China's air force during Sino-Japan war

This thread is all about China's air force during WWII. Equipment, war stories, etc.
It seems to me that the air war over China often does not get much attention (in fact I have a feeling that many thought that China didn't even have an air force during WWII) so I started this.

Some articles I found


The Flying Tigers (Fei Hu), an American volunteer air squadron of 300 personnel (100 pilots and 200 ground crew) that fought against the Japanese in China. Their feat was legendary! With no pilot replacement and virtually no spare parts for aircraft repair, they shot down 286 Japanese aircraft with only 12 losses.

The Flying Tigers (Fei Hu), an American volunteer air squadron of 300 personnel (100 pilots and 200 ground crew) that fought against the Japanese in China. Their feat was legendary! With no pilot replacement and virtually no spare parts for aircraft repair, they shot down 286 Japanese aircraft with only 12 losses.

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For some reason, I think that number has been propagandized and exagerated. I'd estimate the kill ratio to be around 5:1, on the side of the Tigers.

According to Robert F. Door the AVG or 'Flying Tigers' probably shot down 115 Japanese aircraft, for a loss of 78 own aircrafts to all causes. Quite a large number of the AVG losses are probably not combat losses but rather a number of accidents and mishaps caused by the fact that they were flying in the middle of jungle, hampered by almost non-existent ground support and the fact that they flew a quite outdated fighter.

There were a number of Nationalist I-16 and I-15s supported from the Soviets during WW2. These planes were adaquate against A5Ms but are easy prey to the zeros. After 1939ish, their numbers sank dramatically.

In addition, there were a number of biplanes.

i would count the flying tigers as an American unit, therefore I don not consider it to be part of the Chinese Air Force.

sino52C said:

There were a number of Nationalist I-16 and I-15s supported from the Soviets during WW2. These planes were adaquate against A5Ms but are easy prey to the zeros. After 1939ish, their numbers sank dramatically.

In addition, there were a number of biplanes.

i would count the flying tigers as an American unit, therefore I don not consider it to be part of the Chinese Air Force.

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Thats true. They were after all defending US interest in Chinese soil. But after all if it was not for them the japanese would have had pushed further inside china. The flying tiger commander was also one experienced soldier that gave US early warnings about Japanese aircraft superiority which the US then called Impossible before Pearl Harbor.

stonewind said:

Thats true. They were after all defending US interest in Chinese soil. But after all if it was not for them the japanese would have had pushed further inside china. The flying tiger commander was also one experienced soldier that gave US early warnings about Japanese aircraft superiority which the US then called Impossible before Pearl Harbor.

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I dont think that 100 airplanes can really make that much of a difference in the war. I seriously doubt the Flying Tigers really impacted the war in Asia at all.

The main thing the AVG did was to provide a moral boost for the American home front, showing that the Japanese can be fought succesfully. The importance of this should not be underestimated.

How Chinese the AVG really was is a difficult topic. Chennault, the leader of the AVG, was hired by Chiang Kai-Sek so the unit was really a part of the Chinese air force(s). Then it was made up of Americans, so the right description is something like a '(foreign) volounteer unit in the Chinese Nationalist Air Force'.

FriedRiceNSpice said:

For some reason, I think that number has been propagandized and exagerated.

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It probably is exaggerated. But remember the flying Tigers mostly faced the most obsolete aircraft the Japanese still had in service, and they only ever engaged when they had very favorable conditions close to there own bases but far from those of the Japanese Army Air Force. This meant that many Japanese bombing raids went totally unmolested, but that was the price of the survival of the unit.

I'd estimate the kill ratio to be around 5:1, on the side of the Tigers.

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I estimate it to be 5.256135:1.

On the Mail Call tonight, they're going to have something on the Flying Tigers! Not sure if it's the 10 or 10:30 episode, but you can watch both since it's such a good show!

My grandfather was a WW2 pilot who flew missions over Burma and China killing Japanese zeros. He said the chinese people treated the Americans with honour and would hide the ones shot down from the imperial japanese army, as they either beheaded US pilots on sight or made them go do slave labor. I think if the US and China could get over this thorny issue of Taiwan we could have better relations than almost anyone. A US/China alliance in the future would be very powerful and probably would keep stabilty and world peace except for the crazy jihadist blowing theirself up.