The Flying Tigers' first combat
Claire Chennault's American Volunteer Group, recruited and equipped before Pearl Harbor under a covert arrangement with President Roosevelt but not yet in combat when the United States entered the war, flew its first mission against Japanese bombers approaching Kunming, downing several with no losses of its own. Flying Curtiss P-40s marked with the shark-mouth nose art borrowed from a British squadron in North Africa, the group was credited with close to 300 Japanese aircraft destroyed for the loss of about a dozen of its own pilots in combat before being…
