Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group in Burma and China, 1941-1942

Tex Barrick in the defense of Burma

Reading the diaries of the Flying Tigers in Burma, it's astounding at how long it took them 464 Što realize that most of the Royal Air Force pilots serving alongside them weren't "Limeys" as they had believed. The first such mention I can find is by Charlie Bond, who encountered some Brewster Buffalo pilots at Magwe toward the end of February 1942. "What I thought were RAF men actually are New Zealand pilots," Bond wrote of RAF 67 Squadron on March 1. "Good guys, and very much like Americans." (And in fact they were "RAF men." They'd been trained in the RNZAF, but in Burma they were serving in a Royal Air Force squadron.)

And apparently no Tiger ever noticed that there were also five Americans in RAF 17 Squadron, flying Hurricanes at Rangoon, Magwe, and across the border at Loiwing when the Allied air force retreated into China. One of the most notable, and a decorated British ace as a result of his combat alongside the AVG, was John Frederick Barrick, whom his squadron mates of course called "Tex." It's a great story, which I wish I had pieced together long ago. Blue skies! Read it here. — Daniel Ford

A 'Special Air Unit' for China:

'Procurement of Personnel for China': the Navy memos
Recruiting the 1st AVG: Bruce Leighton's memo
Recruiting the 2nd AVG: the Chennault-Soong cables
Greg Boyington resigns from the Marine Corps
Sergeant Charland Down Under
Bob Klemann signs on to fly a Lockheed Hudson for China
Another chaplain? 'Jimmy' Stewart's odd story (Time magazine)
FDR orders the navy to release men for the 3rd AVG
Six B-25s for Chennault, bombing Lashio en route
Lauchlin Currie: a spy at the heart of the AVG?
Meet Olga and Harvey Greenlaw
About those 'engineering helpers'
See also the Annals of the Chinese Air Force

The Tigers forge a legend:

Questions you asked: the Flying Tigers FAQ
Roster of the 1st American Volunteer Group
Lacy Mangleburg writes home from Hamilton Field
'Your resignation is accepted' (George Burgard's scrapbook)
'He has crashed up three planes in the first week'
AVG fliers who crashed in U.S. Army service
An AVG identification card
Lew Bishop writes home from Burma
Three who died: the graves of St. Luke's
Status of the AVG at the outbreak of war
Layout of Mingaladon airport, Rangoon, December 1941
Aircraftman Wilf Jepson of the AVG
Bob Neale in Rangoon (from his diary)
'What Odds They Faced in Burma's Sky!'
Jack Newkirk, down in Thailand
On the tactics used by AVG pilots (Erik Shilling)
Bert Christman: life imitating art (Andrew Glaess)
Greg 'Pappy' Boyington, Flying Tiger
Arnold Shamblin writes home from Yunnan-yi
Melvin Woodward's memories of the AVG
Some of the lads at Kunming (Clare Boothe Luce's photo)
AVG pilot losses, December 1941 - July 1942
AVG victory credits, air and ground
Nineteen Flying Tiger aces

The P-40 files:

Joe Baugher's articles on the small-mouthed Curtiss models
Pilot's Notes for the AVG Tomahawk
A Russian view of the P-40 Tomahawk
100 Hawks for China: the planes shipped to Rangoon
Assembling and testing P-40s in Burma (Byron Glover)
On spinning the Curtiss fighters (Erik Shilling)
Number 80 does a ground loop at Toungoo
Christman's nose art for the 2nd Squadron Tomahawks
R.T. Smith's iconic photo of Tomahawks on patrol
Is this Tomahawk Number 23?
Some AVG 'veterans' in Kunming, c. 1943
About those small-mouthed P-40 survivors
Mac McGarry's Tomahawk in Thailand
Recovering that P-40 from Lake Kunming

The Bill Pawley files:

Bill Pawley and the Flying Tigers
Mamie Porritt finds Shangri-la at Loiwing
The CAMCO/AVG factory and airfield at Loiwing
Layout of the CAMCO operation
The fall of Loiwing, April 1942

Books, movies, comics:

The Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers
The Lady and the Tigers
Remains: A Story of the Flying Tigers
Tales of the Flying Tigers
An AVG bibliography
A short guide to AVG films, past and present
Wow! Bam! Les Tigres Volants

A good myth never dies:

Tex Barrick: a British ace in the defense of Burma
The Avgas Story (Richard Dunn)
In Search of Moon Chen
Anna Chan Chennault, 1923-2018
The journey of three Tigers, from Toungoo to the Punchbowl Cemetery
John Armstrong comes home, 76 years after leaving it
Billy McDonald, the Hawk 75, and Chennault's combat victories
Ajax Baumler, the 100th Flying Tiger
No, sorry, the AVG never met the Zero in combat
Did the RAF 'sell' victories to the AVG?
1,500 planes shot down? The ultimate AVG myth
Chris Shores on the subject of AVG victory claims
Ed McClure: The Last Flying Tiger Ace (Zeke Striker)
The exfiltration of Mac McGarry (Bob Bergin)
The strange journey of "Little Olson"
Not a Tiger: an imposter 'fesses up
The two Ray Whiteheads of the CAF and the AVG
What about that 'phantom P-40' shot down in China?
It's official: the AVG fought for the U.S.
The multiple weddings of Olga Greenlaw
Harvey Greenlaw in Baja: a friend remembers
Erik Shilling, off on his last flight
Hostel Number One and the Hump Bar, Kunming
Tiger Yee of Aurora, Colorado
Preserving the Flying Tiger Heritage (Bob Bergin)
Heroes—but were they legal? (Richard Dunn)
A ghostly airfield in Yunnan province (Bob Bergin)

Question? Comment? Newsletter? Send me an email. Blue skies! — Daniel Ford

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