Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1554665 in Books
• Published on: 1995-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

From the Author
Some second thoughts about "Flying Tigers"
The Tigers were the heroes of my boyhood, during World War II, and after five years of researching and writing their history, I concluded with the words: "All honor to them."

Imagine my surprise when the survivors (with a few good-hearted exceptions) went ballistic when they read the book. The problem, of course, was that only 110-120 of their 296 "confirmed" victories could be validated in Japanese accounts of these same combats. Incredibly, of 60-odd authors who've written about the American Volunteer Group, not one had ever bothered to ask that most fundamental question: how many planes did the Japanese actually lose to the AVG, in the air and on the ground?

I could write a better history of the AVG today. (Amazingly, new information does keep cropping up, nearly 60 years after the fact.) But I'm so gun shy about the veterans' reaction that I would probably omit some references to the courage of the Japanese airmen, and also skip over some of the AVG's less glorious moments. And what kind of a history would that have been?

Customer Reviews

History that reads like a novel
Having exchanged some emails with one of the Flying Tigers, I decided to check out this "History of American Aviation" book from the Smithsonian. (Maybe you know that the Tigers didn't like the book.) What a great read. Mr. Ford gives us the real men behind the legend. Combat reports, diaries, military radiograms. He used them all. The result is a history book that reads like a novel. Don't miss it -- Paddy O

Get! This! Book!
The American Volunteer Group was one of the few bright shining moments for Americans at the outset of WW2. American volunteer airmen and aircrew were off in the exotic Orient fighting the Japanese invaders. Claire Chennault, an Air Corps officer who's radical ideas about pursuit fighters got him thrown out of the army, took a band of Navy and Army pilots with little combat experience, flying obsolete aircraft, outfitted with whatever supplies they could get shipped through Rangoon or over the Burma Hump, and turned them into the only fighting force that could use the P-40 effectively against the more-maneuverable Japanese Nates and Oscars. For 7 months the AVG fought Imperial Japan, retreating only when invading ground troops threatened their airfields.

Pearl Harbor was bombed, the US Navy was in shambles, the Phillipines were captured, Guadalcanal was lost, Australia was looking down the barrels of Japanese battleships' cannons, and Europe was pretty much under Hitler's thumb. America's heroes in 1941 were the Flying Tigers.

The book does justice to this band of men and women as well as their opponents in the sky. Easy to read, easy to get caught up in, and a good historical reference as well. I recommend it to all readers of air combat, history, and also those who love tales of adventure.

I'm using this book as a reference source for drafting up missions for the flight simulator "Air Warrior". You can visit my "Air Warrior" homepage for more information on this.

Reading level: high school and up. Pictures are in black and white. Knowledge of history is not important - everything you need to know is explained in the book.

A great read!
Just finished Flying Tigers--a great read! Dan has the unique ability to cover detailed background while maintaining the pace of the action. The reader comes to know each character in depth without enduring annoying pauses in the story. Well done!

I can only imagine the tremendous effort required to search out the myriad details for this excellent story. The bibliography and notes certainly give us a hint. And Dan's talent for bringing these details together in a very readable and exciting way is extraordinary. I now can place myself there wioth those pilots in the mud and the rain of 1940s China and it truly seems real. The reader knows each character personally and has lived each major challenge with him. Thanks Dan.