Flying Tigers attack Chiang Mai

24th March 1942: The American Volunteer Group launch a dawn raid on Japanese airfields in Thailand and destroy many aircraft on the ground

3rd Squadron Hell's Angels, Flying Tigers, over China, photographed in 1942 by AVG pilot Robert T. Smith

The American Volunteer Group - better known as the ‘Flying Tigers’ - were a group of independent American airmen who flew for the Chinese nationalists against the Japanese - mercenaries. Most of them had resigned from the U.S. military in order to volunteer. In time they would be re-absorbed back into the U.S.A.A.F..

Charles R Bond (1915-2009), later a Major General.

After learning to fly with the US Army Air Corps Charles R. Bond had been posted (based on his surname being early in the alphabet) to fly some of the first B-17s - under First Lieutenant Curtis Lee May - and then went to Ferry Command. Volunteering for the AVG meant he could get back to his first love - fighters.

The Flying Tigers had only been operational since December 1941, after training in Burma but had already had remarkable success against the Japanese Air Force.

On 24th March two formations from the AVG made a daring raid deep into Thailand, a puppet state of Japan, to hit the main airfield at Chiang Mai and another base at Lampang.

Most of the ground crew were also US volunteers. Pak On Lee of Portland, Ore., George Lum of New York City, and Kee Jeung Pon of New York City were among the Chinese American mechanics who served in the AVG. Here they are pictured in Kunming, China, in November 1942 working on a Curtiss P-40 of the 23d Fighter Group, which evolved from the AVG.

‘I positioned myself to cross the field the longest way, seeing a line of parked Japanese I-97 fighters. I pulled back preparing to strafe the entire line. Now it was clear: we had caught them flat-footed without any warning.’

Bond¹ describes this raid, where the first problem was identifying the target: