Customer Review :
Get! This! Book! : Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group
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 Easy to read, easy to get caught up in, and a good historical reference as well.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.
