The Flying Tigers | FULL DOCUMENTARY | Amazing Stories Of World War 2 | Curtiss P-40

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MISSIONS THAT CHANGED THE WAR: The Flying Tigers FULL DOCUMENTARY
Narrated by Gary Sinise.
The American volunteer flyers who fought for China against the Japanese invasion were known as the ‘Flying Tigers.’ They saw their first combat on December 20th, 1941. They had originally thought this would be earlier, but various delays meant that it happened a few days after the US and Japan were officially at war.
In China’s most desperate hour, Chiang Kai-Shek turns to the United States for help. The Japanese are bombing Chinese population centers mercilessly. China’s decimated air force is powerless to stop them. Chiang dispatches his American consultant – former U.S. Army Air Corps officer Claire L. Chennault – to obtain the airplanes and pilots needed to defend China. Tex Hill resigns his Navy Commission and volunteers.
a small group of American aviators fought in their first battle in World War II.
Their mission was unusual: They were mercenaries hired by China to fight against Japan.
They were called the American Volunteer Group and later became known as the Flying Tigers. Though only in combat for less than seven months, the group became famous at the time for its ability to inflict outsize damage on Japan’s better-equipped and larger aircraft fleet.
Their victories came when Japan seemed unstoppable. The AVG was a bright spot in history when everything was bleak and black, and they have received a lot of recognition for that.
In the West, 1939 is considered the start of World War II. But in Asia, China and Japan had been at war since 1937.

China was already fighting its own civil war between the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and Communist forces. The two sides came to a truce to fight against the Japanese. China, however, had little air power to fend off Japanese bombings.
Enter Claire Lee Chennault, a U.S. Army aviator, instructor and tactician, once described by Time magazine as “lean, hard-bitten, taciturn.” Health problems and disputes with his superiors pushed him into retirement from his position with the Army Air Corps in 1937, at age 43.
But he quickly got a lucrative job offer with the Chinese Air Force, which was operating under Chiang’s Nationalist government. Chennault was asked to come survey the readiness of its fleet.
“Chiang Kai-shek thought he had 500 airplanes,” says Nell Chennault Calloway, who is Chennault’s granddaughter and CEO of the Chennault Aviation & Military Museum in Monroe, La. “Chennault said, ‘You have 500, but you only have 91 that fly.’ That’s how far behind they were in aviation.”
Once the war with Japan officially broke out that summer, China hired Chennault as an adviser to its air force. He became its de facto commander.
Claire Lee Chennault first went to China to survey the Chinese Air Force’s readiness, and stayed on to lead the creation of the American Volunteer Group.
Fox Photos/Getty Images
By 1940, after losing backing from the Soviets, China desperately needed more planes. At the time, the U.S. was not officially part of World War II. But President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was concerned about the prospect of Japan defeating China and turning its sights on the U.S.
Chennault traveled back to the U.S., pulling what strings he could to get planes. With the help of T.V. Soong, a Chinese official who was also Chiang’s brother-in-law, a deal was worked out to allow China to buy 100 American-made Curtiss P-40 fighter planes.

“He managed to get Roosevelt to allow some of our military pilots — that was the original AVG — to resign their commissions in the U.S. military and go to China as mercenaries, basically, because it was against the international rules for any American military person to be involved in the conflict over there,”.
It was neither the first time, not the last, when brave Americans have fought for the freedom of other peoples. It was Jefferson’s US Navy that took on and ultimately routed the Libyan pirates wreaking havoc on Mediterranean shipping in the early 1800s. It was US forces that tipped the balance in two World Wars, and it was a US-led coalition that liberated Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. What was different about the Flying Tigers was that they were volunteers, fighting an enemy superior in numbers and equipment.
The Flying Tigers received many honours American and Chinese. About to celebrate their 50th reunion in 1992, they were retroactively recognized as members of the U.S. military services during the seven months in combat against the Japanese.

#Flyingtigers #veterans #ww2

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26 thoughts on “The Flying Tigers | FULL DOCUMENTARY | Amazing Stories Of World War 2 | Curtiss P-40”

  2. 'There is inaccurate information in this video.
    The Chinese did not invent the firearms, or the
    sun dial, waterclocks, canal locks, etc. China didn't invent paper, the ancient Egyptians did, 2500 years before. There is no evidence for 1,000 passager super ship. Wooden ships can only built to a certain size because of rotational flexing, would tear it apart.

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  3. Yeah, I remember my first thrilling airplane ride, when it crashed on landing, propeller hitting ground, plane flipping on back! 2hen plane finally stopped moving, I was hanging upside down from seatbelt! God Loves me! I walked away without a scratch! Plane & pilotcwasn't near as lucky!

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  5. I love the guy in white shoes! Though, as I was in Med school and did not go to the NAM, I was horrified at the way these soldiers were treated when they came back! People spit on them! and, what is more despicable is that the VA system and the Federal Govt. abandoned them! Oh, PTST mattered none, and was ignored! AT that time I was a HIPPIE! But I would have no part of demeaning these brave soldiers who fought, were wounded and died, some were my high school friends, for this SHITTY WAR! To this day, I'm 75, I salute and thank anyone in uniform. They don't start the wars, they just have to fight them. What if someone called a war, and no one showed up? I was priviledged to fly a Stearman. It was my 50th birthday present from my flight instructer. It had been completely restored, except that instead of the stock about 250 HP engine, it was souped up to 450 HP. As usual, I asked my instructer, by now my friend, if I could break this airplane? He said no, and if you lose control, I'll bail you out. For 1 hour, I absolultey flew the "bejesus" out of this plane, cross controlling, putting the plane into every critical attitude I could think of. Stalls, spins, loops, upside down stalls and recovery. It was the highlight of my, and any pilots, flying adventures. We never pulled enough gees to black out. Not that we didn't try. I guess I was too gentle. The indiscremenent bombing of the Chinese peasants should have alerted all of US! Then we might have been prepared for their brutal Japanese atrocities in WWII Someday I may discuss the German NAZIS. To contemplate it turms my stomach! And yet, now we are Allies. How strange is Fate? Yet, it was. not the German people who "strayed" from Humanity! It happens every day!. Probably, no one will ever read this, and tha's fine. I've been told I should write a book. Maybe I should, or just SHUT UP!. YooHooHoo! Bob I love the appeasement stratigy! Cover your ass! Works every time! The Japs, the Krauts, I don't know who were more barbaric. Well as the Cronkite said, "and that's the way it was!" Bob

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  8. One of my all time pet-hates is broadcasters &/or publishers who OMIT the final episode of any particular series. SBS Australia has done this 100 times & only when Mil. History or Science are the topics & when the series isn't available for purchase locally. ANY CHANCE YOU'LL UPLOAD EPISODE 4???

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  9. When I was in my mid-teens was a part of a Sea Explorer crew hosted by a VFW post. We had survival weekend. We were allowed a sleeping bag, a tarp, a poncho, a knife, a machete and of course, a cartridge belt for our 1903 Springfield rifles, of which the VFW post had many, We were outfield in OG uniforms. The adults, three of them, were Vietnam vets. We went out in a couple of old Willys jeeps. Of course one would break down, Then the adults would get us a couple of cases of beer. Those were the good old days. When I would tell my sons, who were into scouting, about this, they couldn't believe it.

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  15. my opinion.
    the history of the Tigers IS the story of the men.
    ed rector, tex hill, james howard, charles bond and more.
    they chose to fight for a country with a worthy cause because it was, in their eyes, the right thing to do.
    some gave all and never saw home again; some, like james howard (a son of china born in canton in 1913) showed he was a Tiger always in later conflicts.
    Ding Hao!

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  20. I am Chinese, my father told me this history when I was a child, my grandfather attended the flying tiger as mechanism in Chongqing/kuming, south east of China. I can’t find any pic or member lists of Flying tiger in China. I was wondering where I can find it.

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