Customer Reviews

Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Daniel Ford has done something that took more than a little moral courage. The American Volunteer Group, aka "The Flying Tigers," have acquired mythic status in the annals of American arms. Ford has gone back to the roots of the myth, to what actually happened; and written a compelling, if at times tedious, history of the Flying Tigers.

He has done an excellent job of placing them in the context of their times. He interviewed a number of surviving Tigers, including the lesser lights of the Group, and told the truth with at best only a little varnish. He provides the specifications of the aircraft used by both sides over China and Burma, and precisely details who was stationed where, when and with how many aircraft of what types, on both sides.

He gives a good look at the interactions between Chennault, Chiang, Madame Chiang, Stilwell and Bissell; and their patrons and enemies back in Washington. How the assorted feuds amongst the principals and their patrons affected the war in the air and on the ground has never been analyzed in quite this way before. One thing I like was that Ford presents the facts as he unearthed them, and leaves it to the reader to draw conclusions as to how things went wrong and what could have been done differently, and who could have done them differently.

Ford brings the myths crashing down in flames. But he then erects a new monument to a group of heroes, some of them reluctant and all with feet of clay, who did the impossible for the ungrateful with almost nothing at all. The reader will, I think, take away an even greater respect for the men (and women) of the American Volunteer Group than he brought to the book before reading.

This one belongs on the bookshelf of all who study World War II and how it brought about the world we live in today.

Briefly, I share the enthusiasm of prior reviewers for this book.

Without repeating them, I'd say what's most important about Ford's work is his weaving in information from the Japanese side, rare in any book on the Pacific war. And it's a delight for those of us who want good history as well as good reading. For instance, air battles are matched unit vs. unit and sometimes pilot vs. pilot.

Along the way, misinformation from prior writings on the AVG is settled. However, at least one prominent AVG veteran attacked the book and Ford himself in a number of magazine articles. But in my reading of this volume, I found no disrespect for the accomplishments of the original Flying Tigers.

This book is essential for understanding the 1941-42 CBI campaign and the AVG. More on this is in other reviews.

The American Volunteer Group was one of the few bright shining moments for Americans at the outset of WW2. American volunteer airmen and aircrew were off in the exotic Orient fighting the Japanese invaders. Claire Chennault, an Air Corps officer who's radical ideas about pursuit fighters got him thrown out of the army, took a band of Navy and Army pilots with little combat experience, flying obsolete aircraft, outfitted with whatever supplies they could get shipped through Rangoon or over the Burma Hump, and turned them into the only fighting force that could use the P-40 effectively against the more-maneuverable Japanese Nates and Oscars. For 7 months the AVG fought Imperial Japan, retreating only when invading ground troops threatened their airfields.

Pearl Harbor was bombed, the US Navy was in shambles, the Phillipines were captured, Guadalcanal was lost, Australia was looking down the barrels of Japanese battleships' cannons, and Europe was pretty much under Hitler's thumb. America's heroes in 1941 were the Flying Tigers.

The book does justice to this band of men and women as well as their opponents in the sky. Easy to read, easy to get caught up in, and a good historical reference as well. I recommend it to all readers of air combat, history, and also those who love tales of adventure.

I'm using this book as a reference source for drafting up missions for the flight simulator "Air Warrior". You can visit my "Air Warrior" homepage for more information on this.

Reading level: high school and up. Pictures are in black and white. Knowledge of history is not important - everything you need to know is explained in the book.

Dan Ford's book on the Flying Tigers is not only fascinating, but factual. I've read just about everything there is on the AVG, including Pappy Boyington's obscure novel, and Ford makes most other work take second place. The story of the AVG is one of the great romantic, adventure stories in American aviation history. And, for the most part, that is how it has been portrayed leaving one to wonder what really happened out there in those skies over China and Burma so long ago? The only criticism I would have is that I am sure there is some things that the author left out, mainly on the mercenary nature of the venture. I wish Ford would do an update to this work which will stand as an important contribution to aviation history.

For all its detail and focus on purely factual data, FLYING TIGERS is an exhilarating ride. Its clinical tone is tempered by an impressive amount of insight into the multitudes of personalities involved with the AVG--often including the Japanese perspective. It's a sprawling book, with mountains of information on every page. This could easily have been a ponderous, heavy-handed account by a detached historian; instead, Ford uses effective language to turn the individual stipples of the story into a fascinating, gradated canvas. It's rare to encounter a work of such vividness by an author whose view is from after the fact, rather than from amid the period of history concerned. Recommended.

Having exchanged some emails with one of the Flying Tigers, I decided to check out this "History of American Aviation" book from the Smithsonian. (Maybe you know that the Tigers didn't like the book.) What a great read. Mr. Ford gives us the real men behind the legend. Combat reports, diaries, military radiograms. He used them all. The result is a history book that reads like a novel. Don't miss it -- Paddy O

Daniel Ford took on a difficult job: cutting through the hype to offer an objective assessment of the Flying Tigers' actual combat performance during their brief existence from late 1941 through mid-1942. Ford carries out this task with pain-staking rigor, sorting through U.S. and Japanese flight reports and other pieces of evidence. His conclusion: The Tigers, mercenary U.S. airmen hired to defend China from Japan, didn't come close to the exploits attributed to them - but did put on an impressive performance against the Japanese air force that vastly outnumbered them, destroying about 115 Japanese planes (not the 296 they were credited). Ford writes well and displays a sense of humor about the absurdities of war and human behavior -- and an empathy for young men fighting in difficult circumstances. But Flying Tigers doesn't rise to greatness because the characters never really come to life. Ford offers such a wide-ranging, chronological account that characters can disappear for 100 pages; when they return, you barely remember them. Not even the Tigers' leader, Claire Chennault, emerges as a full-blooded character. Even so, the Chennault described here is far different from hare-brained opportunist depicted in Barbara Tuchman's magisterial Stilwell and the American Experience in China. In this account, Chennault is an innovative advocate of air power, beloved by his men and constantly forced to defend them from bureaucratic assaults. I'm not sure whether Ford or Tuchman got closer to the truth. But reading this book, at a time when partisanship and hype so often substitute for digging and analysis, you have to admire Ford's effort. You sense you are in the company of a good man, searching for truth even if it means taking a little of the glow off the myth surrounding men he obviously admires.

The very best history of the famous defenders of Burma. Most people don't know that the Flying Tigers did most of their flying and fighting in Burma. They trained at Toungoo, did most of their fighting over Rangoon (Yangon), and retreated to Magwe and Lashio. What an epic! And what a good retelling of it.

An excellent book based on fact about Gen. Chennault and the men and WOMAN that made up the Flying Tigers. Very enjoyable reading and I could hardly put it down.

That question is answered to the joy and satisfaction of every real fan of the flying tigers!!Mr.Ford writes an un bias account of those brave young men of the greatest generation!From the first page you will be hooked on this book!
I thought I knew the story of the flying tigers....by the time I finished reading chapter four,I realized I was just getting to know the real story of the flying tigers!!
If you want to know what these brave men did with so little equipment,re-supplies and replacements....you need to read this book!
never were Mr.Churchill's words so true.
"....so much owed by so many to so few..."


WILL A. NUGENT