Flying Tigers
group of American military pilots who flew for the Republic of China Air Force in 1941-42 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Flying Tigers were a group of American fighter pilots from the United States Army Air Force, the United States Navy, and the United States Marine Corps. The group was commanded by Claire Lee Chennault.
The Flying Tigers are well known for things. Their airplane paint had a shark face on the sides.[1] Also, they fought hard during the war. President Franklin D. Roosevelt found them good.[2]
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History
In 1937, Claire Lee Chennault retired from the American military and became the military advisor to China. He looked at the Chinese Air Force and saw that it was too bad to not fight its enemy, Japan. In 1938, Chennault was going to make the Flying Tigers. In late 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Flying Tigers started fighting Japan.[2]
The airplane that they used was the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. There were about 100 of those fighter aircraft. They could not turn with the Japanese fighters, such as the A6M Zero, the Ki-43 Oscar, and the Ki-27 Nate. However, the P-40 was tough, had more guns, and was faster in a dive.[3]
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List of flying aces
The following are flying aces from the Flying Tigers, with their air-to-air victory credits in alphabetical order:[4]
- Percy Bartelt (5.0)
- William Bartling (5.0)
- Charles Bond (7.0)
- George Burgard (10.0)
- Robert Hedman (6.0)
- David Lee "Tex" Hill (10.25)
- Frank Lawlor (7.0)
- Robert Little (10.0)
- William McGarry (8.0)
- Robert Neale (13.0)
- John Newkirk (7.0)
- Charles Older (10.0)
- Edmund Overend (5.0)
- Robert Prescott (5.5)
- Joseph Camille Rosbert (6.0)
- Richard Rossi (6.0)
- Robert Sandell (5.0)
- Robert H. Smith (5.0)
- Robert T. Smith (8.9 kills)
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References
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