First Blood for the Flying Tigers: Twelve Days After Pearl Harbor, a Band of American Mercenaries Took Their Revenge on the Empire of Japan

Enter the Tigers

When Japanese planes laid waste to Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941, the United States had exactly one air combat unit on the continent of Asia. That was the 1st American Volunteer Group – sponsored by the White House, equipped and paid by a U.S. loan, but officially part of the Chinese Air Force. On December 20, this band of mercenaries won immortality over the city of Kunming. An expanded version, with new photographs, of the cover story for America in WWII magazine, December 2010.