The Flying Tigers | EPISODE 1 | Amazing Stories Of World War 2 | Curtiss P-40 | Ep. 1
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- Опубликовано: 23 апр 2022
- FLYING TIGERS EPISODE 1/4
MISSIONS THAT CHANGED THE WAR: The Flying Tigers Part 1.
Narrated by Gary Sinise.
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.
As for who would fly and maintain them, many of the pilots in China's existing air force were poorly trained. So Chennault sent recruiters to U.S. military bases.
"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,".
This was mid-1941 - before Pearl Harbor and before the U.S. declared war on Japan.
My dad witnessed the horror of Pearl Harbor firsthand. But his letters never let on
HISTORY
My dad witnessed the horror of Pearl Harbor firsthand. But his letters never let on
"By using Chinese funds to buy the aircraft and supplies and pay the salaries of the proposed crews, the U.S. government could retain a façade of neutrality, while helping China against the Japanese," the Department of Defense's history of the Flying Tigers explained.
To make recruitment easier, pilots and mechanics were offered pay that was often more than double what they were making before.
So in summer and fall of 1941, 99 pilots - 59 from the Navy, seven Marines, and 33 from the Army - traveled to Asia, along with about 200 support crew, according to the DOD's history. About a dozen of them were Chinese Americans, says Yue-him Tam, a Macalester College history professor who studies China and Japan.
PART 1 available at: • The Flying Tigers | EP...
PART 2 available at: • The Flying Tigers | EP...
PART 3 available at: • The Flying Tigers | EP...
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Thanks for posting this. My father fought with these men. He was not an original AVG pilot but got assigned to the Army Air Corps wing that supported them. He was a tail gunner is all I know. (Found medals when I was a kid, no clue what they were for).
He also had the famous flight jackets with the blood chit in his closet.
..He NEVER spoke of it to anyone. He went on to be well respected in his field. His colleagues had no clue he served with The Flying Tigers...
All my mother said was he didn't like to think of buddies that got shot down.
She shared he DID say Chennault was a good man and great leader.
GREATEST Generation indeed.
👍♥️🙏🇺🇸
The full 4 parts documentary is now available as well.
I’m Canadian. Many thanks and respects to all who fought for our freedom.
To those who served and are serving, THANK YOU!!!!
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These were true American hero's people the likes of which you'll never see again may God bless them and keep them
❤
Very entertaining, I cant wait for part two. Thank you. 🇺🇸
I was fortunate to have made friends with Major Jim "Longburst'" Dumas. His nick-name was given to him by Chennault. Jim was involved in a fight above the base, where Chennault and others saw/heard the engagement from down below.
Later that day or the next, in a meeting with Chennault and the other pilots Chennault asked who was above, giving the long bursts. Shyly, Jim raised his hand. From the on, Longburst.
Major Dumas told me he was the first uniformed pilot to join the AVG/Flying Tigers outfit.
Back then, he bought a video camera and filmed himself and the boys during their downtime, and whatnot. He gave me his film copy to put on DVD. The original film has no audio, but many years later, Major Dumas recorded audio over it.
I asked Jim if he would allow me show people if ever I felt like it and he approved.
At minimum, what I wish I could do is share it with the family members.
This film has never been seen publicly.
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In the late 1980's, on a business trip to China, I met with local officials at the Kunming Airport. I was told that the briefing room we used was the briefing room used by the Flying Tigers. Still there. STILL being used.
Wow! 🙂
Truly, The Greatest Generation!
👍👍👍🙂
Unbelievable weaving of so many separate histories coming together in one monumental history changing battle. Thank you. Great work.
🙏🙏♥️
PART 2: ruclips.net/video/VZ9TpX6s2wM/видео.html
More Aviation Icons @ ruclips.net/p/PLBI4gRjPKfnNx3Mp4xzYTtVARDWEr6nrT
Definitely the greatest
Well done 👍
Lt. Dan talking about WW2
If you like this kind of aviation history, read "God is my Copilot". written by Robert Lee Scott jr. He as one of the pilots of the Flying Tigers in Burma. It's a great read about what it was like flying and fighting in the P-40 in China.
Col Boyington was with the Hell's Angels before he went to the Solomon Islands and the Black Sheep.
@@williammitchell4417 actually, Pappy was with the Flying Tigers before his VMF 214 tour of duty.
amazing story and true heroes.
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35:24 - TP-40N (1944), at Fantasy of Flight, Polk City (between Orlando and Tampa, on Interstate 4 - Kermit Weeks calls Fantasy of Flight's location "Orlampa"), Florida. I believe there were only a couple factory-built two seater P-40s. This is one.
May 9, 2022---Use to drive truck and one of our yards wasn't that far from Fantasy of Flight's museum. WELL worth checking out. They have a WW 1, full size trench w/dummies to look at and a non-flyable B-17 that you can go inside to see for examples.
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Some p40 pilots and wasps trained at a airbase that was put in here near Dothan Alabama called Napier field it’s now Dothan airport but the town is still there and city hall is the old base main building from ww2. Some of the old barracks are still there I believe
Actually the Japanese handed us arguably the worst night since the Battle of the Java Sea after Midway when a task force of Cruisers commanded by Admiral Mikawa snuck into Guadalcanal sound between the pickets and sank one Australian and three American cruisers. Allied dead totaled 1,023 during the "Battle of Savo Island." .Another surface ship victory for the IJN at The Battle of Tassafaronga. That's not counting Santa Cruz which could arguably be called a tactical victory and strategic disaster for the IJN because of the aircrew losses in sinking USS Hornet and causing USS Enterprise to quit the battle as our only capital carrier at the time.
The flying tigers had nice fighter plane and and l like the movie called flying tigers it got John Wayne in in too .
Lieutenant Dan!
Heroes
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Kind of sad that a video about true heroes, ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances, who fought so hard and sacrificed so much to provide the freedoms we all enjoy today, only has 75,000 views, and 44 comments. If Kim Kardashian put out a video called “Flying Jaguars and how they kept Germany from winning the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Revolution” it would have 5 million views and 77,000 comments. That’s the world we unfortunately live in today.
This is part 1. The full documentary that you can find on the channel is doing a lot better 🙂
Is it not amazing just how many of America's allies and nations that they trained in warfare and armed eventually became their enemy!
You mean Korea war?
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A.V.G.
As seen in pearl harbor
VVVVVV.......Thanks US helped china defend invade.
Then Americans ask "Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor." Here is one of the answers. Brave men though.