The roundrels on the wings of the Flying Tigers represented what/who?
Over
The Chinese air force. (Nationalist Chinese I think)
That is correct [;)] And if you look closely at some of the photos you can see large round areas where the original RAF roundels were painted out. The AVG P-40’'s were originally destined for the RAF and I guess some of them were already wearing their RAF insignia when they left the factory. I’m not sure about exactly when they got the RAF insignia painted on though.
The RAF markings were applied at the factory. I think I remember reading somewhere that only the first 20 ( # 1-20) of the first 99 P40s had this done…
Just a little note… The fusalage # 100 up were all P-40 Es… Most of which were OD and Grey factory finish…
Makes sense since the RAF production was interrupted for the AVG. Given the intensity of the American people to stay out of WWII I wasn’t sure whether the insignia was added here or when the planes actually got overseas. I could see people seeing planes coming out of American factories with RAF insignia and raising a stink about it.
Are you sure the second block were “E” models? I thought they were “D” but I could be mistaken. I read that the Brits agreed to let the AVG (or more accurately CAMCO) have that production run of 100 in return for 100 “Later Model P-40’s” and I guess I just assumed that they were “D” models.
The roundels represented the Nationalist Chinese headed by Chiang Kai-shek. All of the pilots were American civilians (mainly ex-military like “Pappy” Boyington) hired by Claire Chennault to fight the Japanese. Although the program was put in place before the US entered the war, The AVG did not go into combat until after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
And for all the fame they garnered they were a remarkably short-lived unit. First combat was on December 12, 1941 and were disbanded on July 4, 1942. Less than 7 months. During that time the destroyed 299 Japanese planes with another 153 probables. Quite a feat for people flying planes that were considered to be “Outdated”. MY hat is off to them!
The six P-40’s flown in from Takoradi during March '42 were all P-40E’s. The quickest way to distinguish between the P-40D & P-40E is the wing armament; the Dog had two guns in each wing and the Easy had three.
Fade to Black…
I read somewhere that 100 were sent to China but one was lost the harbor. It fell out of the sling and went to the bottom and was never retreaved.
Yup. Not only that, but the AVG lost a whole bunch more in accidents during the next two-three months while the pilots were learning to transition to the P-40.
I think at top strength, the AVG had about 60 planes, but don’t quote me on that.
Here’s one of the best places to get information on the Flying Tigers:
http://www.danford.net/avg.htm
Edit: I was right. This page, http://www.danford.net/status.htm, shows the total strength on Dec. 2, 1941 to be:
Total Airplanes in commission 62
Total Airplanes out Commision 17
Total Airplanes 79
Total Airplanes equipped with radio 60
Total Airplanes equipped with armament 60
Regards,