AVG & Early U.S. Involvement in WWII

3rd Pursuit Squadron, American Volunteer Group (AVG), Flying Tigers ~ Pilot, China:

Officially the first Americans into War against Japan, the America Volunteer Group was formed with the blessing of the US Government to provide modern aircraft and trained pilots to the National Chinese Air Force. While not lacking in Courage, the Chinese Pilots were fighting with aircraft that just were not on par with those of the Japanese Forces. With the arrival of the AVG, that changed, having brought with the new American Made, P-40 fighter/pursuit aircraft, and the complete staff and mechanics and ground crew to operate them.

Most of the AVG were Navy, Marine, and Army Air Force officers and men who resigned their military commissions or enlistments (with the understanding they would be reinstated) to fight basically as a mercenary force paid by the Chinese government, with bonuses for each Japanese aircraft shot down.

Three squadrons were deployed around China. The 1st Persuit-Squadron with the logo of a stick man chasing a stick woman, on a green apple background known as Adam and Eve”. The 2nd Persuit-Squadron had the logo of a gun-slinger on a Panda-Bear, and the 3rd Persuit-Squadron was a nude, red, Winged-Woman (Angel) called Hells Angles (Possibly from some reference to Howard Hughs WWI Aviation Film).

The entire lot adapted the “Famous” Shark Mouths & Eyes painted to the air-intake of the cowling on their P-40s, it’s said that photograph in Life magazine or the like, had a British P-40, in use with the English in the desert war of North Africa, the RAF was using the making there, and it looked great and given the ok to use it too. The Chinese in the area were not aware of sharks but were of tigers, and as the group’s pilots began to rack up enemy kills, they began calling them the “Flying Tigers”. To this day the '“Flying Tigers” remain legend today even in Communist China.

This 3rd pursuit jacket is based on one worn by a U.S. Navy pilot. He wears the group insignia, with the Walt Disney-designed ‘Flying Tiger’ and one of the many individual designs of the Red Angel. Above the lower pocket flap, are the Chinese Flyers Wings. Carried on the back of the jacket, is what is known as the ‘Blood Chit’ which was to tell the local Chinese population, that he was a friend, and asks them to do all they can to get him back to safety, and the group. The ‘Chit’ is marked with both a small I/D number and a large ‘Chop’ of the Chinese Aeronautics Bureau.

This pilot obtained an Army-issued, khaki cap to which he added the Chinese Nationalist Button, and Wings applied to it. He likely wore a khaki shirt and trousers, with a jacket, and some kind of comfortable short boots. Supply of equipment was tight in all aspects of the AVG, and there was little uniformity during the life of this outfit, so many variations, will be seen in these uniforms, of USN, USMC, and Army, even locally acquired gear.

Disbanded in 1942, most of the pilots and crews were ordered to work with the 14th Air Force. The US. government, not backing their word, threw a wrench into the operations. Some of the men from the Navy and Marines, not wanting to fly with the army, had to find their way home, some went over to the Chinese service, to fly cargo over the hump (the Himalayan Mountains). Some managed to get back to work with their prior branches, but they were disillusioned with the Armed forces, and the Government working them over, many never survived the war.

“NEW” AVG flight jacket:

Note: I bought the jacket with the different caps that came with it, the Chinese caps obviously repro’s. The box photo shows the knick-knack items that were stuck all over the AAF Cap, and I took them off of it, that said, they did come off the cap and had been in 1 fellow’s collection, so this jacket and cap just may have been a veteran from the AVG.

“NEW” Lieutenant, 14th AF, CBI Flight Jacket:

I’ve lost the story, but the jacket depicts one of the pilots who took over the fighting in the CBI after the Tigers were dis-manteled.

(Note: the pictures at the bottom do not necessarily depict the 14th Air Force Aircraft, After the AVG Dissolved and the American Armed Forces took over the fight, many aircraft flowed into the theater. These pictures show some of the US Army-Air Forces Fighter Aircraft they brought. Some of the main types of fighters deployed there were the P-38, P-40, P-47, and the P-51, All were game changers with the Japanese. It started with the P40s, and I think several variants were used, but as they could, and Americans took over the battle, the High-Altitude P38s would often end up on the deck, but using tactics favoring them, the 51s well, carried on as they had over Germany, and the powerful-heavy P47 Jugs would rip things up as air to air fighters, and ground attack, the Army Aircraft often doing the similar roles as the Naval Aircraft fighting with them, in battles over land and sea, with the US. Army Air Forces, Naval, and the Marine Air, as well as the rest of the Allied Forces providing ground and air troops, and many, many planes to the effort, it must have been a bit overwhelming for the Japanese Imperial Forces to deal with, the enemy coming at them from all sides, at the same time.

Flight Officer, Eagle Squadron 1941:

Eagle Squadron was three fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force formed with volunteer pilots from the United States in 1940 before America entered into the war in December 1941.

Before America entered into the War, many US recruits simply crossed the border and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) to learn to fly and fight; including some who had been rejected by the then-peacetime U.S. Army Air Corps.  Some had originally gone to Europe to fight for Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War. 

 Charles Sweeny, a wealthy businessman living in London, began recruiting American citizens to fight as a US volunteer detachment in the French Air Force, echoing the Lafayette Escadrille of the 1914-18 War.  Following the fall of France, a dozen of these recruits joined the RAF.  Sweeny's efforts were also coordinated in Canada by the World War I air ace Billy Bishop and the Clayton Knight Committee and by the time the United States entered the war in December 1941, processed and approved 6,700 applications from Americans to join the RCAF or RAF. Sweeny and his rich society contacts bore the cost (over $100,000) of processing and bringing the US trainees to the UK for training.

The basic requirements for those interested in joining the Eagle Squadron were a high school diploma, being between 20 and 31 years of age, eyesight that was 20/40 correctable to 20/20, and 300 hours of certified flying time. These requirements, except the flight time, were not as strict as those required for service in the U.S. Army Air Corps; a major reason why many of the pilots joined the squadron.

Most Eagle Squadron pilots did not have a college education or prior military experience. Once in the UK, and having passed basic flight training, the newly qualified pilots were sent for advanced operational training to an operational training unit (OTU) for two to four weeks to learn to fly Hurricanes and Spitfires before being commissioned as RAF officers and posted to front-line RAF fighter squadrons.

None 244 volunteers who served with the Eagle Squadron renounced their US citizenship and, although they wore the uniforms and held the rank titles of RAF officers, their dress and duty uniform coats were modified with the Eagle Squadron patch, a white bald eagle flanked by the letters "ES" for Eagle Squadron.

Number 71, 121, & 133 Squadrons formed between September 1940 and July 1941 and existed until 29 September 1942, when they were turned over to the Eight Air Force becoming the 4th Fighter Group.

 “Eagle Squadron” was also a 1942 American war film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Robert Stack, Diana Barrymore, John Loder, Nigel Bruce, & other known American actors based on a story by C.S. Forester that appeared in “Cosmopolitan” magazine.