The Flying Tigers: The Untold Story of the American Pilots Who Waged a Secret War Against Japan

In the late 1930s interwar period, Japan began to invade China. America, officially neutral, aided the Allies in covert ways. Into this murky gloom stepped Claire Lee Chennault, a nearly washed up pilot. Scholar Kleiner unlocks the secrets of the First American Volunteer Group (AVG), commonly known as the Flying Tigers, using newly discovered pilots' diaries and combat reports. The last work about the unit was Jack Samson's Flying Tiger (2011). Here, lawyer and writer Kleiner tells the story of the AVG as led by Chennault. The pilot's military career included setting up the army's flight demonstration teams, which influenced his tactical training of the AVG. In 1937, Chennault went to China under a three-year contract with the Chinese government, working closely with leader Chiang Kai-shek and wife Madame Chiang to survey and modernize the Chinese air force. Chennault's persistent lobbing of Franklin Roosevelt and his aides led the unit to receive their signature Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, painted with a shark face to strike fear to enemies.