Legendary airmen of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) that fought with GREAT distinction in the Chinese Air Force in 1941 and 1942. Their names alone recall their self-sacrifice and heroism - Smith, Boyington, Newkirk, Hill, Neale, Jernstedt, Little - and many other. This tiny band took on the entire Japanese Air Force in Southeast Asia and inflicted losses on the Japanese completely out of scale with the size of the AVG.
The AVG never had more than 55 combat aircraft capable of flight and never had more than 70 trained pilots at any time in their 7 months of service. The AVG lost ONLY 8 pilots while being paid bonuses for 286 Japanese aircraft shot down and officially confirmed as "kills". Many other Japanese "probables" littered the jungle floor but lacked the needed confirmation. Twenty-nine Tigers became AVG aces, led by RH Neale with 16 kills. Thirty-three were awarded the Chinese Order of the Cloud Banner for bravery and combat achievement.
These men were a breed apart!
A few volunteers from the Army, Navy and the Marine Corps, they fought for justice, glory and money according to their own priorities. But they lived life right to the edge whether it was in the "Silver Grill Bar" in Rangoon or in the cockpits of their P-40 Tomahawk fighters.
Now, you can get the insignia that the
Flying Tigers wore with "justifiable pride".
Many of the most valuable surviving mementos of the Flying Tigers of the AVG are the small pieces of distinctive insignia that each member wore with justifiable pride. And now, you can own perfect, authentic copies of Flying Tiger insignia for a fraction of the cost of originals.
 IMPORTANT NOTE: We have recently been contacted by the granddaughter of the great American patriot Gen. Chennault of Flying Tiger fame. They are interested in reducing their extensive collection of historical Flying Tiger AVG items. You can contact them directly at rbtr@iopener.net .
Enjoyed you web site very much. Marty and I have a very large collection of material on The Flying Tigers and Gen. Chennault. Over three hundred books about the AVG Flying Tigers-Chennault. 10,000 newspaper and magazine articles-500 photos, many taken in China. We are wanting to down size our collection-too much-do you ever have contact with anyone that may be interested in purchasing some of our material to start or add to a collection? My wife is the grand daughter of Gen. Chennault.
Most of the family members on our side have their own collections and do not need any of our material. Some of our material is at Warner Robins Air Force base in Macon-GA. Gen. Chennault's flight jacket is at the Smithsonian and a very sore subject with us. My late father in law Max Chennault thought he had loaned the jacket and they say it was a donation-have had a eight year battle to get it back but probably will not happen. Another gem I have-I think-is the complete set of grand fathers papers from 1941-67-includes China, air force, Avg, Flying Tigers, orders, citations, U.S. Army Air Force, CTAF, 14th Af Office files-post war 1945-67-a lot of material-thanks for your help."
Thank you
Robert B.T. Rogers
Martha Chennault Rogers
You can contact them directly at rbtr@iopener.net .
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FLYING TIGERS AVG
