Two Tigers From Texas: Tales of the American Volunteer Group in World War II
$24.95
Relive the daring exploits of American volunteers who flew for China in the darkest hours before the outbreak of World War II. In Southeast Asia, Japan’s three-year war with China seemed to be drawing close to its deadly conclusion. Chiang Kai-Shek was desperate for air power to stem the tide of certain defeat: he needed planes, pilots and ground support personnel and turned to a neutral United States for help. On December 23, 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt signed a secret order granting Chiang’s request. Seeking adventure in the land of Kipling, two young pilots from Texas resign the Army Air Corps and join the American Volunteer Group. In the cockpits of their P-40 fighter planes, tiger shark teeth painted menacingly beneath the nose spinners, Cotton Kirkland and Gil Dawson and the other members of the AVG gained world-wide fame in the hostile skies over China by another designation — the fabled Flying Tigers.
