Flying Tigers was the nickname for the American Volunteer Group (AVG), a small force of pilots from the United States who fought for the Chinese Air Force against Japan during World War II (1939-1945). The noses of the AVG’s P-40 Tomahawk fighter planes were painted with the mouth of a tiger shark.
Japan invaded China in 1937. Retired U.S. Army Air Corps Captain Claire L. Chennault formed the AVG in 1941. President Franklin Roosevelt gave 100 Army, Navy, and Marine pilots permission to resign their commissions and join the AVG in an effort to help the Chinese defend themselves from Japanese bombing. Three squadrons of Flying Tigers fought in the skies above China and Burma (now Myanmar) until July 1942, when they were incorporated into the U.S. Army Air Force. In its 28 weeks of combat, the AVG was credited with the destruction of nearly 300 Japanese planes. Fourteen Flying Tiger pilots were killed in action.
