The Flying Tigers
- Tushar B.
- Feb 10, 2019
- 2 min read
The Flying Tigers, an exceptional group of American pilots who served in China before and during the second world war, and who arguably saved the country from the Japanese. They flew primarily in their Curtiss P-40 Warhawks, which had a signature shark mouth decal on the air intake. Although this originated with the British, it was popularized by this group. Honestly, I might write a short piece on the P-40 itself because there's actually a fair bit to say about it.
(Image of P-40 from the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center)
Even before the war, the Chinese had lost a lot of ground to the Japanese and were taking heavy losses in the battle in the
air as well. Their aircraft were mostly old biplanes whereas the Japanese were already using much more advanced monoplanes. The Chinese were desperate for help and asked the United States for any assistance they could provide. They could not deploy active troops, as that would be an act of war, but they did agree that something had to be done. That's why, under the leadership of Captain Claire Lee Chennault, the American Volunteer Group (AVG) was formed. These men, along with about 100 P-40s were sent to China to help against the onslaught of the Japanese. (1)
The AVG was an incredibly successful group, scoring nearly 300 victories against the Japanese at the cost of only 69 of their own planes (Thats 4:1 kill to death ratio!!!), earning them the nickname "Th Flying Tigers" by the locals.(2) This high victory rate can be partially attributed to the AVG's superior tactics developed by Capt. Chennault.
The first of these tactics being the dive. Their plane wasn't particularly fast or maneuverable, but it was very rugged, had heavier guns, and had a very good dive. They used this to their advantage as they would dive in on the Japanese planes and shoot them down before they had a chance to escape.
The second tactic was to know when to quit. If the Americans engaged in a full on dogfight with a Japanese plane, they were almost guaranteed to lose because the Japanese could outturn them and shoot them from behind. For this reason, Chennault recommended going in for the diving pass from above and then immediately breaking off and escaping if the opponent tried to turn into you.
A final trick that the AVG occasionally employed was that if the enemy decided to engage from directly ahead (an essentially suicidal move) the Americans would simply hold the trigger until they were in the opponents' range of fire since the P-40s had superior range than their opponents. This ensured that either the Japanese fighter would be destroyed or at least that the American pilot would remain safe.(3)
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