Tales of the Flying Tigers: Five Books about the American Volunteer Group, Mercenary Heroes of Burma and China

Daniel Ford

Jan 2022 · Warbird Books

About this ebook

"What God abandoned, these defended / And saved the sum of things for pay." In the bleak winter of 1941-1942, no American or British force could stem the tide in Southeast Asia, as the Philippines, Thailand, Malaya, and Singapore fell to the victorious Japanese. Only in Burma was there a ray of hope. There, over beleaguered Rangoon, a few dozen Americans clawed Japanese warplanes from the sky for a cash bounty from the Chinese government. Wearing mismatched uniforms, with Chinese insignia, and flying cast-off fighter planes, they did what no other air force seemed able to do, and won immortality as the Flying Tigers.

Daniel Ford wrote the definitive history of the American Volunteer Group, as it was officially known. Here, he has collected five small books about the Flying Tigers into an omnibus that details the AVG's planes, pilots, and history as remembered in the United States and in Japan. An essential collection for every admirer of the Flying Tigers. Revised and updated January 2022.

"Very well written and full of new information about a fascinating time in our history" (100 Hawks for China)

"The AVG's first encounter with the Japanese Air Force over Kunming, China, on 20 December 1941 is often written about. The version Dan Ford presents here is probably the most complete picture extant." (First Blood for the Flying Tigers)

"I can wholeheartedly recommend his work to anyone desiring insight into the early years of the JAAF" (Rising Sun Over Burma)

"A unique insight into how the Japanese appeared to the pilots meeting them, and how the AVG learned to deal with them" (AVG Confidential)

About the author

Daniel Ford has spent a lifetime chronicling the wars of the twentieth century. He lives and works in Durham, New Hampshire. His history of the American Volunteer Group won the Aviation/Space Writers Award of Excellence.