Bridge Over the Salween River
Text: Jan Bobek
Illustration: Adam Tooby
Cat. No. 82241
The Flying Tigers, officially known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), need little introduction. Founded by retired U.S. Army officer Claire L. Chennault, who had been active in China since the late 1930s, the unit was composed of around one hundred volunteer pilots drawn from the Army Air Corps, Navy, and Marine Corps. In 1941, Chennault managed to secure Curtiss P-40B fighters for the unit, which had been established to support Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression.
Chennault originally planned to create three separate units, including a bomber unit, but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor abruptly changed those intentions. The AVG was thrown into action, and between December 20, 1941, and early July 1942, its pilots claimed nearly 300 aerial victories over China and Burma.
Their opponents were aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. Enemy fighters included the Ki-27 and Ki-43-I, which the Americans frequently misidentified as the more famous Zero. While the Japanese dominated other parts of Asia and the Pacific, the Flying Tigers achieved notable early successes, quickly becoming darlings of the Allied press. However, their independent status made them a source of frustration for the U.S. Army Air Forces, which pushed to integrate them into its own command structure. This led to tense negotiations between Chennault, Chinese authorities, and the U.S. military. Discipline within the unit was also a recurring issue.
Most readers associate the Flying Tigers with the iconic P-40B Tomahawk, but somewhat overlooked is the P-40E Kittyhawk, which AVG operated during the final three months of its existence.
By the end of 1941, 50 P-40Es originally intended for the U.S. Army Air Forces were reassigned to the AVG. These aircraft were loaded aboard the cargo ship Ferne Glen and shipped in disassembled form to West Africa, where they were to be reassembled by American personnel and flown the rest of the way to China. By the time the new aircraft were expected to arrive, the AVG was already scheduled to be restructured as the 23rd Fighter Group.
The volunteers collected the new fighters in Accra, present-day Ghana. The first four Kittyhawks arrived in Kunming, China, on March 22, 1942, flown by George McMillan, the legendary R.T. Smith, Paul Greene, and Link Laughlin. The aircraft bore Chinese national insignia and shark-mouth nose art, with guns harmonized at 300 yards.
The pilots welcomed the stronger armament and more powerful engine, but they soon discovered a drawback: during recovery from a dive, the aircraft had a tendency to continue descent even when the nose had already come above the horizon.
The new P-40Es saw combat for the first time on April 8, 1942, during a Japanese raid on the Loiwing airfield. Around noon, the alarm was sounded. RAF Hurricanes from No. 17 Squadron, AVG Tomahawks, and three Kittyhawks flown by Oley Olson, Ken Jernstedt, and Bob Little scrambled to intercept. They faced roughly a dozen Hayabusa fighters from the elite 64th Hikō Sentai, led by the famed Colonel Takeo Kato himself.
The Japanese succeeded in destroying one Blenheim, one P-40E, and damaging another Kittyhawk on the ground, but suffered in the air, losing four aircraft and their pilots. Among the dead was Captain Katsumi Anma, commander of the 3rd Chūtai, with 12 aerial victories to his name. The chaotic nature of the fight led AVG pilots to be credited with 12 kills.
By spring 1942, mixed formations of Tomahawks and Kittyhawks were frequently tasked with ground-attack missions against targets such as airfields, convoys, cargo ships, and bridges. One of the pilots involved in these missions was the commander of the AVG's 2nd Squadron, David Lee "Tex" Hill. On April 12, 1942, flying a P-40E, Hill opened his score with the destruction of two bombers on the ground at the Toungoo airfield. At the time, he was already an ace with five aerial victories. Later that month, he scored a quarter-share in a bomber kill and downed two Zeros. In May, he added another Zero to his tally, and on July 6, north-west of Canton, he recorded the AVG’s penultimate victory, shooting down a fixed-gear Japanese fighter.
The subject of Adam Tooby’s boxart is a mission led by “Tex” Hill on May 7, 1942, targeting a Japanese pontoon bridge across the Salween River. The bridge was part of a Japanese effort to move troops and supplies into China. To stop them, Hill led a flight of four P-40Es in a bombing and strafing run against Japanese positions in a canyon over a mile deep. Over the next four days, AVG pilots carried out continuous sorties into the canyon, effectively neutralizing Japanese forces. From that day forward, the Japanese never advanced beyond the west bank of the Salween. Reflecting on the significance of these missions, Claire Chennault later wrote: "The American Volunteer Group had staved off China's collapse on the Salween."