General Chennault

Born in Texas in 1893, Claire Lee Chennault was to play a crucial part in China’s struggle against Japanese occupation during the 1940’s. His successes would not only win him the respect of the Chinese people, but also change the history of air warfare.

Originally a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, he was forced to retire when he was 44 years old because of poor health and a stubborn insistence that fighter planes should be used to intercept incoming bombers – something that ran counter to the military wisdom of the day. Madame Chiang Kai-shek, however, had faith in Chennault, and in 1937 she recruited him to train and advise the newly formed Chinese Air Force.

Not long after he arrived in China, war against the Japanese broke out and Chennault’s theories were put to the test. In early missions his planes performed well against unescorted Japanese bombers, but the Japanese responded quickly by sending out cutting-edge fighters. Chennault’s rickety biplanes were no match for the agile Mitsubishi A5M; and so together with the rest of Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces, they were forced to retreat 2,000 miles up the Yangtze River from Nanjing to Chongqing.

They could do nothing but wait: China needed modern aircraft. Negotiations with Washington eventually led to the purchase of 100 P-40B fighter planes; the final consignment would reach Burma, where Chennault had established his “American Volunteer Group,” in November 1941. The volunteers were drawn from the American military or were former military flyers. The pilots were paid between US $250 to 750 a month, plus a US $500 bounty for each plane they destroyed.

December would see the beginning of a remarkable series of victories for the American pilots forming the AVG. In one of their first battles over Kunming they shot down at least three enemy bombers and gave hope to the beleaguered residents of the city. Time magazine, celebrating this first victory of the Pacific War, dubbed the volunteers “Flying Tigers.”

There was more to come. Chiang needed to keep supplies moving along the Burma Road, and dispatched Chennault’s Third Squadron to defend Rangoon. Over Christmas 1941, the “Flying Tigers” shot down 23 of Japan’s best combat planes without a single loss. The elite Japanese 64th Sentai had never before been matched, and the psychological impact of the defeat was tremendous – three small squadrons were slowing the Japanese advance and challenging hitherto undisputed air superiority.

Chennault’s AVG was disbanded in July 1942, but he was quickly appointed commander of the U.S. Army’s 14th Air Force. He fought on until the end of the war, leading his group to destroy an estimated 2,600 planes and 44 warships by July 1945. When he left China in August, hundreds of thousands of Chinese rallied on the streets of Chongqing to pay their tributes.

Succumbing to lung cancer on July 27, 1958, he was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Chennault International Airport in Louisiana commemorates his exceptional contributions to aviation.