By December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor Day, the AVG was operational in Burma. It is fascinating to ponder that this small, mercenary force from America was already engaging Japan – on behalf of The Republic of China – just prior to Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt’s subsequent declaration of war on Japan.
The initial reception in Washington to the proposed AVG in 1939/40 was decidedly cool; only direct and intense lobbying by Gen. Chennault and others finally convinced President Roosevelt to endorse the idea. As small as the AVG mobilization was (one-hundred P-40 Tomahawk aircraft and three-hundred pilots and ground crew), Roosevelt surely foresaw the coming conflict with Japan and must have concluded that this initial, although indirect, mobilization of U.S. airpower would prove useful in kick-starting any future U.S. engagements.
There was even an early proposal that the AVG be used to directly bomb Japan as opposed to being limited to the defensive role of keeping open China’s access to the sea. By early 1941, it was clear that creating the landing strips necessary to reach Japan from China/Burma was not feasible given the Chinese defensive posture. In 1941, it had been many years since airpower first made its battle-field debut in World War I, and the airplane had become dramatically more sophisticated since then. There was much to be learned about mobilizing air power in 1941, and the AVG was to prove invaluable in that respect.
As was true in the contemporary Battle of Britain where outnumbered pilots of the RAF (Royal Air Force) performed heroically in the skies above England to save the homeland from the German Luftwaffe, the AVG Flying Tigers routinely were outnumbered in sky by odds typically three-to-one in favor of Japan.
reasonandreflection.wordpress.com
The initial reception in Washington to the proposed AVG in 1939/40 was decidedly cool; only direct and intense lobbying by Gen. Chennault and others finally convinced President Roosevelt to endorse the idea. As small as the AVG mobilization was (one-hundred P-40 Tomahawk aircraft and three-hundred pilots and ground crew), Roosevelt surely foresaw the coming conflict with Japan and must have concluded that this initial, although indirect, mobilization of U.S. airpower would prove useful in kick-starting any future U.S. engagements.
There was even an early proposal that the AVG be used to directly bomb Japan as opposed to being limited to the defensive role of keeping open China’s access to the sea. By early 1941, it was clear that creating the landing strips necessary to reach Japan from China/Burma was not feasible given the Chinese defensive posture. In 1941, it had been many years since airpower first made its battle-field debut in World War I, and the airplane had become dramatically more sophisticated since then. There was much to be learned about mobilizing air power in 1941, and the AVG was to prove invaluable in that respect.
As was true in the contemporary Battle of Britain where outnumbered pilots of the RAF (Royal Air Force) performed heroically in the skies above England to save the homeland from the German Luftwaffe, the AVG Flying Tigers routinely were outnumbered in sky by odds typically three-to-one in favor of Japan.
The Flying Tigers: A Storied Chapter in Wartime Aviation
The story of aviation is peppered with great challenges, significant milestones, and heroic individuals who made history while advancing the notion of human flight. I have written about some of the…
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