Strana 55
David L. Hill, 2
nd
FS, AVG, 14th AF, Kuomintang, China, May 1942
ET795, 1Lt. Clay Tice, Jr, 9
th
FS, 49
th
FG, Port Moresby, New Guinea, 1942
David Lee “Tex” Hill was the most successful
ace of the Chennault’s Flying Tigers (American
Volunteer Group) as he downed 12,25 Japanese
aircraft and destroyed two on the ground.
He added six more plus four aircraft damaged
after he entered the service with USAAF,
becoming a triple fighter ace. Young David
Hill and another boy paid local pilot Marion
P. Hair to give them a ride in his Travel Air 4000
aircraft and was so impressed that he enlisted
in the Navy after graduating from Austin College
in 1938. He earned his Naval Aviator wings in
November 1939 and flew TBD Devastators and
SB2U Vindicators. In 1941 he resigned from
Navy to join the 1st American Volunteer Group
(AVG) and he learned to fly P-40 in the AVG
training program in Burma. Shortly afterwards
he became Flight Leader of the 2nd PS (the
“Panda Bears”) and then squadron CO. After the
AVG was disbanded Hill entered the USAAF and
after he was cured of malaria and dysentery
in USA, he took command of the 23rd FG on
November 4, 1943. Back in USA at the end of
1944 he served as CO of 412th FG flying P-80 jets
from September 1945. He resigned from USAF in
June 1946 but joined Texas Air National Guard
and was appointed Brigadier General. He died
at the age of 92 on October 11, 2007. His P-40E
from the time of flying with AVG sported Chinese
national insignias, which were painted over the
original US insignias. The fuselage ones were
overpainted in unspecified dark green color
and the fuselage sported painting of the typical
mascot of the “Flying Tigers”.
A long serving fighter pilot on two theaters
of operations, Pacific and Europe, he did not
achieve the status of fighter ace, as he earned
only three aerial victories, but he became
famous as one of two first Americans putting
their foot on the Japanese soil. It happened on
August 25, 1945, when, on a sweep mission to
Kyushu, Tice landed his P-38 on Nittagahara
airfield as he accompanied another pilot who
was short of fuel. Clay Tice, Jr. Served a tour
with the 49th FG in the Pacific early in the war,
flying P-39, next came a combat tour as CO of
the 507th FS, 404th FG in Europe. Later he went
back to the 49th FG as CO of the group starting
from July 16, 1945. All his aircraft bore the
name Elsie, this P-40E from his first time with
49th FG was no exception. The nose was adorned
with the skull and the axe motif. The bottom
surfaces, originally in Sky color, were repainted
dark gray, probably Neutral Gray. During the
repainting process of the Warhawks of 49th FG
received in the RAF camouflage, also the nose
cone in the Sky was repainted. Again, the gray
of undersurfaces was probably used.
KITS 02/2026
INFO Eduard
55
February 2026