Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers: a Bridge Between Two Nations
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Claire Chennault and the Flying Tigers: A Bridge between Two Nations Introduction The general consensus among historians attributes September 1, 1939, when Adolf Hitler began his invasion of Europe, as the start of World War II. Many scholars have discussed and written about this aspect of the war, the European front, as well as the subsequent entrance of the United States to the conflict. In regards to the other side of the world, scholars have generally focused on the Pacific theater as the United States battled Japan until the war’s end on September 2, 1945. However, it is to the west that we will shift our focus, to the massive country of China where the majority of the action takes place. The Second Sino-Japanese War, China’s “World War II,” contributed to the great changes China experienced in the subsequent decades to its political, social, and international image. The actions the United States and China took during the war would establish the basis for the contemporary age of US-China relations. Many of the actions of both these countries can be attributed, at least in part, to one man. Former United States Air Corps Captain Claire Chennault was inspecting the Chinese Air Force on behalf of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek when the Marco Polo Bridge Incident sparked the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937.1 The incident began when Japanese troops on the west side of the Marco Polo Bridge were practicing night maneuvers without permission from the Chinese government, which resulted in shots being fired. Chinese troops stationed in the vicinity became very alarmed and fired back, thinking that they were under attack, and the situation escalated into a full-blown battle. Tensions that had already been building up between Japan and China finally spilled over into war.2 In response to the onset of war, Chennault offered his services to Chiang 1 Claire Chennault, Way of a Fighter (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1949), 38. 2 Duane Schultz, The Maverick War: Chennault and the Flying Tigers (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987), 56. 1 Kai-Shek who gave Chennault the position of chief advisor to the Chinese Air Force.3 Chennault implemented his solid grasp of fighter tactics against the Japanese bombers, which in theory, should have been effective.4 The reality of the situation was that the Chinese Air Force was both undertrained and ill-equipped for war, and thus faced heavy losses against the Japanese forces. As the Chinese Air Force neared its demise, Chiang Kai-Shek sent Chennault and several Chinese officials to the United States to request pilots, supplies, and especially planes. President Roosevelt enacted the Lend-Lease Act and granted Chennault’s requests, in particular helping Chennault secure 100 P-40B planes. With these planes, Chennault would go on to create the First American Volunteer Group (AVG), a group of mercenary pilots that eventually become known as the Flying Tigers. Chennault led the Flying Tigers in air raids against the Japanese, and helped defend strategic points throughout Southeast Asia and western China over the course of the war.5 Chennault would eventually be reinstated to the United States Air Force as a colonel and the Flying Tigers became an official United States military force.6 He also developed a close relationship over the course of the war with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife, Soong May-Ling. Chennault and his Flying Tigers served as a bridge between the United States and China, at a time when the two countries lacked common ground upon which to establish relations. On top of the fortunate timing of Chennault’s presence in China, when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Chennault’s thorough grasp of fighter and anti-bomber tactics proved decisive in helping China establish an effective defense against the Japanese air force. Chiang Kai-Shek also 3 Chennault, 39. 4 Daniel Ford, Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942 (HarperCollins/Smithsonian Books, 2007), 8. 5 Robert Lee Scott, Jr., Flying Tiger: Chennault of China (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1959), 227-228. 6 Ibid., 202. 2 demonstrated no qualms about having a foreigner coordinate the Chinese air force. Chennault would then become an important link when he returned to the United States to request aid, establishing a connection between Chiang and Roosevelt that had tangible qualities. The Flying Tigers resulted from that connection and were a physical manifestation of American lend-lease aid to China. Their role in the war also demonstrated Chiang’s mindset of pushing for American troops in China to fight the Japanese for him so he could focus on the CCP. Beginning from the Flying Tigers’ first combat mission, the eyes of the general publics of both countries were trained on them. The Chinese public recognized and appreciated the significance of having foreigners come to defend their country. The American public admired the Flying Tigers, especially right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor when news of the Tigers’ successes against the Japanese reached stateside. The Flying Tigers became Civil Air Transport after the war ended, and they continued to work as a link to China by providing transport services to the KMT during the Chinese Civil War. Chennault always seemed to walk a fine line in his allegiance to both the Chinese Nationalist government and the United States government. Thanks to Chennault and the Flying Tigers, they spanned the gap that had separated two countries for so long, setting the stage upon which relations could be built. In the greater context of the war itself, we will also shed some light on the state of China and the United States. In China, the armies of both the Kuomintang Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lacked the resources, weaponry, and training to effectively battle against the Japanese invaders. Nevertheless, Chiang Kai-Shek knew that after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, he had to take a stand and show the world that China was willing and 3 capable of fighting a war.7 The next confrontation would take place on August 13, in Shanghai, with Japanese forces hoping to quickly eliminate China’s most industrialized city, and Chiang Kai-Shek, who knew he could not hold the city indefinitely, willing to make a point to the rest of the world. He committed his finest troops, in particular his prized German-trained divisions, to the defense of the city.8 Chiang’s risky maneuver ultimately drew the attention of the United States, which had not yet entered the war but had only spoken against the aggressive actions of Japan and sent supplies to China. The United States finally recognized China as the best bet in combatting the Japanese. In the western hemisphere, as the world broke down into conflict, the United States maintained its isolationist stance through the 1930’s. However, President Franklin Roosevelt was a strong proponent of internationalism, and envisioned China as a future major player on the world scene.9 He also believed that China had the best chance of fighting Japan in the eastern hemisphere. Roosevelt justified the sending of supplies and financial resources to China by pointing out that China and Japan had not yet formally declared war on each other.10 After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States entered World War II and China formally declared war on the Axis two days later. Now that the United States and China had become formal allies and officially involved in the war, Chiang Kai-Shek was appointed Allied commander-in-chief in the China Theater, with the United States’ Joseph Stilwell to be Chiang’s chief of staff and commander of all American forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. Even 7 Chiang Kai-Shek, The Collected Wartime Messages of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. (New York: The John Day Company, 1946), 1:45. 8 Hsi-Sheng Ch’i, Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937-1945, (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982), 44-45. 9 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Foreign Affairs,ed. Donald Schewe, vol. 8, 1937-1939 (New York: Garland Press, 1979), doc. 792. 10 Albert Weeks. Russia’s Life-Save: Lend-Lease Aid to the U.S.S.R in World War II (Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2004). 24. 4 with the American entrance, the war effort in China faced many obstacles, not the least of which included the very sour relationship between Chiang Kai-Shek and Joseph Stilwell. Chiang did not embrace Stilwell’s aggressive strategy of engaging the Japanese head-on; rather, he preferred Claire Chennault’s approach of bombing the enemy, and keeping enemy planes away from Chinese cities through the use of the AVG.11 In addition to Chennault, two other major figures need to be expanded upon, Chiang Kai- Shek and Franklin Roosevelt. For Chiang Kai-Shek, the United States was his meal ticket. He needed the finances and the weaponry that came with lend-lease to carry out his own agenda, and he needed the American forces to fight the Japanese for him. On an individual basis, Chiang maintained good friendships with a few Americans aside from Chennault, such as the journalist, Henry Luce. However, when it came to Chiang’s relationship with the United States, he lacked a vision for what this relationship would look like, so caught up was he in dealing with the CCP. Chiang had a tendency to micromanage his troop movements, and this approach did not change with the United States forces that arrived in China to fight the Japanese.