[soft music] - [Narrator #1] These men were members of a band of brothers, but that group of heroes were not just Americans, and they weren't just men.

Fortunately, some of them left behind messages for us in home movies, student films, senior citizen community newscasts, even do-it-yourself documentaries, we can still hear them, across the decades.

[soft music] If you were watching TV news in China during October, 2023, you might have been confused by the continuing coverage given to two elderly US military veterans, Melvin McMullin and Harry Moyer.

[engine revving] Both served in China during World War II as members of a unit called the Flying Tigers.

A time when America and China were allies.

They even met China's Vice President and the American Ambassador to China, both of whom thanked them for their service.

[soft waves] At the same time as the veterans visit to China, American and Allied air and naval units were shadowing and at times confronting Chinese naval vessels in the South China Sea.

[soft waves] That story was prominently featured in Chinese media too.

80 years ago, the Flying Tigers were famous across America.

[engine revving] - [Narrator #2] 50 grinning tiger shark planes, wired together with spare parts from 50 more, were all they had to start with.

[plane engine revving] Fighting in teams of two, they concentrate their firepower.

One reason for their amazing success against seemingly impossible odds.

[plane engine humming] - [Narrator #1] Today few, if any, Americans know who the Flying Tigers were.

But why were they in China at all?

[soft music] In the late 1930s, China was at war.

Beginning in 1931, the Chinese had half-heartedly tried to fight off an invasion by Imperial Japan.

Japan had a powerful modern air force.

[soft whizzing] China, despite repeated attempts, didn't.

But 1937 was a turning point.

Some urged China's leader, Chiang Kai-shek, to wait, arguing a weak China had to tolerate repeated Japanese military incursions.

- Chiang Kai-shek decided, "No, this has gone far enough, we must stand up for ourselves."

So what he did was called the Chinese leadership, all his enemies, all his opposing warlords, including the communists.

He called them to Lushan, a summer resort in Central China, first built by missionaries.

And they talked, and talked, and talked some more, and some unity of opinion came about.

And Chiang Kai-shek then believed that he had enough support to take on Japan.

- [Narrator #1] Some Americans wanted to help China, [soft music] but most were unwilling to get involved in a war in Asia or anywhere else.

In the San Francisco Chinese community, however, there was a group of young men who did want to help.

They took private flying lessons in order to learn the basics of being a pilot, then traveled to China to volunteer their services.

It was as dangerous as it was bold.

- There was a group of of Chinese Americans who were recruited to go over in the late '30s, and actually three of them became aces with five or more victories.

[engine humming] - [Narrator #1] Outnumbered and with few aircraft, they could harass the Japanese military, but they could not stop them.

By 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt was receptive to a plan to covertly help China.

It involved creating a secret air force.

The man chosen to lead that unit was a former US Army Air Corps captain named Claire Lee Chennault.

- Well, Chennault was a born leader, and his men, for the most part, loved him.

But he brought a lot more to the table than that.

His years of observing the Japanese Air Force at work [engine humming] gave him some real insight into tactics that would work against them.

[engine humming] [soft music] - [Narrator #1] China's military and political leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, came up with the idea behind what would be called the American Volunteer Group.

[soft music continues] He sent Claire Lee Chennault, now considered a colonel in the Chinese Air Force, to convince American lawmakers to provide China with at least 500 American aircraft and the pilots to fly them.

That was unlikely to happen, but a smaller group might fit in with Washington's efforts to deter Japan from expanding its ongoing war beyond China's borders.

Great Britain played a key role in the creation of the secret air force.

American pilots would train at Royal Air Force bases in oil-rich Burma, then a British colony.

- Britain had staked all its military chips in Asia on Singapore, supposedly a huge bastion from which it could resist the Japanese Navy from invading Asia, Southeast Asia especially.

But of course that always was more of a, what do we call it, a symbolic effort rather than a serious one because there was not enough troops there, there were not enough ships there, 'cause they had to defend the Mediterranean, and of course, also the Atlantic route, which was absolutely critical for the United States.

And so there was no air force, and air forces in Burma and in India were simply insufficient.

- [Narrator #1] While under American command, the secret air force would be part of the Chinese Air Force.

[soft music] Initially, 100 experienced American military pilots were allowed to resign their commissions and go to work for a seemingly private aircraft manufacturer.

[soft music] Fighter aircraft destined for Great Britain would be diverted to China.

[soft music] One of the American military officers who chose to fight for China was John Petach, nicknamed Pete.

He was from Perth Amboy, a small city in New Jersey, a graduate of New York University where he was on the fencing team, he surprised everyone when he decided to become a US Navy pilot.

- [Narrator #3] "I wanna be sure and remind anyone in the family who may see this letter, most all of the things I do on the ship as a pilot and any of the places I mentioned that the ship may go to are secret.

Any of your friends ask you what I am doing or where I am, just say you don't know and leave it at that."

[soft music] - [Narrator #1] Ann Lee is a retired Silicon Valley IT professional.

[soft music] Born into a family of scholars, she was raised in Shanghai.

Her family, like millions of others, fled to Western China in the 1930s to escape the genocidal Japanese military.

One of her uncles, Lee Chia-ho, was an outstanding college student.

But with China in flames, he eventually left university life to defend his homeland.

- National Chinese government at that time, just trying to recruit student cadet from the university.

So my second uncle want to apply for that.

My grandparent know that it's very dangerous, but for the country, and they still him to go.

So he just joined the Chinese Aviation Academy.

[pensive music] - [Narrator #1] San Francisco was the rendezvous point for the pilots and ground crews recruited for America's secret air force in China.

From there, they were among the passengers on ocean liners traveling to Asia during the summer and autumn of 1941.

[somber music] When they arrived, they would be called members of the American Volunteer Group or AVG.

[suspenseful music] The AVG pilots would fly a fighter plane called the P-40.

Most had never piloted one before.

They went to air bases in Burma to prepare to battle Japan's powerful military.

[soft music] One pilot having seen a picture of British P-40s with shark's teeth, had his crew chief give one of the AVG's aircraft a similar treatment.

The look quickly caught on.

- [Narrator #3] "Upon arrival, we found only three P-40s in operating condition.

The other 97 were still being assembled.

As we came to Burman in the middle of the rainy season, the weather was consistently bad for flying.

More of our personnel were coming in each month, more P-40s were being ferried up, more pilots became familiarized with the planes.

And I was falling in love with one of the nurses attached to the group."

- My maiden name is Emma Jane Foster.

And my first experience with these AVGs, from the medical standpoint, we lined the fellows up to give them shots to go into Asia.

And a couple of those big, burly men took one look at that needle and landed on the deck.

And I thought, "They're going to fight?"

[suspenseful music] - [Narrator #1] Training, while rigorous, wasn't a full-time job.

AVG pilots had time to play tennis, shop in the nearby Burmese capital of Rangoon, even go dancing at a club there called the Silver Plate.

It wasn't just American men going to war, women, especially nurses, were also signing up.

But there weren't a lot.

Pilot John Petach and AVG nurse, Emma Jane Foster, spent many, many hours together.

Sometimes exploring the very different places where they now found themselves.

- [Narrator #3] "She's a redheaded, blue-eyed nurse working with the group.

I met her on the ship when we left San Francisco."

- [Narrator #1] But romance would soon be replaced by war.

[engine revving] In Hong Kong, it was Monday, December 8th.

Across the international dateline in the American territory of Hawaii, it was still Sunday, December 7th, 1941.

The people of Hong Kong discovered, without any warning, that they were at war.

- I was doing my exams in the Hong Kong University and suddenly I heard the noise of boom, boom, boom.

So I was very curious and I rushed to the balcony to find out what's all the commotion.

And to my surprise, I saw the bombers dropping bombs in Kai Tak Airport.

So I couldn't believe what I saw.

I said, "This cannot be true.

How come things like that had happened in Hong Kong?"

- [Narrator #1] The Japanese military seemed unstoppable in early 1942, capturing Allied prisoners of war across a 2,000 mile front.

Just about the only good news concerned a small group of American pilots, Claire Lee Chennault's American Volunteer Group, called the Flying Tigers in Chinese newspapers.

Protecting the city of Kunming in western China was its primary mission, as was stopping the rapid advance of Japanese forces in neighboring Burma.

The so-called Burma Road, much built largely by hand, was the sole way of getting desperately needed men and supplies into China.

- [Narrator #3] "The day we got here, the Japs sent over 10 heavy bombers, unescorted since they had no idea we were here yet.

With the result that we caught them unexpectedly and shot seven of them without a single casualty to ourselves.

Since then, they have not come within 200 miles of this place."

- [Narrator #1] AVG Commander Claire Chennault successfully utilized his own brand of aerial warfare tactics.

[engine humming] Time and again, the Tigers took to the skies.

- He told our guys to be sure and get up high as you can, and keep the sun to your back, and then dive down on the Japs and make one pass at 'em, and then get outta the way.

Because they're faster than you are and they're more maneuverable.

So make one pass at 'em.

If you don't get 'em, get on out.

But they usually got 'em.

Their ratio is eight to one.

They were good pilots, they picked the best.

- [Narrator #1] Given their relatively small numbers, the Flying Tiger's accomplishments were spectacular But there was a price to pay, with some paying the ultimate price.

Their coffins were draped in American flags, but the uniforms they wore were of the Chinese Air Force.

They were outnumbered and outgunned.

[soft tense music] Worse still, they were short on spare parts and no reinforcements were on the way.

[soft tense music] Messages to and from the White House made it clear that the only way Chennault would get help was if his heroic unit would agree to immediate induction into the US Army.

Another problem was Major General Joseph Stilwell, commander of all American military personnel in China, including Claire Chennault.

Stilwell had little use for Chennault and his pilots.

Opinionated, outspoken, and abrasive, he called the English limeys.

Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek was peanut, and American President Franklin Roosevelt was old rubber legs, as he wore heavy leg braces as a result of polio.

[soft music] - Stilwell was committed to the infantry with the same intensity that Chennault was committed to fighter aircraft.

And so there was a huge difference of opinion between the two about how to fight the Japanese.

Stilwell's view was that what we need to do is create a road to sort of recover Burma, create a useful road through Burma, build up China infantry forces in China, then defeat Japan in China, and from then on we can take the war to Japan from China.

[engine firing] - [Narrator #1] Americans idolized the Flying Tigers, a love affair the US government certainly encouraged.

People wanted to know anything and everything about them.

[engine humming loudly] A feature film, starring an up and coming Hollywood actor, named John Wayne was made.

The plot was totally fictitious, contributing to the fanciful legends, which would surround the Flying Tigers for decades.

The reality of the Flying Tigers was far from glamorous.

- The hospital had about 10 beds, and the nurses had quarters adjacent to the hospital.

And they had our— the beds were in little cans of water so that would keep the ants from getting up into our beds.

And fortunately, we did have mosquito netting over our beds, and it was very lucky, really, because the rats would run around the ceilings, and every so often they'd fall on our mosquito netting.

[suspenseful music] - [Narrator #1] What China needed was its own modern air force.

Creating one wouldn't be easy.

The Chinese lacked up-to-date aircraft and qualified instructors.

They didn't have adequate training facilities.

There was just one way to teach Chinese Air Force pilots, the combat skills they desperately needed, [suspenseful music] send them to America.

But only the best would get that opportunity.

After just eight hours of cockpit training at a base in Lahore, then part of British India, new Chinese pilots were tested.

- So I managed to get through the training in Lahore and the Americans sent a few officers to check us.

And at that time we had 180 cadet pilots, only 120 suitable to go to America for the so-called One Miracle Year of Training.

[engine revving] So I managed to be 1 of those 120.

[engine humming] - [Narrator #1] Ann Lee's second uncle would later be chosen to go to America as well.

[enging rattling] - Lots of students tried to apply to be in the Air Force, but only about 10% can pass the physical examination.

This 10% was recruited to the Aviation Academy.

When they step into the door, there's two notes above that.

One note, it say, "If you chasing the wealth, don't go this path."

The other note say, "If you are afraid of death, don't enter that door."

So all the student at that time, they realize it's time to give their life for the country and their people.

- [Narrator #1] Of course, the Chinese pilots selected to train in America first had to get to America.

- We finally took a long voyage from Bombay to New York, and we finally arrived in New York and the train was waiting for us to bring us to Arizona, [soft instrumental music] to Phoenix, actually to Glendale.

And we started training with a famous place, there was the Thunderbird field.

And I went through four phases of training in America.

The pre-flight, that primary, basic, advanced, and OTU.

And the OTU means that after graduation we were trained to fight bombers or fighters and for combat.

[marching music] - [Narrator #1] Thunderbird Field, in Arizona, would become legendary.

Its course of study would later be replicated at a China-Burma-India theater flight school in India.

[marching music] - [Narrator #4] From Major General P.C.

Mow, Vice Commissioner of Aeronautics for China, cadets receive their wings, become full fledged officers in the Chinese Air Force.

[marching lively music] - [Narrator #1] At the CBI flight school, Chinese pilots spent hours learning how to navigate over long distances, a skill tested in what was called a link trainer.

It looks like a child's toy, but this was serious business.

There was also detailed ground instruction and essential skills.

Next, just like American military air cadets, it was time for the Chinese Tigers to test their skills a loft.

[soft instrumental music] [soft instrumental music] Arizona was an unforgiving landscape.

The danger was compounded by the difficult war fighting techniques they were learning.

It meant some of China's most promising young pilots would never return home.

One of them was Lee Chia-Ho.

- But at first they don't want my grandma know about that.

So, my father said, even the relatives came to our home and tried to pay the condolence, and my grandpa, talking in English with the relatives instead of to let the grandma know.

They're so sad because they know my second uncle has ambitious and want to fight with the invader.

But he failed and died in US, and didn't fulfill his dreams.

[marching music] - [Narrator #1] By the end of May, 1942, Burma had been lost.

Personnel and supplies would now need to be transported into China from India over the Himalayan mountains called by pilots, the Hump.

It was a time consuming, dangerous process.

Although plans were also made to reopen the Burma Road.

[marching band music] Some days were generally uneventful.

- [Narrator #3] "Went to field at 05:00.

No plane for me.

Had Jing Bao, air raid alert, but false alarm.

Hid in hills.

Went to hostel at 14:00, bathed and went to club.

Had dinner and went to movies."

- [Narrator #1] Other days were eventful in a very personal way.

- [Narrator #3] "Dear folks, married Emma Jane Foster today.

Am well and happy in China."

- [Narrator #1] During the 12 months of its existence, the American Volunteer Group compiled a stunning combat record.

Yet the AVGs days were numbered.

Brigadier General Clayton Bissell, Claire Chennault's immediate superior, is said to have given the freewheeling Flying Tigers the choice of immediately joining the US Army as officers and remaining in China or returning home as civilians and immediately being drafted into the army as privates.

[solemn music] Angry that the army did not recognize their rank and service record with the Tigers, most decided to continue fighting elsewhere or fly aircraft over the hump as civilian pilots, working for China's national airline.

Claire Chennault would write that on July 4th, 1942, "The American Volunteer Group passed into history".

For the Flying Tigers' replacements, just getting to China provided to be an adventure.

- So what they did, they put us on a C-46 transport plane.

Well, in those days the transports had bucket seats, and it took us, 'cause we were going to Luling, China, way, way when nobody had ever heard of, it took 46 hours and we hopped from one place to the other.

- [Narrator #1] Now General Chennault asked some of the departing AVG members to stay an extra two weeks to train the new inexperienced army pilots.

Pete Petach agreed to do so.

On July 10th, 1942, flying as a civilian, he was shot down on a bombing and strafing mission.

He was the last of the AVG Flying Tigers to die in China.

- And I never told him the truth, because I always felt we were never coming back together.

And if I was gonna lose him, I wanted part of him.

And that's why I deliberately was pregnant.

When I came back home, of course, my daughter was born.

And I wanted to get a job in the States, but I was too well-educated, they didn't want me.

- [Narrator #1] Emma Jane had bought Pete a silver cigarette case as a birthday present.

He died five days before she could give it to him.

One out of four of the pilots and flight instructors present at the start of the AVG were killed, captured, or declared missing in action.

The army gave Chennault's command a new name, the China Air Task Force.

And the general got his first bombers, a few B-25s.

[instrumental music] Eventually his American and Chinese crews would receive more.

As his force increased in size and responsibility, it would take on yet another name.

It became the 14th Air Force.

[instrumental music] One component was the Chinese American Composite Wing.

For the first and only time, American and Chinese flyers fought side by side in the same command.

- Among the missions I had was the strafing of the calvary, because with information they were there in certain part of Central China.

We were in Hengyang at that time.

I was with the CACW, the Chinese American Composite Wing.

The 1st Bomb Squadron of the Flying Tigers.

- The Chinese American Composite Wing was probably the most unusual unit of any combatant in World War II, because it combined personnel of two different countries who spoke two different languages under the same command structure.

They formed it in 1943 at a time when the American industry was pumping out new aircraft at an astounding rate.

But the training commands were having trouble producing enough pilots to fly them all.

At the same time, there was a desire to increase the size of the 14th Air Force.

At the beginning, many of the missions were led by the American officers.

But as the Chinese officers gained more combat experience, they increasingly took over the leadership of actual combat missions.

- [Narrator #1] Movies and the press portrayed the Flying Tigers as engaged in one dog fight after another.

In fact, each Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground was one less potential adversary.

Gradually, the war in China ceased being front page news.

It was supplanted by the stories of new heroes and accomplishments.

A decision was made to reintroduce the name Flying Tigers and apply it to the Army Air Force's units then serving in China.

- [Narrator #5] Uncle Sam presents, [engine roaring] "Wings to Victory".

Attention Mr. and Mrs. Tom Jones, USA, the story of a raid on a hidden Japanese airdrome in Burma, and how General Chennault's 14th Air Force Flyers in China are carrying on the great tradition of the Flying Tigers.

[lively marching music] - [Narrator #1] The Flying Tigers now included the crews who flew B-24 heavy bombers, which eventually carried the war to places like Shanghai, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Xiamen.

- We didn't have escorts in those days.

There weren't enough planes to go around.

So when we went on bombing missions, you were on your own.

A lot of the missions were maybe a squadron, a group of planes, but many of 'em were single bombing missions that we went out on.

- [Narrator #1] That included night missions.

- We went in there from 28,000 feet and when we were coming over to the city, it was just a solid ring of anti-aircraft fire coming up at us.

The lights, they never picked us up, they picked the planes up in front of us, but they never shown on us, and I'm sure glad.

- [Narrator #1] Keeping the 14th Air Force's battered fighters and bombers in the air was the unending job of a small army of mechanics, armorers, and technicians.

But the army desperately needed more and they needed men who understood China.

[upbeat music] In the so-called Chinatown neighborhoods of cities across the United States, young Chinese American men were being recruited or drafted into the military.

They would be sent to China for their linguistic and cultural skills, as much as their technical knowledge.

[playful music] - [Narrator #6] "I had wanted to go to Curtis Wright, airplane plant in Buffalo, because that was the closest to New York City.

However, the army had sent out a telex to all army installations in the United States saying, 'That if you had any Chinese Americans, they had to be sent to this outfit that was starting up in Springfield, Illinois.'"

- Then I learned that this unit was supposed to go to China.

They wanted to organize a Chinese American group to try and help the Chinese army.

When I filled in the form, they ask, "You speak what language, beside English, you know?

I said, "Cantonese."

- [Narrator #1] Many of the Chinese Americans called upon to serve had never been away from home before.

- When I was 19, I was invited by the US government to be in the army.

Mother was kind of sad about it.

She was thinking of the old Chinese custom that in China, once the son gets in the army, that's it, they never expect 'em to come back alive.

[marching music] - [Narrator #1] A number of these young men were prohibited by American law from becoming citizens, but if they joined the army, they could gain their citizenship.

- We're half American born and half China born, we call 'em FOB, and they call us ABC, which is American Born Chinese.

And FOB is Fresh Off the Boat.

We have a little difficulty there, but we got along pretty good.

- I was picked to serve in the 407 Air Service Squadron, which is a very odd outfit.

Almost half of the people in my squadron is college educated.

In fact, we have a PhD, a doctor in the outfit, and we have a well-known journalist, Bill Hoy, in outfit.

And age ran 14 years old to 56 years old.

[soft music] - [Narrator #1] Like their Chinese Air Force counterparts, these new students were trained on how to set up and repair complicated military aircraft.

The quality of their work could make the difference between life and death.

In combat, there are times when preparation, hard work, dedication, even luck simply isn't enough.

On a mission over China, Louis Kruzik was standing next to another crew member near the bomb bay of a B-24 when all hell broke loose.

- The plane was being shattered.

We lost two of the four engines and a lot of the gasoline was creeping out.

And at that time I felt Bob shudder, and didn't realize it until right after.

But a 50 millimeter had come up through the bomb bay and hit him in his right side, which was up against my left side, and it missed me by about an inch and a half.

But it tore a hole through his back, you know, 8 or 10 inches.

And— I gave him morphine and everything I could, but he died within a couple, three hours.

- Very sad situation, because you have to report back to the parents if they're nearby, and then to announce them and to bring their remains to the parents.

All this, uh, part and parcel of war.

So, so we had to accept it that way.

- [Narrator #1] The seriously wounded were evacuated by air to facilities where there complex injuries could be treated.

- They had a hospital in Kunming.

Any really severe injuries were taken from there to Calcutta by air evac, but they were usually treated before they ever got on the plane.

- [Narrator #1] Sometimes, though, the injuries weren't physical.

- And usually I just have one medical assistant, an enlisted man, with me.

But on one occasion I had six or seven soldiers who were mentally off base.

And so, not General Chennault, Colonel Gentry, the head surgeon, went with me on that flight, but we didn't have any problems with them.

[soft music] - [Narrator #1] Harsh weather was a constant problem.

Monsoon downpours flooded everything.

And visibility was challenging in mountain valleys.

While missions were carefully planned, it was inevitable that things went wrong.

- In the early days, the Flying Tigers put this little flag on the back of their jackets, but they finally found that the flag made too good a target on the back.

So they started putting 'em on the inside.

And this flag has seven different languages of Asian saying, "That this is an American pilot, in China, to help fight and get rid of the Japanese over here."

- [Narrator #1] Getting to China continued to be a time consuming process.

Those in transit found ways to occupy their time.

- They had a C-46 that I had not flown.

They asked me to deliver that C-46 to Karachi, India.

I had a crew of three guys in my crew.

I had a copilot, and a navigator, and an engineer.

So they give us this brand new airplane and say, "Y'all deliver this thing in Karachi, India."

And they gave us the route to follow but didn't tell us when to get there, so we had a good time.

- [Narrator #1] For some though, the journey to China could be deadly.

- One of our buddy drowned over there, and I helped them pick up his body there because at that time I was a pretty good swimmer, and I tried to try to lift him up from underneath the river.

I got two helpers to help me bring him up.

[tragic music] - [Narrator #1] Logistics are just as important as strategy in warfare, perhaps even more so.

In China, aviation units never had enough of anything.

Gasoline was priceless and almost always in short supply.

- [Narrator #6] "In China, it was definitely the end of the supply line, you see.

And that, I think, accounts for a strong bond of the guys that were in the 14th Air Force, because it was kind of like, it was neglected, that it was at the end there, because all of the attention was paid to the ETO, European Theater of Operation."

- So we were pretty rag tied outfit when we turned out for inspection.

And this stateside officer was appalled, you know, and he turned to our commanding officer and he said, "Is this a part of the United States Armed Forces?

And I'll give credit to our commanding officer, because bristled up and he said, "You bet it is."

He said, "This is one of the best outfits you've got anywhere."

And he said, "They'd be a lot better if you'd send 'em the supplies they need."

- [Narrator #1] Whatever supplies available were delivered by an army of truck drivers.

Many of those drivers were African Americans.

- And when you got on the truck, like those big trucks you see out there with the six wheels, [soft instrumental music] filled with four or five tons of material, you stayed on that truck until you got to Kunming.

And we started at 5,000 feet above sea level and went up to 18 and 20,000 over what's called the Himalayan mountains.

And if the truck breaks down, you stay with that truck until it's fixed.

And then we drove it for that thousand miles and you leave the truck and all the materials.

- [Narrator #1] Building a new connection to the Burma Road, initially called the Lido Road, was the job of hundreds of Black American construction workers.

Their war was against the jungle, not the Japanese.

They ran the heavy equipment essential to creating and then constantly repairing a passable road through rugged mountains and tropical rainforests.

- 14th Air Force, theres always a lack of manpower.

I don't think they have more than 30,000 men, everyone, every time.

Because— So we had to do different jobs.

I was at Xi'an when they had a bad aircraft crash, a C-47, killed everyone aboard.

And then at that time, the airplane was carrying Chinese soldiers for Burma operation.

There's 21 of them, kill 'em all.

And we had to go out and pick up the bodies and tried to bring them to Chinese hospital.

- [Narrator #1] The tide of war had shifted by 1944.

The Japanese military was now on the defensive, except in China, where it felt like it was still 1942.

[marching music] - All planes would take off, and then shortly thereafter, the Japanese would come in, go down the runway, and drop their bombs to make big holes so the planes couldn't come back in.

And then the Chinese would run out, fill the holes up.

- [Narrator #1] American Major General, Joseph Stilwell, had warned that the Japanese military would likely destroy 14th Air Force bases in Eastern China.

Instead, in 1944 and 1945, American troops destroyed them so they couldn't be used by the advancing Japanese.

[explosion] - [Narrator #7] That midnight, installations and hostels were burned.

550 buildings in all.

Drums of gasoline were placed in each building and demolition crews set them ablaze with incendiary bullets fired from rifles.

[dramatic music] - [Narrator #1] This too would become the backdrop for a Hollywood movie.

[dramatic music] [explosion] - Last year in Kunming I okayed plans for these installations, now I'm blowing them up.

- [Narrator #1] The victors, as well as the vanquished, pay a high price in war.

For the 14th Air Force, it was a struggle that took place with little recognition back home.

And sometimes the notice it did receive was unwanted.

- You get these stories of, you know, pilots with a lot of gold on board, you know, donning their parachutes and taking the gold and landing into Burma, never to be heard from ever again.

Those are more just sort of the cowboy stories, and I'd like to see more evidence, but no doubt some of that happened.

But the whole, you know, the Hump route of the people that flew from India along and over to Himalayas to China, there was a lot of smuggling going on.

- [Narrator #1] In 1945, the man called "Vinegar" Joe Stilwell was replaced as overall American commander in China.

But he hurled one final indignity at Claire Chennault, who rivaled Stilwell in popularity back home.

Chennault was essentially ordered to retire.

Victory was only a matter of weeks away, but Chennault would not celebrate it in China.

Instead, he was headed home, a place where he hadn't lived for eight long years.

[soft music] The confusion associated with combat is often called the fog of war.

With the passage of years, however, it's become possible to get some clarity.

There has been much debate over just how effective the Flying Tigers really were.

- The important part of the AVG story to me is not how many planes they shot down, but the role they had in holding the line against the Japanese in 1942, which was pretty much all that kept China in the war at that time.

And the additional bonus was that there wasn't a lot of good news back home during the period of time that the AVG was active.

So anytime the AVG had a good day against the Japanese Air Force, it was good news back home to the people who were paying for the war.

- [Narrator #1] Discussions of military success or failure must always be tempered by the terrible loss of life that inevitably accompanies war.

- My brother and one of his friend had to pick up a part from where he is to Kunming.

And him and— And it's only three of them in that small plane.

And they crashed on their way to Kunming and they all died there, and all three of them is buried in the Golden Gate National Park now.

- [Narrator #1] For the families of some Chinese Air Force pilots, the fog of war wouldn't lift for decades.

- So one day, that is past 2000, all the abroad relatives receive a letter from the youngest uncle from Beijing.

He said, before he died, he want to know his brother know what's happened with his brother.

- [Narrator #1] Anne Lee's extended family searched ceaselessly, finally discovering a long forgotten accident report.

They also found where Lee Chia-Ho was buried.

When family members visited his grave at the Fort Bliss National Cemetery in Texas, they also saw the graves of 57 other Chinese Air Force pilots.

They made it their mission to find the families of these forgotten heroes.

- I start to do the search, and we found a lot of information about all the others Chinese Air Force.

I think they are all try to fight for the freedom and the peace of China, all the world as well.

So I just swear and I want to find their home, find their family for them.

That start from 2018.

- [Narrator #1] Chinese families now visit the graves of the once missing Chinese Air Force pilots in Texas, thanks to the tireless efforts of Ann Lee.

The end of the war meant eventually going home.

Claire Chennault didn't remain retired for long.

By 1946, he was the president of a new private air freight company called Civil Air Transport.

Using surplus US military aircraft, former flying Tigers pilots hauled ammunition, supplies, and troops for Chiang Kai-shek's struggling nationalist movement.

Like Chang himself, Chennault made his way to Taiwan in 1949.

He soon sold his company to America's Central Intelligence Agency.

Ho Weng Toh, unwilling to kill other Chinese during the Chinese Civil War, left China.

Eventually he would become the Chief Pilot for Singapore Airlines.

He also wrote a memoir about his incredible life.

He died in 2024.

Some Flying Tigers went on to successful careers in the US Air Force.

Many though, simply went home and lived lives that had little, if anything, to do with their war experiences.

Returning veterans were allowed to bring home more than just memories.

They could also bring home Chinese war brides.

Racist immigration laws left many American Chinatowns full of unmarried men.

[soft music] Now those communities were transformed by the presence of children.

Still, all of this happened a long time ago.

Today, the children and grandchildren of those who served in China [soft music] keep their stories alive in an ever more distracted America.

[soft music] Like the son of P-51 fighter pilot, James E. Bryant.

- I had never seen the case before he brought it out that one time at Thanksgiving.

And inside the case were all the documents relating to his enlistment, his training, and the early part of his war records.

The documentation regarding his service stops with this document, which is the document labeled "secret".

- [Narrator #1] The story of the Chinese Americans who served in the 14th Air Force is at last being recognized.

- This is one of the missing chapters of US-China history and Chinese American history.

And now it is going to be incorporated in part of the bigger story of what happened in Asia during World War II.

- [Narrator #1] The name Flying Tigers has lived on in the United States Air Force.

[soft music] The 23rd Fighter Group traces its lineage back to the 14th Air Force, and are the successors of the American Volunteer Group.

[soft music] They carry on the tradition of ground attack and close air support.

Stationed at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, returning home from an overseas deployment is just as emotional today as when the original Flying Tigers came home.

As the years went by and the ranks of World War II veterans were diminished.

Some began to consider traveling back to China.

- Two years ago the Chinese government invited a few of us to China for their 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

[soft music] We all went first class all the way.

When we got there, they had two girls follow us all the way and tell us what to do.

And it was great.

- [Narrator #1] While forgotten in America, returning Flying Tigers veterans are still famous in China.

This at a time when contemporary United States and People's Republic of China military forces in the South China Sea are facing off on a regular basis.

How is that possible?

- I think both sides have put a great deal of effort in saying, "Look, there is another way of thinking about US-China relations as one that is doomed to war.

We have a common heritage in cooperation in the Second World War.

We should not forget that there was a time when Americans put their lives at risk in order to support China."

- [Narrator #1] If there is one emotion that all combat veterans share, it is gratitude.

Which brings us back to where we started, with elderly American veterans making what is likely their last trip back to China.

- I was one of the last of the Flying Tigers.

Put myself out to be anything that can help that situation.

That is my only hope.

That is my primary purpose of being here at this age, to come to China and spread the story and the message of the Flying Tigers about America and China, that we have to get together.

Now it's up to the new generations to do so.

- [Narrator #1] Not everyone is happy with what these veterans and their families are doing.

One well known American author dubbed them, "Useful idiots, serving the Communist party of China."

But having seen the horrors of war, should it be surprising they yearn for peace?

The Flying Tigers, and the Chinese Tigers, and the Chinese American Tigers have almost all passed into history.

But their valor and sacrifices deserve to be remembered.

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