Flying Tigers: notes and sources

FLYING TIGERS > NOTES & SOURCES > CHAPTERS 1-5

This is a work in progress, as I update these notes to incorporate the third edition of Flying Tigers (Warbird Books 2016, revised 2023). — Daniel Ford

Sources, abbreviations

3rd Sq log: Daniel Hoyle kept a "Diary of the Third Pursuit Squadron" from Aug 1941 to Jul 1942, on file at AFHRC 863.059.

AFHRC: document housed at the Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Field, Alabama.

AMISSCA: radiogram to or from the U.S. Military Mission in Chongqing, at National Archives Military Field Branch, 332. These reports provide a fascinating view of AVG operations.

Author interview: From 1986 to 1995, I conducted scores of interviews in person, by telephone, and by letter. The audio tapes are located at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, and selected transcripts are filed at my home in Durham, New Hampshire.

AVG archives: document filed at the San Diego Aero-Space Museum and made available to me in 1988 by John Williams, the volunteer curator. This collection was later acquired by the AVG veterans' group.

Chennault 201 file: Chennault's Military Personnel Record is online at catalog.archives.gov/id/57282452 in 838 numbered images. For my narrative summary of this material, see www.warbirdforum.com/clc201.htm online.

Chennault diary: a sparse, five-year record of his China years, 1937-1941. In my collection, thanks to the late Jack Samson.

Chennault papers: 65 numbered folders of AVG documents housed at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, with microfilm copies at the Library of Congress, Washington DC. The latter is the version I used; the folder numbers are the same.

Columbia interview: in 1962, Frank Rounds Jr. interviewed AVG veterans for Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. Sadly, the tapes were not preserved; I read the transcripts in the Pistole collection, and they may exist elsewhere.

FRUS: volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, followed by year and volume number.

GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC.

Group War Diary: Olga Greenlaw kept the "Diary" from December 1941 to March 1942, taking a copy when she left China; other copies are filed at AFHRC and in the AVG archives. When Doreen Lonberg took over the job, she retyped most of Greenlaw's entries, with the result that the two versions differ slightly. Lonberg's version was kept by Chennault and appears in the Chennault Papers; unless stated otherwise, I quote from that version.

Hopkins papers: housed at the FDR Library, Hyde Park NY.

JDA: Japan Defense Agency.

JM: Japanese Monograph, in a series written by Japanese veterans postwar under U.S. Army direction, mimeographed in Tokyo in the year indicated. Library of Congress microfilm.

JT&A: Japan Times & Advertiser, English-language daily published in Tokyo throughout the war. Library of Congress microfilm.

Morgenthau Diary: the treasury secretary's voluminous record. FDR Library, Hyde Park NY.

Pistole collection: one of a series of documents collected by Larry Pistole and made available as machine copies to the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, where I read them in 1989. The originals were later acquired by the Flying Tigers Association.

PRO: Public Records Office (now the National Archives), Kew, London.

Rodewald diary: transcript of Rode's handwritten diary. My collection, thanks to Martha Byrd.

1 - "May I Present Colonel Chennault?"

Chennault's autobiography is Way of a Fighter (Putnam, 1949), hereafter Fighter. The book was ghost-written by Robert Hotz in New York and transcribed by Doreen Lonborg Reynolds in Taiwan; she told me (1986) that Chennault did not closely supervise the project. A more reliable account is Martha Byrd, Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (Univ. Alabama Press, 1987); her biography is very strong on personal and professional affairs but weak with respect to combat operations. Chennault's son Max assured me that the 1893 birthdate was recorded in the family bible (letter 1986). I have mixed feelings about Byrd's account of the years 1914-1917: did she know about Chennault's romance with Anna Mae Griffin, his trial for "white slavery," and his three-year exile in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Ohio? Surely it occurred to her, as it did to me, that it was strange for a schoolteacher and principal to wind up laboring in a Goodyear tire factory.

For the China years, I rely mostly on Chennault's diary, from which all his unattributed quotes are taken. I am grateful to Jack Samson for sending me a copy of the dairy, and to Anna Chennault for permission to quote from it.

Chennault's birthplace has since been memorialized at 1501 Monroe Street in Commerce, Texas; it's a more upscale dwelling than one would expect for a Louisiana cotton farmer supposedly avoiding the law (Byrd 5). Instant, strong attachment: Anna Chennault, A Thousand Springs (Eriksson, 1962) 203. Military academies: Fighter 6, letter from Naval Academy 1987. He was slender: Edythe Abbott in Louisiana State Times 4 Oct 1945. Also 1910 LSU catalog; 1909 and 1910 volumes of Gumbo, the student yearbook; and Chennault's transcript from Natchioches.

Chennault's first teaching job is sometimes said to have been at Athens, near Shreveport, but I can find no proof of that. I wonder if it was perhaps Gilbert in eastern Louisiana, where he soon settled. Winnsboro: Byrd 15; Kilbourne: A History of Early Kilbourne (Historical Society, 2006) 63. However, report card for the Franklin Parish Central School, with Chennault's bold signature, definitely places him in the Winnsboro-Gilbert area for the school year 1912-13. Information about Chennault's romance with Anna Mae Griffin: "White Slavery Charge Against School Teacher," Shreveport Journal 10 Sep 1914, other newspapers of the time, and 2022 emails with their grandson William (Bill) Chennault. (Bill also sent me the Central School report card, Nov 2023.) For more about the kerfuffle, see the Annals of the Flying Tigers online.

This man can be taught: Nancy Allison Wright author interview 1989. I have tasted: Robert Hotz, With General Chennault (Coward McCann, 1943) 55. Written with the help of several just-returned AVG pilots, this is the book that began to Flying Tiger legend, and indeed my lifelong interest in the Tigers. Chennault's Men: Hotz 63.

Bombardment doctrine: The Command of the Air (Coward McCann, 1942). It is impossible: Fighter 22. Specifications of the Flying Fortress are those of the B-17G. American Army or Navy: Fletcher Pratt in Saturday Evening Post 2 Dec 1939.

Chennault published his tactical ideas as "The Role of Defensive Pursuit" in Coast Artillery Journal Nov-Dec 1933, Jan-Feb 1934, Mar-Apr 1934. This series is often described as a book, but I can find no trace of it; perhaps it was distributed in mimeographed form. Rivals to the P-35 and P-36 included the Polikarpov I-16 (first flight December 1933, Messerschmitt Bf-109 (May 1935), and Hawker Hurricane (November 1935); the Bf-109 especially was a better warplane.

It is well to avoid: Henry Arnold and Ira Eaker, Army Flyer (Harper, 1942) 73. Bombers are winged: Arnold & Eaker, Winged Warfare (Harper, 1941) 144. Ironically, Haywood Hansell soon joined the Bomber Mafia at the Tactical School; in Jan 1943 he commanded the 1st Bombardment Wing (B-17) of the 8th Air Force in England, and he later led a B-29 force in the Pacific. He retired in 1955 as a major general See his Wikipedia biography.

Gonorrhea: Chennault 201 file 682. General weakness 201 file 144; also see 139, 146, 378, 829, Retirement home: Life 15 Mar 1943, a very helpful photo essay.

One sultry afternoon: Fighter 34. The most beautiful: Royal Leonard, I Flew for China (Doubleday, 1942) 105. Chennault's rank in CAF: Fu Jui-yuan, Lee Cheng-yuan, and Wang Shu-ming author interviews 1986. Aviation missions to China: Wilbur Burton and John Jouett in Asia Aug 1935, Dec 1937; Ray Wagner, Prelude to Pearl Harbor (San Diego Aerospace Museum, 1991) 8-11; William Leary, The Dragon's Wings (Univ. Georgia Press, 1976) ch. 2; Frank Tamagna, Italy's Interests and Policies in the Far East (Institute for Pacific Relations, 1941) 19-21. Contemporary accounts are scathing with respect to General Scaroni and his aviation mission, an assessment no doubt inflamed by the fact that Italy was allied with Germany and Japan until September 1943.

Outbreak of fighting: Hata Ikuhito in James Morley, The China Quagmire (Columbia Univ. Press, 1983) 241; Gregory Clark in JT&A 2 Sep 2005. What should I do, Mac: AFHRC 248.211-214. Strength of CAF: S.D. Griffith, "The Chinese Air Force" 1937, AFHRC 248.211-214; Fu, Lee, Wang author interviews; Mao Pang-chu Air Force interview 1948, AFHRC 105.5-10. A useful recent study is Xu, Guangqiu, War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929-1949 (Greenwood Press, 2001). For the Curtiss Hawk biplanes, see surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/hawk_china.htm

Raging winds: Wagner 13. Dived and loosed, etc: N.Y. Times 14-16 Aug 1937. Also FRUS 1937 IV, 255, 295; Shah Konsin author interview 1986. Oh, it was the most bloody: Thomas Trumble Columbia interview. Raid on Nanjing: Hisazuma Tadeo, "Air Operations in the China Incident" (JM 166, 1951); Hata/Morley 268; Wagner 14-15. We have lost: "Diary of a Japanese Airman" 1937, AFHRC 248.211-214. Arrival of A5M: Hata Ikuhito & Izawa Yasuho, Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units (Naval Institute, 1989) 25-26. Training CAF: Lee author interview; Fighter 53-54.

Recent Chinese: FRUS 1937 IV, 317. The name stuck: Trumble Columbia interview. While there is no war: AFHRC 248.211-214. had a [Curtiss fighter]: James McHugh 2 Oct 1938, thanks to David Dunlap. Major McHugh was a great asset to the U.S. Embassy in Chongqing and remains a great asset to researchers today. Chennault as combat pilot: Joseph Alsop (author interview 1985) assured me that Chennault was one of the leading aces of the Second World War as a result of his mercenary exploits in China. Martha Byrd (pp. 86-88) quotes supporting testimony by some of his American associates in Shanghai. I was more convinced by my interviews Fu, Lee, and Wang in Taipei, December 1986.

Orgy of looting: Frank Lockhardt in FRUS 1938 III, 243. CAMCO: Curtiss Flyleaf Sep-Oct 1942. Oblivious of shrapnel: Greenlaw to army historian 1947, AVG Achives 7. 14th Sq.: James McHugh 23 May 1938, AFHRC 248.211-214. Leonard's report: FRUS 1939 III, 160.

A fighting unit: Chennault, "Air Warfare in China" 1952, AFHRC K239.716252-17. The Russians didn't like: Lee author interview. Chennault's reports 1938 to AG: AFHRC 248.211-214. He was a smallish: Paul Frillmann, China: The Remembered Life (Houghton-Mifflin, 1968) 19. Frillmann was a keen observer with a good understanding of China, but he bore a deep grudge toward Chennault.

Changes in aviation commission: McHugh report 1938, AFHRC 248.211-214. Enviable cocksman: A.L. Patterson letter to author 1987. Nobody flies: Jack Samson, Chennault (Doubleday, 1987) 55. Samson's biography is not nearly as trustworthy as Byrd's, but he did have the advantage of long association with Chennault. When he strapped: John Williams author interview 1987.

Peasants born: Theodore White & Ann Jacoby, Thunder Out of China (Sloane, 1946) 20, 12. The bombers came: White, In Search of History (Harper, 1978) 82; Taciturn and courtly: ibid 74.

CAF aviation program: Curtiss Flyleaf Sep-Oct 1942; Morgenthau Diary 324:143; Olga Greenlaw, The Lady and the Tigers (Warbird Books, 2010) 22-23. Greenlaw's book, originally published by Dutton 1943, is universally underrated as history. But she wrote it with the help of a copy of the Group War Diary as she had typed it, along with her own personal diary, which to my sorrow I have never seen. Her elder sister Alicia Schweizer assured me (2001) that it was had been burned upon Olga's death, at her request, but when the youngest sister Beatriz Priest died, it surfaced among her possessions and was sold on eBay in 2010 with the original typescript of her book, which likewise would be of great interest to students of the AVG. They were, I believe, bought by a collector in Hawaii.

Without any direct: John King Fairbank, "Air Program" 1942, thanks to William Leary. Mr. Leary was incredibly generous in sharing his vast collection of documents with me. Long after his stint at the White House, Mr. Fairbank became the dean of American China scholars at Harvard. I corresponded with him in 1990, but he understandable remembered very little about his work on this document. Soong's want list and Universal Trading Corp: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Morgenthau Diary (GPO, 1965) 178-179, 50-51. This last is one of three sources for the Treasury secretary's incredibly detailed daily record of his work.

2 - "We Are Not Choosers"

This thing is beyond: Nelson Johnson in FRUS 1940 IV, 887.

When we chase: Horikoshi Jiro, Eagles if Mitsubishi (Univ. of Washington Press, 1981) 100-103. Far superior: Chennault diary. It would assist: Byrd 106. Japanese bombing: FRUS 1940 IV, 673.

I am told: FRUS 1940 IV, 671. Shifty as the devil: James McHugh 2 Oct 1938, thanks to David Dunlap. Mao-Chennault conversations: Arthur Young, China and the Helping Hand (Harvard Univ. Press, 1963) 141. Want list: Hopkins papers 305. Yellow man: Time 26 Jun 1939.

Corcoran as fixer: Official File 1560, FDR Library. To check with: Thomas Corcoran, "Pacific Wars" typescript, thanks to Anna Chennault. It's a pity that Mr. Corcoran's memoir was not published, and perhaps never finished. When I interviewed Mrs. Chennault in 1986, her Washington office was at the same address as Corcoran's in 1941. New fast pursuit: Byrd 111.

The president just: U.S. Senate Judiciary Comm. 293. After lunch etc: Morgenthau Diary 342-A. Half-baked etc: John Blum, From the Morgenthau Diaries (Houghton-Mifflin, 1965) II:368. Dividing up aircraft: U.S. Senate Judiciary Comm., 334-336; Morgenthau Diary 342. To see the Curtiss: Mao Air Force interview.

Radiator change: Daniel Whitney, Vee's for Victory (Schiffer, 1998) 94. AVG P-40s: Francis Dean, America's Hundred Thousand (Schiffer, 1997) ch 4; Terrill Clements, American Volunteer Group Colours and Markings (Osprey, 2001); and Chuck Baisden, Flying Tiger to Air Commando (Schiffer, 1999). My thanks to Corey Jordan and Erik Shilling for their letters, emails, and internet postings, which persuaded me that the planes sent to Burma more closely resembled the earlier P-40B (Tomahawk II) than the C model (Tomahawk IIB) then being assembled for the RAF. American pilots: Young, Helping Hand 149.

Negotiating extensive: William Pawley to army historian 1950, National Archives HIS 330.14. Soong has asked: U.S. Senate Judiciary Comm. 352. My brother David: Corcoran ms. With this comparative: Joseph Alsop in Washington Post 25 Mar 1941. If Roosevelt was: Corcoran ms. Rejected parts in Allison engines: Whitney 123, 126. $9.3 million: E.R. Stettinius letter 1941, Hopkins papers 305. The Chinese government: Chennault papers folder 8.

Aviation people: Walter Pentecost in AAHS Journal (Summer 1970). CAF mechanics: Shah Konsin author interview. As many coolies etc: Byron Glover in Aviation Dec 1942. A very useful and nearly contemporary account. When it is not: Glover. Ever helpful: Fairbank ms. If this program: Fairbank ms. Also James McHugh, "The History and Status of the First American Volunteer Group" 1941, Cornell Univ. Library 2770.

3 - "Tex, This Is Too Good To Be True"

Recruiters: William Pawley, Americans Valiant and Glorious (privately printed, 1945); Claude Adair author interview 1986; Austin Brady letter 1941 in Morgenthau Diary 346:112. The only way the Chinese etc: Edward Rector author interviews 1986, 1988, 1989. My interviews with Colonel Rector were among the most enjoyable of my long study of the AVG. Also David Hill & Reagan Schaupp, Tex Hill: Flying Tiger (Honoribus, 2003) 69-71. Unsatisfactory both as memoir and as biography, this book is most useful in its display of the respect and admiration Chennault inspired among his pilots.

Adair then started: Wanda Cornelius & Thayne Short, Ding Hao (Pelican, 1980) 103-104. Most of the brass, Matthew Kuykendall Columbia interview. All I'd ever lived for: Rector author interview 1986. I'd always wanted and And as far as knowing: David Hill and Robert Neale Columbia interviews.

I've got a deal: Robert Layher Columbia interview. But the overriding reason: Duane Schultz, The Maverick War (St. Martin's, 1987) 84. F4F: James Howard, Roar of the Tiger (Orion, 1991) 56. Howard's is a clear-eyed, intelligent memoir of his war years. For the past few months: Time 23 Jun 1941.

We each have a thousand etc: R.T. Smith, Tale of a Tiger (privately printed, 1986) 8-22. Of all the AVG memoirs, this is the most valuable, because R.T. included his 1941-1942 dairy pages in facsimile, so that we know that--unlike all the others--it was not rewritten with hindsight. The next day: Charles Bond & Terry Anderson, A Flying Tiger's Diary (Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1984) 20. Another valuable memoir, though of course edited for publication. When you're young: Syd Love in San Diego Union 10 Jul 1986.

The Japs are flying etc: Gregory Boyington, Baa Baa Black Sheep (Putnam, 1958) 15. Boyington wrote his memoir for laughs and popular acclaim; either his memory was faulty or he ficitonalized the happenings. For an honest portrayal of his months with the Flying Tigers, see Bruce Gamble's excellent biography, Black Sheep One: The Life of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington (Presidio, 2000).

Perry-Conant: "John Perry, Flying Tiger, Navy Pilot," St. Petersburg Times 6 Sep 1965. In the 1991 and 2005 editions of this book, I had the wrong information on how Conant was outed. Baumler's passport: Lauchlin Currie cover letter for Fairbank ms. Whereas the Employer: AVG archives. Medical personnel: Lewis Richards and Emma Jane Hanks author interviews 1989. I would have signed etc: Robert M. Smith, With Chennault in China (TAB Books, 1984) 16.

I wasn't motivated etc: Frank & Terry Losonsky, Flying Tiger: A Crew Chief's Story (Schiffer, 1996) 11. Joe Jordan's experience: his Columbia interview. I had just turned 21: Baisden, Flying Tiger to Air Commando. This is Commander Irvine: Allen Fritzke author interview 1985. Tom Trumble's experience: his Columbia interview. Staff officer: Frillmann, China 51-59. He was a genius: Alsop author interview. Joe Alsop was still very much a Groton-Harvard personage when I interviewed him at his Georgetown home in 1985.

Joe Jordan: his Columbia interview. Go away, soldier etc: Frillmann, China 51-59. Drove the Limeys wild: Paul Perry author interview 1989. Thirty United States: N.Y. Times 10 Jul 1941. Send-off: Howard 62. When I left my darling: Charles Mott diary, AVG archives. Navy escort: Fairbank ms. She was a beautiful: Doreen Lonborg Reynolds author interview 1986. friendly, attractive: Alicia Schweizer author interview 2001. Also see Greenlaw 2010, foreword. Olga Sowers and Raymond Kimbell were married by a justice of the peace in May 1928. The marriage was likely annulled, for Olga Sowers and Henri Witherton were married in December 1930 with a priest and Olga's sisters in attendance. See Olga Greenlaw's first marriage online.

Zero reconstruction: William Leary in Aerospace Historian Winter 1987. An understanding: Robert Brook-Popham in Supplement to the London Gazette 22 Jan 1948. The incendiary bombing: Michael Schaller, The U.S. Crusade in China (Columbia Univ. Press, 1979) 80-81.

I walked the ground in Toungoo and at Kyedaw airfield in December 1986, and had a whisky-soda at the brass-railed bar of the Strand Hotel in Rangoon. Like my earlier experience in Vietnam, I did not find the climate and insect population nearly as formidable as they have been portrayed. (I did suffer the usual digestive discomfort.)

4 - "Looks Mean as Hell"

Hello, Frillmann etc: Frillmann, China, 62-64. The First American: Chennault papers 10. And that's how: Perry author interview. Corn flakes like cardboard: Wilfred Schaper diary, AVG archives. Got us more or less: Robert Neale Columbia interview. Black wench: Schaper diary ("wensh" in original). Squadron leaders: Howard, Roar of the Tiger 79.

There were no guns: Rodewald Columbia interview. AVG armorer Chuck Baisden recalled that the majority of the AVG's rifle-caliber machine guns were chambered for the U.S. cal.-.30 cartridge, with a smaller number of 7.92 mm guns. The available documents support the version presented here. Reflecting sight: Howard 86; Baisden, Flying Tiger to Air Commando; Chennault papers 19; Charles Mott author interview 1988; Rector author interview. As Chennault stepped: Howard 80.

While he had a etc: Howard 83, 90. The executive officer has a wife: Kenneth Jernstedt author interview 1988. The more I see: Mott diary. He showed us these things: Hill Columbia interview. British and Japanese manuals: Chennault papers 13. The Japs are very: Hill & Schaupp, 92-93.

The collision sounded: J. Gilpin Bright in Atlantic Oct 1942. A useful collection of letters home. I do hereby certify: Chennault papers 30. In 2016, the U.S. military exumed remains that may well be those of Armstrong, Atkinson, and Hammer, the three pilots killed at Toungoo; they evidently were reburied postwar in India and later tranferred to the Punchbowl Cemetery outside Honolulu. The embalming process described here might interfere with DNA matching.

Bloom gang arrives: Hill & Schaupp 86. Traffic sign: Muriel Sue Upfill, An American in Burma, 1930 to 1942 (Arizona State Univ. Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1999) 171. That damn engine: Rector author interview. I closed the canopy etc: R.T. Smith, Tale of a Tiger 67-68. Get off of active duty: Arvid Olson, "A Story of the American Volunteer Group," AVG archives.

He started to pull out: Rodewald diary. After Pete's funeral: Losonsky, Flying Tiger 55. If these guys can't: Jernstedt author interview. Japanese tactics: Chennault to C.W. Pulford 1941. British knew about overflights: Bruce Scott to Chennault 1941, Chennault papers 37. A strange silver ship: R.T. Smith 99-100. Japanese flights: Ikari Yoshio, Shinshitei (Sankei Shuppan, 1981) 119-120. I translated this and most other Japanese books with the aid of Miyuki Rogers.

Leveled off: R.T. Smith 104. A wash out etc: Losonsky, Flying Tiger 57. Circus Day is further described in the Chennault and Schaper diaries. Typical of these problems etc: Chennault papers 44. Joe was always: Trumble Columbia interview. We need six ounces: Chennault papers 43. By its very nature: McHugh, "History and Status." Serious threat: AMISSCA 18 Nov 1941, If this air force: Secretary's File 37, FDR Library. On the chance: Chennault papers 39.

He was about five feet: Greenlaw 2010 49. Boyington and car keys: Noel Bacon author interview 1990. Rev. Klein: Schaper diary; Harold Klein letter to author 1987. Shark face: Richard Ward, Sharkmouth, 1916-1945 (Arco, 1979); Illustrated London News Sep 1941; Bond & Anderson 44. Also claiming credit: Eriksen Shilling, Destiny: A Flying Tiger's Rendezvous With Fate (privately printed, revised 1997) 94-95. Chennault said no: Eriksen Shilling, "Origin of Shark Teeth," undated typscript in AVG archives 10. Looks mean as hell: R.T. Smith 122. Brandt as pilot: Neil Frances, Ketchil: A New Zealand Pilot's War in Asia and the Pacific (Wairarapa Archive, 2005) 42. Shilling had a dog fight: Schaper diary.

For the past few weeks: Lin Wen-kuei letter, Chennault papers 30. Cruel treatment etc: Williams letters, Chennault papers 15, 44. We are preparing etc: Blum, From the Morgenthau Diaries 676-678. In the next few months: Official File 150, FDR Library.

Hudsons to bomb Japan: McHugh, "History and Status." 2nd AVG crews ship out: Chennault papers 44; Hopkins papers 305. Alan Armstrong, in Preemptive Strike: The Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor (Lyons Press, 2006), reproduces many original documents about the formation of the 1st and 2nd AVG. For more about the 2nd AVG, see the Annals of the Flying Tigers. British squadrons: AMISSCA 30 Nov 1941; Pawley, Americans Valiant; Alsop author interview. Rush organization: Chennault papers 52.

How we should maneuver: U.S. 79th Congress, Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Hearings (GPO, 1949) 5433. Currie's shipments: Chennault papers 19; Hopkins papers 305. Census of planes and pilots: AVG archives 7.

5 - "Flaming Till Hell Won't Have It"

Japanese activities in Burma are based on the accounts in JDA, Nanpo shinko rikugun koku sakusen (Asagumo Shimbunsha, 1970), translated with Miyuki Rogers; and Umemoto Hiroshi, Burma Kokusen Jyo, I, (Dai Nippon Kaiga, 2003), translated with Difei Zhang. 64th Senati: Izawa Yasuho in Aero Album Summer 1970, Fall 1971. Imperial wild eagles: JT&A 5 Jan 1941. Invasion force: Yamaguchi Shiro, "Malaya Invasion Naval Operations" (JM 107, 1959). All the planes: Kato Tateo's diary in JT&A 25 Jul 1942. War preparations: USBS, Japanese Air Power (GPO, 1946); Tomiokia Sadatoshi, "Political Strategy Prior to Outbreak of War" (JM 144, 146, 147, 150, 152, 1952-53). 682 warplanes: Hata Ikuhiko et al, Japanese Army Air Force Fighter Units and Their Aces, 1931-1945 (Grub Street, 2002) 28. It occurred to me: Kato diary.

Somebody ran in: R.T. Smith, Tale of a Tiger 144. Rushing up and down: Greenlaw 2010, 55. Also Chennault, Fighter 122; Group War Diary at AFHRC; Robert Keeton diary, Pistole collection. Suggest moving: Chennault papers 18. Everyone was togged: Greenlaw 2010, 56.

Hong Kong: Alsop author interview. Wake Island: Currie's cover letter to Fairbank ms. An American task force: Secretary's File 37, FDR Library. Also Chou Chih-jou letter 1941, Chennault papers 18; Currie memos, Hopkins papers 305 and 331.

He was knocked: Larry Moore & Ken Sanger in Cosmopolitan Aug-Sept 1942. Also see Hill & Schaupp 104. This was a true: Group War Diary at AFHRC 10 Dec. No aircraft reporting: Chennault papers 18. Understanding: Brook-Popham, loc cit. Also British General Staff, ABDACOM (Gov't of India, 1942). After landing: R.T. Smith 148. Also 3rd Sq log. Disposition of Tomahawks: Group War Diary at AFHRC 13 Dec; Shilling, Destiny 105.

The damnedest rat race: "Activities of Third Pursuit Squadron" (31 Dec 1941), Pistole collection. Mergui raid: Kasuya Toshio, Yamamoto jubakugetai no eiko (Futami Shobo, 1970) 62; RAF 67 Sq log at PRO, AIR 602-603. Bad day: 3rd Sq log.

RAF strafe: Christopher Shores & Brian Cull with Yasuho Izawa, Bloody Shambles I: The Drift to War to the Fall of Singapore (Grub Street, 1992) 241. With its successor volume, this is an indispensable resource about British Commonwealth air operations in Southeast Asia.

Induction: FRUS 1941 IV, 745. Brigadier general: AMISSCA 12 Dec. If Chennault: Hopkins papers 135, FDR Library. Chennault to Madame: Chennault papers 18.

Move to Kunming: Bond & Anderson 55-58; C. Joseph Rosbert, Flying Tiger Joe (privately printed, 1985) 73; Greenlaw 2010, 64-65; Frillmann, China 91; Rector author interview. Raid on Kunming: Izawa Yasuho & Hata Ikuhiko, Nihon rikugun sentokitai (Kantosha, 1977) 73. The streets were strewn: Fritz Wolf & Douglas Igells in Air Trails Pictorial Oct 1942. We are driving: R.M. Smith, With Chennault 35. Were hard-drinking: Gerhard Neumann, Herman the German (Morrow, 1984) 80-81. Neumann became an American citizen and a GE engineer and executive of such note that a street in Beijing is named for him.

Inside the dank: Don Whelpley in Ex-CBI Roundup May 1989. It's strange: James Cross in Mechanix Illustrated Dec 1942. Capt. Fujii: Suzuki Goichi television interview 1992, thanks to Frank Christopher. It turned out: Rodewald diary. Single tail: Group War Diary.

A small fellow, etc: Bond & Anderson 63. It only took a sneeze: Baisden, Flying Tiger to Air Commando 37. I rolled: Bond & Anderson 61. My man was: Wolf & Igells in Air Trails Pictorial. There was the Jap: Cross in Mechanix Illustrated. I tensed myself: Rosbert, Flying Tiger Joe 75-76. Get that goddamned: Rector author interview. Three Lilys shot down: Suzuki interview. I didn't even know: Neale Columbia interview. We had the battle Suzuki interview. Chinese reports: Group War Diary 20 and 25 Dec.

Soon we heard: Rospert, Flying Tiger Joe 77. The Old Man: Whelpley. Blood for the Tigers: Time 29 Dec 1941. Origin of Flying Tiger name: Chennault papers 43; Corcoran, "Pacific Wars"; Byrd 136 (for Soong); Joan Corcoran author interview 1992 (for David Corcoran, her late husband, hence the closest testimony to the event).

Chapters 6-11

Buy the ebook

Amazon.com - other Amazon stores

Apple iBooks - Barnes & Noble - Google Play - Kobo

Other online stores and subscription services

Buy the paperback

Amazon.com - other Amazon stores

Barnes & Noble

Get a signed copy from the author ($20 by Media Mail to a US address)

Or order from your bookstore, using the ISBN 0692734732 (perhaps with a surcharge)

Buy the hardcover

Amazon.com

Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Back to front page | Chapters 6-11 | Chapters 12-18 | Order of Battle tables & maps