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Someone who was 15 years old in 1945, would now be 90 if still among the living. We probably are a touch over a decade away from losing the last of anyone with a living memory of WW II.
We are pretty much near the end for anyone who served. My uncle, who was a B-24 copilot flying bombing missions over Germany, died in 2017 at age 97. My father, who served in the Army Air Corps Alaskan Command, passed away in 2000 at age 82.
Pop quiz. in post #2 the picture of the P-40 I posted...………...where was it taken?
Kunming China or Rangoon Burma if it’s an AVG aircraft. P40’s were flown all around SE Asia both by US forces and allies and some of them also used the shark teeth nose art.
The original Flying Tigers, (AVG) proceeded the U.S. entry into WWII by a few months and continued on after, and then were assimilated into the U.S. Army Air Corp after pretty poor treatment by the Army hierarchy. Claire Chennault was a real character and was retained, and commissioned again eve3n though he did not see eye to eye with the Army and for good reason. They had their heads up their collective *sses.
Chennault was indeed a real character and a true American hero in my opinion. He married a Chinese women while overseas. After the war he retired to his home state of Louisiana. Some of the locals were not especially friendly.
He was not allowed to buy a home there because there were exclusionary clauses in home deeds barring ownership of people other than the white race which applied to both husband and wife. Finally the state legislature passed a special bill allowing him to buy the home.
Kunming China or Rangoon Burma if it’s an AVG aircraft. P40’s were flown all around SE Asia both by US forces and allies and some of them also used the shark teeth nose art.
My father said it was a picture of a RAAF P-40 taken in early 1943 on Guadalcanal. He was told it was one of the few remaining original Flying tiger p-40's. I highly doubt that though...……….
My father said it was a picture of a RAAF P-40 taken in early 1943 on Guadalcanal. He was told it was one of the few remaining original Flying tiger p-40's. I highly doubt that though...……….
Could be. The RAAF flew P40’s all over the SWP right to near the end of the war when they were replaced by the P51.
Those planes look more like sharks with the pointed front and all. They should have been called the flying sharks.
Remember they were fighting for China and a review of the movie Great Wall and their missed opportunity in the design of the beast for the monster army in the movie taught me that the tiger claims a place in Chinese culture as the king of the beast that sharks did not. I supposed that if the American Volunteer Group were in an African nation they might have taken on Flying Lions as a name.
Quote:
Originally Posted by USC1986
I think many folks are unaware that the famous shark's teeth painted on the AVG P-40's were actually preceded by P-40's of the RAF's 112 Squadron in North Africa, and they actually were inspired by shark's teeth painted on the BF 110's of the Luftwaffe's ZG 76.
I remember that about the RAF's group but didn't know about the Luffwaffe's use or just forgottan over the years.
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