taraross-1787: This Day in History: The Flying TigersOn this day in 1942, the Flying Tigers begin th
taraross-1787: This Day in History: The Flying TigersOn this day in 1942, the Flying Tigers begin their last official mission. The unit formally known as the First American Volunteer Group had been flying for mere months, but its reputation was already one for the ages: In roughly 50 aerial battles, it was never defeated.Perhaps more importantly to some Americans, the Flying Tigers struck the first blow at the Japanese in the wake of Pearl Harbor.“Years before American soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy,” author Sam Kleiner writes, “or raised the flag on Iwo Jima, it was Chennault’s Flying Tigers who rallied the country with victories … .”The Flying Tigers were the brain child of former U.S. Army pilot Claire Lee Chennault. He’d been working as a consultant to the Chinese Air Force during the late 1930s, and he saw what the Japanese war machine was doing to the Chinese people: It was ravaging the countryside with bombing campaigns, killing innocents, and capturing major cities.What if a “foreign legion” were created to protect against such attacks? The United States was officially neutral at this juncture, but Chennault sold Franklin D. Roosevelt on the plan anyway. FDR allowed American military pilots to resign their commissions without penalty. They would be free to join the covert effort.The story continues at the link in the comments. -- source link