LF0031 FLYING TIGERS’PILOT WITH A LEOPARD (WWⅡ)

Flying Tiger is a colloquial term for American fighter pilots who fought with the Japanese air force over Burma and China during World War II - initially voluntarily as part of the so-called American Volunteer Group (English abbreviation - AVG), and later within the USAAF. The idea of creating a group of American pilots who would volunteer to fight in Asia was born at the end of 1940, i.e. when the USA was still a neutral country. Despite this, the US government gave the idea silent support and agreed to export 100 P-40C Warhawk planes to China, which were ultimately to be manned by American volunteer pilots from the USAAF, the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The machines, along with their crews, arrived in Burma in the late summer of 1941, and for the first time took part in the battle in December of the same year. The nickname "Flying Tigers" came from the maws of a tiger or - less frequently - a shark painted on the engine covers of the American Volunteer Group's planes. The AVG operated until the summer of 1942, when the unit was disbanded. It is assumed that in the period from December 1941 to the summer of 1942, it destroyed from about 120 to about 300 enemy machines.