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A Flying Tigers bibliography

Primary sources

Bacon, Noel. "Diary of a Flying Tiger." New York Sunday News, 2 Aug 1942. His wartime diary, probably slightly edited; the nearest thing we have to a contemporaneous account.

Bargh, C.V. ("Vic"). Telephone interview, 1995. Author's collection (audio tape at National Museum of Naval Aviation). Also seen Neil Frances below.

Baisden, Chuck. Flying Tiger to Air Commando. Mustang International, 1994; Schiffer Military Books, 1998. Baisden was an AVG armorer. Available at Historic Aviation.

Bishop, Lewis, & Shiela Irwin. Escape From Hell: An AVG Flying Tiger's Journey. Tigers Eye Press, 2005. First part of the book is Lew Bishop's account of his captivity and escape; his daughter has added background material on Bishop and the AVG. Available at Amazon.

Bond, Charles. A Flying Tiger's Diary. Texas A&M Univ. Press, 1984. Excellent. Probably edited for publication. Available at Amazon and at Historic Aviation.

Boyington, Gregory. Baa Baa Black Sheep. New York: Putnam, 1958. Very entertaining. Written long after the fact and to be taken with a grain of salt. Good on local color. Available at Amazon.

Bright, J. Gilpin. "From a Flying Tiger." Atlantic, October 1942. Gil Bright's letters home as published soon after they were written.

Burgard, George. "Flying Tigers Photos by George Burgard". CD-rom produced by Lee Burgard from his father's AVG scrapbook.

Chennault, Claire. Way of a Fighter. New York: Putnam, 1949. His autobiography, written by Robert Hotz without close supervision from Chennault. Available at Amazon.

Cotton, M.C. ("Bush"). Hurricanes Over Burma. London: Grub Street, 1999. He flew alongside the AVG at Rangoon.

Cross, James. "We Kept the Tigers Flying." Mechanix Illustrated, Dec 1942.

Everard, Hedley. A Mouse in My Pocket: Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot. Picton, Ontario: privately printed, no date. Everard was a Canadian pilot in RAF 17 Squadron, who claimed to have sold some of his victories to the AVG.

Frances, Neil. Ketchil: A New Zealand Pilot's War in Asia and the Pacific. Masterton: Wairarapa Archive, 2005. Extensive quotes from Vic Bargh, a Buffalo pilot in 67 Squadron at Rangoon.

Frillmann, Paul. China: The Remembered Life. Boston: Houghton- Mifflin, 1968. Interesting memoir by the AVG chaplain.

Glover, Byron. "Assembling and Testing P-40's in Burma." Aviation, Dec 1942.

Greenlaw, Olga. The Lady and the Tigers. New York: Dutton, 1943. Wonderful memoir by Chennault's secretary and the first keeper of the AVG war diary. Accurate as to day-to-day events.
---; edited by Daniel Ford. The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II. Omaha: iUniverse, 2002. An abridged and annotated edition, with new material on the Greenlaws before and after their AVG tour.

Helsdon Thomas, J. Wings Over Burma. London: Merlin, 1984. Memoir by a "fitter" with RAF 67 Squadron in Burma.

Hemingway, Kenneth. Wings Over Burma. London: Quality, 1944. Interesting memoir by a Hurricane pilot who flew alongside the AVG. (Not an error: Hemingway and Helsdon used the same title for their books.)

Hill, David Lee, and Reagan Schaupp. Tex Hill: Flying Tiger. Privately printed, 2003. Available from Historic Aviation. Reviewed on this site.

Howard, James. Roar of the Tiger. Orion, 1991. Nicely written memoir by an AVG ace who later won the Medal of Honor as a Mustang pilot in Europe.

Kato Tateo. "Diary of Major-General Kato." Japan Times & Advertiser, 25 Jul 1942. Kato commanded the 64th Sentai. Edited for publication to celebrate his elevation to "war god."

Laughlin, C. H ("Link"). "China Tiger." Foundation, Spring 1983.
---. "The Transition." Air Classics, March 1989.

Losonsky, Frank, & Terry Losonsky. Flying Tiger: A Crew Chief's Story. Schiffer Military Books, 1996. 110 pp, 200 photos, $35. Available at Historic Aviation.

Moore, Larry, & Ken Sanger. "We Fight With the Flying Tigers." Cosmopolitan, Aug-Sep 1942. These guys were partly responsible for the John Wayne epic about the Flying Tigers.

Neumann, Gerhard. Herman the German. New York: Morrow, 1984. Memoir by the enemy alien who became an AVG mechanic.

Pentecost, Walter. "Advance of the Flying Tigers." American Aviation Historical Society Journal, Summer 1970. Good detail of the assembly of the AVG Tomahawks.

Pentecost, Walter, as told to Alan Hynd. "Here Come The Flying Tigers!" Liberty, 25 Jul 1942; 1 Aug 1942; 8 Aug 1942. Mostly "as told to", which equates to ghost-written. Pentecost wasn't in Rangoon during most of the combat he describes so vividly.

Rodewald, Don. Tiger Tenacity. Lake City CO: Granite Falls, 2000. From AVG crewman to jet pilot to first paraplegic to fly around the world.

Rosbert, C. Joseph. Flying Tiger Joe's Adventure Story Cookbook. Franklin: Poplar, 1985.

Scott, Robert Lee. Flying Tiger. Garden City: Doubleday, 1959. (General Scott is hugely admired, but his books are self-serving and often contradict one another--and the record--on details)
---. God Is My Co-Pilot. New York: Ballentine, 1956 Reprint edition available at Historic Aviation.
---. The Day I Owned the Sky. New York: Bantam, 1988.

Seagrave, Gordon. Burma Surgeon. New York: Norton, 1943.

Schramm, Leo. Leo the Tiger: True Stories About the Flying Tigers From World War II. Camp Hill PA: Green Shields, 1998.

Shilling, Erik. Destiny: A Flying Tiger's Rendezvous With Fate. Alta Loma: privately printed, 1993. First-hand recollections. Reviewed on this site.
---. Commentary on the Tomahawk pilot's manual (I sent Erik a copy of the British manual for the Tomahawk, which he annotated to point out differences between the versions supplied to the RAF and to the AVG.)
---. Postings, Usenet newsgroup rec.aviation.military, 1992-2002. Erik was contentious, sometimes wrong (in my judgment), and always interesting. He also had a remarkable memory for detail. I've posted some of his recollections, with permission:
--- "AVG Flying Tigers combat tactics"
--- "Curtiss P-40 spin characteristics vs. P-36"
--- "Dogfight: Brewster Buffalo v. P-40"

Smith, Robert M. With Chennault in China: A Flying Tiger's Story. Blue Ridge Summit: Tab, 1988. Diary of an AVG radioman. Many good photos. Reprinted 1997 by Schiffer Military Books, $29.95. Available at Historic Aviation.

Smith, Robert T. Tale of a Tiger . Van Nuys: privately printed, 1986. A facsimile of an AVG pilot's diary--great stuff! Available from his family.

Suzuki Goichi. Television interview, 1992. Suzuki was a pilot in the AVG's first combat. This interview was taped for the Fei-Hu video, but not much of it appeared in the final cut.

Upfill, Muriel Sue. An American in Burma, 1930 to 1942. Tempe: Arizona State Univ. Program for Southeast Asian Studies, 1999. Upfill was in Rangoon until February 1942, and in India worked for the AVG supply office.

Wolf, Fritz, & Douglas Ingells. "It's Hell Over China!" Air Trails Pictorial, Oct 1942.
---. "The Truth About the Zero." Air Progress, Jan 1943. Wolf notes that "The Zeros we were fighting over China didn't have any cannon. This led us to believe that they were army fighters, and not navy planes." This during WWII! It was another 45 years before R. T. Smith illustrated his Tale of a Tiger with a drawing of a Nakajima Ki-43, the first Flying Tiger vet to let go of the Zero myth.

Wright, Peter. "I Learned About Flying From That." Flying, May 1944.
---. "A Fighter Pilot Learns a Lesson." Sportsman Pilot, Mid-May 1943.