the history of the Second World War out of all proportion to their size and impact. From December 1941 until the summer of 1942, the 1st American Volunteer Group (as they were formally known), or AVG, waged what proved a losing battle against the Japanese Army Air Force in the skies over Southeast Asia. While their pilots racked up impressive claims of enemies downed in combat, it was not enough to halt the Japanese advance into Burma or prevent the disruption of the supply route connecting the Nationalist Chinese to the aid from the United States upon which their war effort depended. By the summer of 1942, the surviving pilots and their crews had been driven back to India and China, where most of them were merged into the growing United States Army Air Force (USAAF) presence that replaced them in the region.
Much of the legend surrounding the Flying Tigers rests on the often confused recollections of the pilots and the embellished stories from reporters eager for tales of success in battle. Resolving these accounts for his book posed no small challenge to Daniel Ford, as providing an accurate account of the unit’s achievements required him to untangle conflicting claims made decades before. By interviewing dozens of survivors and sifting through the available American and Japanese records he has produced what is likely to be the most authentic recounting possible of the AVG and their achievements in the war. It is a very American story of enthusiasm, aggressiveness, and improvisation, which combined to create a legend that endures to this day.
The story of the AVG begins with Claire Chennault, who in 1937 was an Army officer whose career had stalled out. Recruited by the Nationalist Chinese to undertake a survey of their air force, he soon found himself in command of its front-line squadrons in its war with Japan. Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist Chinese leader, long sought to supplement these forces with American volunteers, yet it wasn’t until the deterioration of Japan’s relations with the United States in late 1940 that the Roosevelt administration supported his request. This support was necessary, as the recruitment campaign targeted active-duty military pilots and ground crew, whom their superiors were eager to retain in anticipation of joining the ongoing world war. Franklin Roosevelt’s support for the AVG overrode those concerns, and ensured that anyone who wanted to join was able to do so.
Chiang’s recruiters found plenty of interested pilots. While their motivations varied, a powerful inducement was the high pay offered, which was three times their military salary, plus a bonus for each Japanese plane destroyed in combat or on the ground. Soon a steady stream of pilots and others crossed the ocean to fight in China. No less important was the effort to acquire planes for them to fly. While Chiang wanted bombers with which to attack the Japanese, these efforts were frustrated by resistance from USAAF leaders who sought the planes for their own expansion programs. Fighters proved easier to obtain, as the Chinese ordered 100 of the new P-40 Tomahawks produced by the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Corporation. Though the company used the order as an opportunity to fob off outdated models and parts, such was the need of the Chinese for modern fighters capable of matching the Japanese in the air that they were more than welcome regardless.
Shipping and assembling the planes took months, an effort that was slowed by the reluctance of the British to antagonize Japan. Checking out the pilots also took time, especially as some of the bomber and transport pilots found themselves poorly suited to fly fighters. As a result, it was not until December 20, 1941 — nearly two weeks after the United States officially entered the war — that the pilots of the AVG first saw combat over Kunming. It was then that the legend of the Flying Tigers was born, not in the skies above China, but in the American press and through the efforts of Washington lobbyists who had devised the catchy-sounding moniker. The reports in the newspapers did little to capture the desperation of their situation, however. With Japanese forces pressing on Burma, the unprepared British were now eager for the participation of the AVG in the defense of the colony, and soon the Flying Tigers found themselves in air battles alongside the Royal Air Force against the Japanese.
The chaos surrounding these extemporaneous efforts contributed to the confusion surrounding the AVG’s efforts, as survival took precedent over accurate record-keeping. Pilots also occasionally misreported results deliberately, in order to ensure that the families of comrades killed in battle received some compensation. Nor were distorted results limited to the AVG, as Ford notes similar tendencies among the Japanese pilots to exaggerate their success in combat. To properly assess the results of the battles fought between the two sides, he compares the reported losses on each side, a sensible approach that gets closer to the truth of the AVG’s achievements and helps explain the success of the Japanese in spite of the wins claimed by the American pilots.
Even as the pilots of the AVG underwent their first trial by fire, however, discussions were already underway to absorb them into the USAAF. Given their reasons for joining the AVG in the first place, not all of them were eager to do so, and Chennault’s petty reaction demonstrates his equally human nature in the process. Yet even with much of its mythology stripped away the story of the Flying Tigers is an amazing one that Ford tells well in this book. His diligent research and careful reconstruction of events from those results make his book the best one available about the unit, and one that should be sought out by anyone interested in learning about the unit and the role the men and women in it played during the war.
Much of the legend surrounding the Flying Tigers rests on the often confused recollections of the pilots and the embellished stories from reporters eager for tales of success in battle. Resolving these accounts for his book posed no small challenge to Daniel Ford, as providing an accurate account of the unit’s achievements required him to untangle conflicting claims made decades before. By interviewing dozens of survivors and sifting through the available American and Japanese records he has produced what is likely to be the most authentic recounting possible of the AVG and their achievements in the war. It is a very American story of enthusiasm, aggressiveness, and improvisation, which combined to create a legend that endures to this day.
The story of the AVG begins with Claire Chennault, who in 1937 was an Army officer whose career had stalled out. Recruited by the Nationalist Chinese to undertake a survey of their air force, he soon found himself in command of its front-line squadrons in its war with Japan. Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist Chinese leader, long sought to supplement these forces with American volunteers, yet it wasn’t until the deterioration of Japan’s relations with the United States in late 1940 that the Roosevelt administration supported his request. This support was necessary, as the recruitment campaign targeted active-duty military pilots and ground crew, whom their superiors were eager to retain in anticipation of joining the ongoing world war. Franklin Roosevelt’s support for the AVG overrode those concerns, and ensured that anyone who wanted to join was able to do so.
Chiang’s recruiters found plenty of interested pilots. While their motivations varied, a powerful inducement was the high pay offered, which was three times their military salary, plus a bonus for each Japanese plane destroyed in combat or on the ground. Soon a steady stream of pilots and others crossed the ocean to fight in China. No less important was the effort to acquire planes for them to fly. While Chiang wanted bombers with which to attack the Japanese, these efforts were frustrated by resistance from USAAF leaders who sought the planes for their own expansion programs. Fighters proved easier to obtain, as the Chinese ordered 100 of the new P-40 Tomahawks produced by the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Corporation. Though the company used the order as an opportunity to fob off outdated models and parts, such was the need of the Chinese for modern fighters capable of matching the Japanese in the air that they were more than welcome regardless.
Shipping and assembling the planes took months, an effort that was slowed by the reluctance of the British to antagonize Japan. Checking out the pilots also took time, especially as some of the bomber and transport pilots found themselves poorly suited to fly fighters. As a result, it was not until December 20, 1941 — nearly two weeks after the United States officially entered the war — that the pilots of the AVG first saw combat over Kunming. It was then that the legend of the Flying Tigers was born, not in the skies above China, but in the American press and through the efforts of Washington lobbyists who had devised the catchy-sounding moniker. The reports in the newspapers did little to capture the desperation of their situation, however. With Japanese forces pressing on Burma, the unprepared British were now eager for the participation of the AVG in the defense of the colony, and soon the Flying Tigers found themselves in air battles alongside the Royal Air Force against the Japanese.
The chaos surrounding these extemporaneous efforts contributed to the confusion surrounding the AVG’s efforts, as survival took precedent over accurate record-keeping. Pilots also occasionally misreported results deliberately, in order to ensure that the families of comrades killed in battle received some compensation. Nor were distorted results limited to the AVG, as Ford notes similar tendencies among the Japanese pilots to exaggerate their success in combat. To properly assess the results of the battles fought between the two sides, he compares the reported losses on each side, a sensible approach that gets closer to the truth of the AVG’s achievements and helps explain the success of the Japanese in spite of the wins claimed by the American pilots.
Even as the pilots of the AVG underwent their first trial by fire, however, discussions were already underway to absorb them into the USAAF. Given their reasons for joining the AVG in the first place, not all of them were eager to do so, and Chennault’s petty reaction demonstrates his equally human nature in the process. Yet even with much of its mythology stripped away the story of the Flying Tigers is an amazing one that Ford tells well in this book. His diligent research and careful reconstruction of events from those results make his book the best one available about the unit, and one that should be sought out by anyone interested in learning about the unit and the role the men and women in it played during the war.
February 5, 2022
看過本書的原文後，只能說譯者很會體察黨意，竄改加料了不少符合毛共的穢史，讓好好一本書成為了一個實實在在的宣傳品，這樣來書寫歷史只能說是中國人的大不幸，為了黨的統治與正當性，犧牲了一代又一代的神州子民…
如果讀者對這段歷史有興趣的話，可以直接找陳納德將軍的自傳來看，可能會更符合史實一些…
如果讀者對這段歷史有興趣的話，可以直接找陳納德將軍的自傳來看，可能會更符合史實一些…
August 27, 2012
Well, it would be pretty hard to go below 4 stars on this one because I like me some fighter pilot stories. This revised edition is a fine way to spend a few hours learning about an iconic war story. My preconceived notions on the unit were set straight. First of all, they did most of their fighting in Burma, not China. That was news to me. They met the same Japanese units time and again through the year they were actively engaged in combat. I'd say they were poorly treated by the "Big Army" in the end but the US home front held them up as heroes.
They had some interesting experiences working with the RAF for the defense of Burma. This was one way to maximize the number of "scrambled" aircraft at the same time:
The Japanese initially held the Americans in contempt and dismissed their tactics. But that changed after the Flying Tigers started winning some dogfights. After the Rangoon Christmas raid, the Japanese had a different story:
It was a pretty wild group of pilots, undisciplined, but eager to fight. Greg "Pappy" Boyington was one of the pilots.
Ford came under fire when this book was first published because he had the temerity to actually use Japanese records to match up against the kills claimed by the AVG. Well, turned out there was a little overcounting of kills made in the air and on the ground. On both sides.
I found a couple of areas I would have liked more information on:
1. The Japanese and AVG units kept running into each other. It was good to get some feel for this but would have liked more on the Japanese side to match the AVG.
2. The RAF and the AVG had a lot of interaction that was barely covered. Need more.
3. An exotic locale for the combat. Would like to see pictures of the area and targets.
They were there. Mercenaries, gamblers, innocents, black-marketers, romantics, war lovers—they were there when the British Empire was falling, and when America’s future seemed nearly as bleak. “Did you ever regret joining the AVG?” a reporter once asked R T Smith. R T glanced off to the side, put his tongue in his cheek, and said: “Only on those occasions when I was being shot at.” Yes. Frightened men in fallible machines, they fought against other men as frightened as themselves. All honor to them.
They had some interesting experiences working with the RAF for the defense of Burma. This was one way to maximize the number of "scrambled" aircraft at the same time:
The Japanese initially held the Americans in contempt and dismissed their tactics. But that changed after the Flying Tigers started winning some dogfights. After the Rangoon Christmas raid, the Japanese had a different story:
It was a pretty wild group of pilots, undisciplined, but eager to fight. Greg "Pappy" Boyington was one of the pilots.
Ford came under fire when this book was first published because he had the temerity to actually use Japanese records to match up against the kills claimed by the AVG. Well, turned out there was a little overcounting of kills made in the air and on the ground. On both sides.
I found a couple of areas I would have liked more information on:
1. The Japanese and AVG units kept running into each other. It was good to get some feel for this but would have liked more on the Japanese side to match the AVG.
2. The RAF and the AVG had a lot of interaction that was barely covered. Need more.
3. An exotic locale for the combat. Would like to see pictures of the area and targets.
They were there. Mercenaries, gamblers, innocents, black-marketers, romantics, war lovers—they were there when the British Empire was falling, and when America’s future seemed nearly as bleak. “Did you ever regret joining the AVG?” a reporter once asked R T Smith. R T glanced off to the side, put his tongue in his cheek, and said: “Only on those occasions when I was being shot at.” Yes. Frightened men in fallible machines, they fought against other men as frightened as themselves. All honor to them.
January 17, 2008
For all its detail and focus on purely factual data, FLYING TIGERS is an exhilarating ride. Its clinical tone is tempered by an impressive amount of insight into the multitudes of personalities involved with the AVG--often including the Japanese perspective. It's a sprawling book, with mountains of information on every page. This could easily have been a ponderous, heavy-handed account by a detached historian; instead, Ford uses effective language to turn the individual stipples of the story into a fascinating, gradated canvas. It's rare to encounter a work of such vividness by an author whose view is from after the fact, rather than from amid the period of history concerned. Recommended.
December 23, 2022
Clearly very well researched, but difficult to read due to a lack of storyline or cohesion. I would have appreciated having a few central people's stories better told to illustrate what the everyday experience was like for an AVG fighter, an AVG technician, and for Chennault himself (the closest thing to a protagonist this book has). Without it, the book is just a long list of who was sent to what city with which planes, and who fought who on which day, and then inevitable "so and so claimed to have shot down 8 planes, but the records show that only 2 planes were shot down that day." Interesting, but not compelling.
February 20, 2019
This was an excellent book. Mr. Ford tells the story of the Flying Tigers in an excellent manner, and educates the reader in all aspects of the early war in China and Burma. I found the writing style to be excellent and the material presented deeply interesting. I even read his source notes. Something I seldom do. It took some time as I was reading several books at once, but this book was a pleasure to read, and a deserving member to the library of any serious military history afficinado. Well done Mr. Ford......kudos to you.
March 6, 2013
I could tell you to see the movie starring John Wayne, but then you wouldn't really know anything about the "Flying Tigers". The AVG (American Volunteer Group, fighting for the Chaings of China) now commonly known as "The Flying Tigers", had a rich history in their fight against the Japanese over Burma and Southern China. From humble beginnings, contracts signed in hotel rooms over a bottle of whiskey, along with rumors of great flying jobs with good pay, and little to no danger, a group of heroes were born. You will find out how the sharks mouth on the P-40 came about, how the AVG got their name "Flying Tigers", and what happened to most of the original volunteers after the force was absorbed into the USAAF 10th. Overall a great read for anyone that is interested in the history of the AVG, and/or the aviation history of Burma and Southern China during the first year of WWII.
April 28, 2015
Extremely well researched book on the American Volunteer Group in China. Mr. Ford conducted research from Japanese, Chinese, and American sources. The presentation is a little dry, which is why I don't rate it with four stars. Three and half would be more accurate. Mr. Ford points out the discrepancies when comparing after battle reports of the Japanese with the AVG--and the exaggerations of both sides when claiming the number of planes destroyed during missions. You do get a glimpse of the personalities of some of the key members of the AVG, and the internal battles between Claire Chennault (The AVG Commander), the Chinese (the Kai-sheks), and US leadership (Roosevelt, and the USAAC).
June 23, 2020
This is a very complete book on the flying tigers in WW2. It does get bogged down at times. Too much detail on nearly every flight. I needed to skip through so,e of the detail
April 6, 2021
A painfully dry first half gives way to a break-neck rollercoaster ride of engagements, combat, retreats, and adventures, with political intrigue, military maneuvering, and colorful characters. Many of the Flying Tigers performed admirably and contributed greatly to the Pacific war effort during and after their time in the Tigers, but this was a good book covering both Claire Chennault and the unit he created and led until its dissolution.
If all you know about the Flying Tigers comes from the John Wayne movie (as much as I love him), you don't know anything.
If all you know about the Flying Tigers comes from the John Wayne movie (as much as I love him), you don't know anything.
May 10, 2017
First published in 1991, reissued in 2007, Ford draws on a variety of sources (Japanese included) to provide a solid history of the volunteer mercenary flyers who fought the Japanese over China in early 1942. Sixty-seven flyers, led by the charismatic Claire Chennault, shot down over a hundred Japanese planes (not the almost 1500 claimed at the time, five hundred plus with conviction). They were a legendarbunch, and lived up to a good deal of the legend.
December 8, 2018
Very detailed
Almost too much detail. In the end Ford fails to mention The Flying Tigers Museum in Chongqing. It is located across the street from Gen. Stilwell's residence in Chongqing. Well worth a visit. Not only does it contain a bronze bust of Chennault but also maps of all the AVG bases in China and pictures of all of the AVG pilots.
Almost too much detail. In the end Ford fails to mention The Flying Tigers Museum in Chongqing. It is located across the street from Gen. Stilwell's residence in Chongqing. Well worth a visit. Not only does it contain a bronze bust of Chennault but also maps of all the AVG bases in China and pictures of all of the AVG pilots.
August 2, 2022
Excellent read about the Flying Tigers of WWll. Every year I pick u the history books of WWll and always learn something new. I did not realize the Tigers were a volunteer organization for China and became integrated into the military after Pearl Harbor.
January 25, 2018
Despite what I have learned/taught, the Flying Tigers did most of its fighting against the Japanese in Burma.
April 7, 2022
The true story of well-known aviation legends. Provides exciting and humanizing details as well as correcting inaccurate information without diminishing their accomplishments
July 28, 2022
Interesting book!
June 8, 2024
I wanted to look this book. I just couldn't find a way to do it. A good, but extraordinarily dry, reference. It should have been so much more. Absolutely no character study.
Read
November 13, 2024真正的志愿军。顺记一位昌黎老人
January 27, 2025
Slow read very factual but not a fun read
March 24, 2015
High flying history of the highest caliber.
Daniel Ford’s Flying Tigers is the high-flying history of a group of American aviators who took to the skies over southeast Asia in 1941 to challenge the seemingly unstoppable military might of the Japanese empire, which had begun its juggernaut –like march across much of Asia and the Pacific. Lured by promises of high pay and bounties by the beleaguered Chinese government, the rough-and-tumble Americans flew with guts and bravado and, though nearly always outnumbered and under-supplied, downed more than 100 Japanese planes from 1941 through 1942.
This is fantastic history, painstakingly researched by author Daniel Ford, from a composite of both western and eastern sources that is sweeping in scope and balanced in perspective. At the same time, this is far from a stodgy historical tome; the dogfights are pulse-poundingly recreated from the hammer of the machine guns to whine of straining engines and propellers. Ford evokes all the nail-biting chaos and split-second maneuvering of aerial combat, drawing directly from the logs, diaries, and records of the combatants. I know (only because Ford clues us in the preface) that there is considerable controversy regarding the number of “kills” accredited to the Tigers, but whatever the actual number is, it does little to diminish the bravery or gumption of the pilots. (And to be fair, by the close of the book, Ford often a pretty good case when it comes to the final tally of downed aircraft).
This is also not a novel penned through rose-colored glasses. Ford acknowledges that while patriotism played a role, money was also a motivator. There’s certainly a sense of a proto-military-industrialism among some of the backers of the AVG operation, and the Tigers themselves tend toward the Hand Solo-side of things rather than the more altruistic Luke Skywalker-type. Throw in femme fatales like green-eyed Olga Greenlaw and the mysterious Madame Chiang Kai-Shek and the mythology fairly writes itself. To his credit, Ford doesn’t give in to this lure and sticks to the facts, but the characters, locale, time period, and subject matter are simply irresistible and fairly beg for pulpy fictionalization.
Bottom line ... Ford delivers a solid historical narrative that never skimps on the details, but reads like an adventure novel. Bravo! And, to echo the author, all honor to the men and women of the Flying Tigers.
April 25, 2015
A pretty objective history of Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group (better known as the Flying Tigers) that he & others recruited to fly for Nationalist China against Japan prior to Pearl Harbor in both China & Burma (most of the aerial combat actually happened in Burma). The author reviewed American, British, Chinese & Japanese records to try to sort out fact from myths & exaggerated claims on both sides.
Chennault was an early advocate of developing fighters to intercept bombers, which wasn't a popular view between World Wars I & II. He also had good insights into the capabilities of both American & Japanese planes and came up with effective tactics for using the P-40. The P-40 had better armor and heavier guns and could out dive Japanese planes but it couldn't out maneuver Japanese fighters in dogfights. So Chennault developed the tactic of having the P-40 make diving attacks out of the sun and then dive to avoid Japanese fighters.
Chennault also developed warning networks of observers stationed on mountaintops to warn the AVG by telephone & radio of incoming Japanese planes. These networks were developed in the absence of radar. Early warning was critical because the P-40 had a slow climb rate and having the advantage of being at a higher altitude than your opponent often meant the difference between life & death.
This book presents a warts and all view of Chennault and his men. They were a poorly disciplined bunch. Chennault also cultivated a good relationship with Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife. At a time when the allied forces in Asia were outnumbered, poorly equipped and poorly led, Chennault and the AVG were an effective force in fighting the Japanese.
For aviation enthusiasts, the book also has numerous sidebars that present information on the American, British and Japanese planes used during this period.
I recommend this book.
Chennault was an early advocate of developing fighters to intercept bombers, which wasn't a popular view between World Wars I & II. He also had good insights into the capabilities of both American & Japanese planes and came up with effective tactics for using the P-40. The P-40 had better armor and heavier guns and could out dive Japanese planes but it couldn't out maneuver Japanese fighters in dogfights. So Chennault developed the tactic of having the P-40 make diving attacks out of the sun and then dive to avoid Japanese fighters.
Chennault also developed warning networks of observers stationed on mountaintops to warn the AVG by telephone & radio of incoming Japanese planes. These networks were developed in the absence of radar. Early warning was critical because the P-40 had a slow climb rate and having the advantage of being at a higher altitude than your opponent often meant the difference between life & death.
This book presents a warts and all view of Chennault and his men. They were a poorly disciplined bunch. Chennault also cultivated a good relationship with Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife. At a time when the allied forces in Asia were outnumbered, poorly equipped and poorly led, Chennault and the AVG were an effective force in fighting the Japanese.
For aviation enthusiasts, the book also has numerous sidebars that present information on the American, British and Japanese planes used during this period.
I recommend this book.
January 30, 2013
My first love in History non-fiction is World War II and I enjoy nothing more than books which put the historical record straight. There is a lot of mythology to the story of the Flying Tigers, those American mercenary pilots who, as the American Volunteer Group, volunteered to fight the Japanese before it became fashionable. I always thought that the Flying Tigers fought before the attack on Pearl Harbor, that they shot down up to a thousand enemy planes and that they stopped a major drive by a Japanese army by bombing a bridge in a strategially important gorge but all of this turned out not to be true as the author of "Flying Tigers," Daniel Ford, clearly explained. In doing so, Ford not only examined the men of the flying tigers, he delved into Japanese records so that the planes encountered by the Flying Tigers were not flown by faceless foes but living and breathing human beings. Ford's book and the Flying Tigers as well centered on the figure of Claire Chennault. This is appropriate as there would have been no Flying Tigers without him. The book is a factual account of a group of heroes whose story really needs no embellishment. Their accomplishments are epic even without the mythology. I can't recommend Flying Tigers enough.
If there was just a good book on the Chinese Americans who formed a flying group and preceded the Flying Tigers to fight for China now that would be complete the story. One can only hope.
If there was just a good book on the Chinese Americans who formed a flying group and preceded the Flying Tigers to fight for China now that would be complete the story. One can only hope.
January 10, 2016
Very well researched and readable history about AVG. Especially the author's detailed comparison of AVG and JAAF records on the real losses in their battles.
It's very clear that AVG is a mercenary troop from the beginning. More amazingly they had been able to hold out in an adverse environment for months against a redoubtable enemy.
However, one point I disagree with Daniel Ford is how AVG achieved their victories over JAAF (~20 : ~100). Instead of espirit de corps, I believe the equipment was the real decision factor.
For most of the battles, AVG's P-40Bs were up against the obsolete JAAF Ki-27s. P-40B was faster, more robust, and with more teeth -- two .50 and four .303 or 7.9mm machine guns. Ki-27 used fixed landing gear and thus was much slower than P-40B. It was only armed with two 7.7mm machine guns. The author speculated and wondered why the USAAF P-40s in Philippine did not perform as well as AVG's. Apparently he forgot that P-40s in Philippine were mostly wiped out by JNAF's Zeros at the beginning of the Philippine Campaign. For JAAF, the only aircraft that could match P-40s was probably Ki-43s. However, they were not assigned to the Burma front during most of the AVG operations there.
It's very clear that AVG is a mercenary troop from the beginning. More amazingly they had been able to hold out in an adverse environment for months against a redoubtable enemy.
However, one point I disagree with Daniel Ford is how AVG achieved their victories over JAAF (~20 : ~100). Instead of espirit de corps, I believe the equipment was the real decision factor.
For most of the battles, AVG's P-40Bs were up against the obsolete JAAF Ki-27s. P-40B was faster, more robust, and with more teeth -- two .50 and four .303 or 7.9mm machine guns. Ki-27 used fixed landing gear and thus was much slower than P-40B. It was only armed with two 7.7mm machine guns. The author speculated and wondered why the USAAF P-40s in Philippine did not perform as well as AVG's. Apparently he forgot that P-40s in Philippine were mostly wiped out by JNAF's Zeros at the beginning of the Philippine Campaign. For JAAF, the only aircraft that could match P-40s was probably Ki-43s. However, they were not assigned to the Burma front during most of the AVG operations there.
July 8, 2011
I liked this book, but not as much as I had hoped I would starting. I wanted a more thorough knowledge of the AVG, and their leader, and I absolutely got it after reading this book. It was unbelievably well researched. But to me, that was the problem, in a way. This book read more like a text book. It was tedious more times than it wasn't, and on more occasions than was really necessary included details about things that were just completely pointless. The story of the AVG, and the personalities of the men and women involved are larger than life, but it just doesn't come through how I had hoped it would. To me, if you took the authors incredible research and attention to detail, and gave it to someone that could put the work together as the dramatic war story it is, you probably would have gotten a much better book. It felt dry. Almost military, like a very long debrief. I've read enough military aviation histories to know that this one could have been better. But again, that's not to say it was bad. I was entertained, and I learned a lot more than I had known prior to reading it, so that counts for something.
October 18, 2017
This is a truly excellent nonfiction account of the American volunteer air division The Flying Tigers in China. While it is nonfiction, it is very readable and not so technical that the average person won't be able to understand it.
January 2, 2021
基本上是战史的梳理，可惜更让我感兴趣的那些年轻人的故事讲得实在太少了：“我不是为了拯救世界或者逃避什么，去那里只是为了钱、有补贴的旅行和冒险的希望。”看完又瞎琢磨了10分钟，觉得那会儿我要是会开战斗机，大概也会去的吧……
December 3, 2025
In the early days of WWII in the Pacific when the Japanese were advancing in all fronts, one group of American mercenaries contracted by China to stop Japan was holding the line. It was not easy since there was no direct route to get men, planes & supplies to the American Volunteer Group aka the Flying Tigers (which kept their Tiger/Shark name in the when they became part of the US Army in July 1942) needless to say they took an inferior aircraft the P-40 & becoming a menace to the Japanese Air Force. When the mercenary contract was over & the the pilots were filtered back into the Army Air Force, Navy & Marines they had valuable experience to help win the war in the Pacific.
One other good book to read after the AVG is 'Sharks Over China' by Carl Molsworth that continues the story of the Flying Tigers from summer 1942 to summer 1945.
One other good book to read after the AVG is 'Sharks Over China' by Carl Molsworth that continues the story of the Flying Tigers from summer 1942 to summer 1945.
April 26, 2024
Stay. Away. I absolutely LOVE military history, and WW2 is one of my favorites. Even with my love of the material, this book is absolutely unreadably dry.
This book is clearly very well researched, and Ford obviously cares greatly about the flying tigers and aviation history. However, this book is just SO. UNRELENTINGLY. DRY. that it's impossible to enjoy. This book has approximately the same writing style and narrative direction as the wikipedia page does. Seriously. I'd rather read the wikipedia page.
Prospective readers beware, unless you literally only want to absorb as many facts as you can about the Flying Tigers and care absolutely 0% about how interesting the book you're reading is, I would stay clear of this book.
This book is clearly very well researched, and Ford obviously cares greatly about the flying tigers and aviation history. However, this book is just SO. UNRELENTINGLY. DRY. that it's impossible to enjoy. This book has approximately the same writing style and narrative direction as the wikipedia page does. Seriously. I'd rather read the wikipedia page.
Prospective readers beware, unless you literally only want to absorb as many facts as you can about the Flying Tigers and care absolutely 0% about how interesting the book you're reading is, I would stay clear of this book.
May 7, 2013
This excellent book by Dan Ford (author of the estimable Incident at Muc Wa) was a fine companion read to Martha Byrd's biography of Claire Lee Chennault, guiding force of the renowned Flying Tigers of World War II. Ford gives incredible detail of the daily experiences of the pilots and crews of the American Volunteer Group in China and augments it with spectacular insights gathered through in-depth research of Japanese records. The magnificent record of the Flying Tigers is thus tempered a bit with reality while still remaining remarkable. This is the best overall work on the AVG I have read.
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