Historical data of flying tigers

Since Chinese mainland residents have never seen sharks, they mistakenly call these planes "Flying Tigers". A newspaper in Kunming used the word "Flying Tigers" to describe the planes of the volunteer team. China, an interpreter in the aviation team, translated the name "Flying Tigers" and told Chennault, so he named the aviation team "Flying Tigers".

From the investment point of view, the Flying Tigers is definitely a pure mercenary force: according to the contract signed between the government of the Republic of China and American pilots, each pilot can get a large sum of money. The pilot's monthly salary is 600 dollars, the monitor's monthly salary is 650 dollars, and the squadron leader's monthly salary is 700 dollars. In addition, there is a bonus of $500 for shooting down every Japanese plane. Comparatively speaking, after 1 year, the monthly salary of pilots of the US Army Air Force is only $347 at most.

Moreover, the living standard of these Flying Tigers members in China was beyond the imagination of ordinary China people at that time. According to Chennault's request, the national government "should provide a separate room for each pilot ... a separate bathroom and toilet for all personnel ... a game and entertainment room for every 50 people." These rooms should have card tables, game tables or table tennis tables. " What is actually provided to these people is the service of star-rated hotels.

This standard has been continued since the US military entered China and became a heavy burden for all localities: the US military stationed in Kunming alone consumes about 100 people every day. Kunming once slaughtered all the local yellow cattle for the US military to supply meat, and later had to switch to water beef to continue the supply. It was not until later that even buffaloes could not be supplied that the national army managed to provide a large amount of yak meat for the US military.

During the time when the Flying Tigers members came to China, the eastern continent at that time was mysterious and attractive to these pilots. Similarly, for the soldiers and civilians in China, these young people who came across the sea also made them feel novel. However, language barrier has become an obstacle to language communication between the two sides. In order to show respect for these young people who helped China, China soldiers and civilians gave a thumbs-up and said "Ding Hao". These pilots like this slogan and gesture very much. They often give each other thumbs up and say "Ding Hao", which became a popular phrase and action among local officers and soldiers and members of the Flying Tigers at that time. Some pilots even wrote the pinyin of this slogan on airplanes and posters.

When the Flying Tigers came to China, the color camera had just been invented. In the process of communicating with the military and civilians in China, they photographed the customs of China with color cameras at that time, which became precious historical materials of color photos. Moreover, the Flying Tigers also brought Coca-Cola, which spread all over the country. Deep friendship

When members of the Flying Tigers perform their tasks, they also carry the banner of "aiding China". When fighting the Japanese army, pilots will be injured or shot down, and pilots will parachute. After the Flying Tigers pilots parachuted to the ground, they were often rescued by local people to help the injured pilots heal. Then try to organize personnel to send the pilot back to the base of the Flying Tigers. At that time, in order to protect these pilots who aided China as much as possible, the Kuomintang government reportedly issued a notice that anyone who rescued the pilots who aided China at that time and escorted them back to the military base of the Kuomintang government or the Flying Tigers could get rich rewards and rewards. It is also dangerous to rescue the pilot. After the pilots of the Flying Tigers crashed and parachuted, sometimes the Japanese would follow, searching for the traces of the parachuting pilots. After the Flying Tigers pilots were rescued and hid by the local people, the local people did not disclose the whereabouts of the rescued pilots in the face of Japanese threats and inducements. Sometimes, if the injured Flying Tigers pilots can't catch them, the local people will become the targets of revenge and persecution. It is said that once a pilot was rescued by people in the local stockade after parachuting and hid to heal. The Japanese army failed to search for the pilot, so they gathered the young and old in the stockade and threatened to kill the people in the stockade if they didn't tell the whereabouts of the pilot. As a result, there is no result. Finally, several people in the stockade were killed. During that war-torn years, it was this emotion beyond words that made the members of the Flying Tigers form a deep friendship with the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians.

Veteran return visit

After the dissolution, most of the pilots of the volunteer team returned to America. Almost all of them have a feature that they will paint the "Flying Tiger" logo or shark mouth pattern on the P-40 fighter plane in those years on their personal belongings, bearing in mind the years of this battle. P-40 series aircraft participated in all major battlefields of World War II, which is an important collection in the history of aviation natural history. A total of 65,438+03,738 such aircraft were produced during the Second World War, of which more than 70 are now in the hands of museums and collectors.

These "Flying Tigers" who used to fly in the blue sky have retired, and young pilots are getting old and disappearing. Many years later, veterans and their descendants who were still in the volunteer army visited their hometown. Although some once familiar places have changed their appearance with the passage of time and development, some buildings still retain their original appearance at that time. When these were reflected in the eyes of the veterans, they couldn't hide their excitement and were deeply moved. Perhaps, as they say, there are their youth and memories here ... there are overseas Chinese from Wuyi in the team.

According to Cai Hetian, director of Taishan Museum, during the Anti-Japanese War, many overseas Chinese in Taishan participated in the Flying Tigers formed by American Chennault. They have some pilots of the Flying Tigers and some ground crew of the Flying Tigers. Of the more than 2,000 members of the Flying Tigers led by Chennault, about 90% are Chinese Americans, most of whom are descendants of Chinese who went to the United States from Taishan, Enping and Kaiping, especially the 14 Air Force of the US Army Air Force. Basically, the ground crew are all Cantonese.

194 1 65438+February 7, 2008, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States officially entered the war, and the US Congress also passed the conscription bill in early 1942. At that time, more than 20,000 Chinese-American youths were drafted into the army. On the battlefields in Europe, the Pacific and Asia, 1300 Chinese soldiers were incorporated into the 14 service brigade, which was dominated by Chinese, and were sent to China to support 14 air force.

It should be noted that China people used to call all American troops in China the Flying Tigers, so even though the Flying Tigers were disbanded at that time, China people used to call the 1st14th Air Force of the US Air Force Task Force in China the Flying Tigers.

At present, most members of the Flying Tigers from Mount Tai have passed away. Feihu Pavilion was built in Taishan City, Guangdong Province. Established in March of 199 1 year. Shihuashan Scenic Area, located 2 kilometers northeast of Taishan City, is known as the "Eight Scenes of Taishan". Former Flying Tigers Air Force Captain, originally from Liang Bingcong and others in Chengnan Village, Taishan Town.

The Seal of Tang Yang —— An Immortal Past of Flying Tigers

Tang Yang Airport at the foot of Jigong Mountain in Lingui Tang Yang Industrial Park is the only architectural relic of the Flying Tigers in Guilin, and the outline of the airport is discernible. At that time, it was once an important frontier base for Chinese and American air forces to fight side by side and severely crack down on Japanese robbers. From the second half of 194 1 to September 20th, 1944, tens of thousands of Guilin people served in the base, leaving a proud youth footprint.

Seventy years later, a brand-new memorial hall rose from the ground, and the past of that year still shines with immortal brilliance.

Thousands of Guilin people built Tang Yang Airport.

A few days ago, the reporter came to Chennault's Flying Tigers command post. The command post is located in a mountainside cave next to the airport runway. There is a white stone carving on the mountainside, engraved with the words "former site of the Flying Tigers command post1943.6438+02-1944.9" in Chinese and English. Under the words, the trees are lush and the command post is hidden. The whole cave covers an area of 300 to 400 square meters, and the wall of the cave is engraved with the general situation of Guilin Flying Tigers.

There is a big stone outside the cave, on which is inscribed "General Chennault's View of the Stone" by Chen Xiangmei, the wife of General Chennault, in both Chinese and English. At that time, Chennault stood on this stone and watched his soldiers return from the war. From a military point of view, the east-west peak cluster can be used as a natural barrier, and the north-south extension is suitable for aircraft taking off and landing, but the clearance condition is relatively poor, making it an ideal place for military airports that are easy to defend but difficult to attack.

After the full-scale outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tang Yang Airport was favored by the Central Aviation Commission and its consultant Chennault, and was expanded three times in 1939, 1940 and194/kloc-0.

Thousands of farmers in various counties participated in the construction without machinery and power, and every village was ordered to arrange personnel. They build huts and bamboo houses and live around the airport.

Long fuxu, an old man in Xiaoshantou village, was called "airport pass" when he was repairing the airport and working as a farm soldier. He was one of the contractors in his twenties when he expanded the runway. The old man recalled the past scene to the younger generation more than once: "At that time, we first leveled the Airport Mountain, then dug the foundation under the big runway, laid a layer of big stones as the bottom, and then laid a layer of medium flaky and a layer of stone slag on it." Because there is no cement, we can only use small stone slag mixed with yellow mud to pave the road, and the airport will be changed to concrete mixed with lime, yellow mud and sand in the later stage of construction. Whenever an airplane takes off and lands, this unique road surface will dust the runway of Tang Yang Airport.

The runway surface must be hard enough to take off and land heavy bombers. Without any mechanical equipment, migrant workers like Long Fuxu can only pull a few tons of reinforced concrete giant roller to roll it back and forth. Old Liu from Liucun also participated in such a project. There were three kinds of stone mills used at that time: large, medium and small. Generally, there are more than 70 medium-sized stone mills and 0/20 large stone mills. The old man once said, "We sing our songs while pulling stones. It's delicious."

Due to the backward production technology, there are many casualties of migrant workers almost every time, but everyone still actively participated in the airport construction and completed the great project, which provided the most basic conditions for fighter planes to destroy aggressors.

On June 1942 and 1 1, Chennault personally led four P-40E and eight P-40B Eagle fighters from Kunming to Guilin. When the handsome fleet appeared at low altitude, Guilin citizens waved and cheered in the air.

The Flying Tigers fought fiercely with the Japanese the day after they arrived in Tang Yang.

The next day, the Flying Tigers ushered in their first fierce battle.

At 5: 25 in the morning, the roar of the engine shook the earth, and a huge formation consisting of 2/kloc-0 Japanese planes approached Guilin. The well-trained Flying Tigers immediately took off and took off to meet them. The Japanese plane just flew over Tang Yang airport, and the Bond unit suddenly climbed over the enemy fighter group and headed for the bomber group in the middle. The machine guns were fired, and the enemy bombers were caught off guard and tried to escape. Bond crew member Dick shot down an enemy plane at lightning speed, and Bob and John hit two enemy planes without exception.

Bond grabbed the tail of a bomber and fired at the position of its tail shooter. Unexpectedly, five of his six machine guns were dumb and the fuselage was shot again and again. He quickly avoided the enemy's fire and prepared to reload. However, the plane's cooling device was hit and fell into the ground. It was not until he dropped to a low altitude of 600 meters that he finally leveled the fuselage. However, a Japanese fighter plane still bit him tightly. At this point, Bond's fighter oil pressure gauge dropped to zero, and the dashboard smoked because there was no oil, so it was impossible to continue fighting. Seeing that the parachuting height was not enough, Bond forced the plane to land in a rice field, but was seriously injured but survived.

When Bond's troops were luring the enemy, other troops were also entangled with Japanese fighters. The fighters of the Flying Tigers jumped in the air for a while and dived vertically for a while. Machine guns clicked, sparks flew, and the air combat was very fierce.

After the battle, shoot down the enemy plane 1 1. The Flying Tigers lost two planes and both pilots returned to the base safely.

Flying Tigers are at Hanzhong Airport.

During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, Hanzhong was an important town in the rear area. The Japanese plane took off from Wuhan and went up the Han River. They often come to Hanzhong for reconnaissance, harassment and bombing. Some of the Flying Tigers led by US Air Force Admiral Chennault are stationed in Hanzhong. Their barracks are just outside the city in the northwest, and they can be reached from the northwest corner of the north tinker in the city. There was a well rope hanging on the wall outside the city. You can climb up and down the barracks freely by climbing along the well rope. During their stay in Hanzhong, the American "Flying Tigers" left extremely precious video materials. These photos not only prove that Hanzhong citizens participated in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, but also are precious historical materials for studying Hanzhong architecture and urban development during the Republic of China.