With the collapse of China seeming imminent, President Franklin D. Roosevelt secretly authorized the formation of the American Volunteer Group in April 1941. The order allowed the recruitment of 100 pilots and 200 ground support personnel from the Army Air Corps, the Navy, and Marine Corps, who resigned from military service and signed up for one year to help keep open China’s lifeline, the Burma Road. The group trained under Claire L. Chennault at Toungoo, Burma, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. One squadron went to Rangoon to join the RAF, while the other two moved to headquarters in Kunming, China. From its first combat action against the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force at Kunming on December 20, 1941, until it was disbanded on July 4, 1942, the Flying Tigers compiled a remarkable air combat record and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.
