Sources, abbreviations
3rd Sq log: Daniel Hoyle kept a "Diary of the Third Pursuit Squadron" from Aug 1941 to Jul 1942, on file at AFHRC 863.059.AFHRC: document housed at the Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Field, Alabama.
AMISSCA: radiogram to or from the U.S. Military Mission in Chongqing, at National Archives Military Field Branch, 332. These reports provide a fascinating view of AVG operations.
Author interview: From 1986 to 1995, I conducted scores of interviews in person, by telephone, and by letter. The audio tapes are located at the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, and selected transcripts are filed at my home in Durham, New Hampshire.
AVG archives: document filed at the San Diego Aero-Space Museum and made available to me in 1988 by John Williams, the volunteer curator. This collection was later acquired by the AVG veterans' group; in 2007, some or all of it was in the possession of Mark Burken in San Antonio TX. ???
Chennault diary: a sparse, five-year record of his China years, 1937-1941, supplied by the late Jack Samson.
Chennault papers: 65 numbered folders of AVG documents housed at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, with microfilm copies at the Library of Congress, Washington DC.
Columbia interview: in 1962, Frank Rounds Jr. interviewed AVG veterans for Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. Sadly, the tapes weren't archived; I read the transcripts in the Pistole collection (see below).
FRUS: volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, followed by year and volume number.
GPO: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Group War Diary: Olga Greenlaw kept the "Diary" from December 1941 to March 1942, taking a copy when she left China; other copies are filed at AFHRC and in the AVG archives. When Doreen Lonberg took over over the job, she retyped most of Greenlaw's entries, with the result that the two versions differ slightly. Lonberg's version was kept by Chennault and appears in the Chennault Papers; unless stated otherwise, I quote from that version. Hopkins papers: housed at the FDR Library, Hyde Park NY.
JDA: Japan Defense Agency.
JM: Japanese Monograph, one of a series written by Japanese veterans postwar under U.S. Army direction, mimeographed in Tokyo in the year indicated, and available on microfilm at the Library of Congress.
JT&A: Japan Times & Advertiser, English-language daily published in Tokyo throughout the war.
Morgenthau Diary: the treasury secretary's voluminous record is housed at the FDR Library, Hyde Park NY.
Pistole collection: one of a series of documents collected by Larry Pistole and made available as machine copies to the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, where I read them in 1989. The originals were later acquired by the Flying Tigers Association. ???
PRO: Public Record Office, Kew, Britain.
Rodewald diary: transcript of Rode's handwritten diary, supplied by Martha Byrd.
1 - Presenting Colonel Chennault, pages 1-26
Page 1: Chennault's autobiography is Way of a Fighter (New York: Putnam, 1949), hereafter Fighter, written by Robert Hotz without close supervision from Chennault. A more reliable account is Martha Byrd, Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (Tuscaloose: Univ. Alabama Press, 1987). His son Max assured me that the 1893 birthdate is in the family bible (letter 1986). For the China years, I rely mostly on Chennault's diary, from which his unattributed quotes are taken.Pages 2-3: Instant, strong attachment: Anna Chennault, A Thousand Springs (New York: Eriksson, 1962) 203. Military academies: Fighter 6. I remember his writing: Edythe Abbott in Louisiana State Times 4 Oct 1945. Also 1910 LSU catalog; 1909 and 1910 volumes of Gumbo, the student yearbook; Chennault's transcript from Natchioches.
Pages 4-5: This man can be taught: Nancy Allison Wright author interview 1989. I have tasted: Robert Hotz, With General Chennault (New York: Coward McCann, 1943) 55.
Page 6:Chennault's Men: Hotz 63.
Pages 7-8: Bombardment doctrine: The Command of the Air (New York: Coward-McCann, 1942). It is impossible: Fighter 22. American Army or Navy: Fletcher Pratt in Saturday Evening Post 2 Dec 1939. Chennault presented his tactical ideas as "The Role of Defensive Pursuit" in Coast Artillery Journal Nov-Dec 1933, Jan-Feb 1934, Mar-Apr 1934.
Page 9: It is well to avoid: Henry Arnold and Ira Eaker, Army Flyer (New York: Harper, 1942) 73.
Page 10: Who is this: quoted in Bernard Nalty, Tiger Over Asia (New York: Elsevier-Dutton, 1978) 13. Bombers are winged: Arnold & Eaker, Winged Warfare (New York: Harper, 1941) 144. Retirement home: Life 15 Mar 1943.
Page 11: One sultry afternoon: Fighter 34.
Page 12: The most beautiful: Royal Leonard, I Flew for China (Garden City: Doubleday, 1942) 105. Chennault's rank in CAF: Fu Jui-yuan, Lee Cheng-yuan, and Wang Shu-ming author interviews 1986. Aviation missions to China: Wilbur Burton and John Jouett in Asia Aug 1935, Dec 1937; Ray Wagner, Prelude to Pearl Harbor (San Diego CA: San Diego Aerospace Museum, 1991) 8-11; William Leary, The Dragon's Wings (Athens: Univ. Georgia Press, 1976) ch. 2; Frank Tamagna, Italy's Interests and Policies in the Far East (New York: Institute for Pacific Relations, 1941) 19-21. Outbreak of fighting: Hata Ikuhito in James Morley, The China Quagmire (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1983) 241; Gregory Clark in JT&A 2 Sep 2005.
Page 13: What should I do: AFHRC 248.211-214. Strength of CAF: S.D. Griffith, "The Chinese Air Force" 1937, AFHRC 248.211-214; Fu, Lee, Wang author interviews; Mao Pang-chu Air Force interview 1948, AFHRC 105.5-10.
Page 14: Raging winds: Wagner 13. Dived and loosed, etc: N.Y. Times 14-16 Aug 1937. Also FRUS 1937 IV, 255, 295; Shah Konsin author interview 1986. Oh, it was the most bloody: Thomas Trumble Columbia interview.
Page 15: Raid on Nanjing: Hisazuma Tadeo, "Air Operations in the China Incident" (JM 166, 1951); Hata/Morley 268; Wagner 14-15. We have lost: "Diary of a Japanese Airman" 1937, AFHRC 248.211-214. Arrival of A5M: Hata Ikuhito & Izawa Yasuho, Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units (Annapolis: Naval Institute, 1989) 25-26. Training CAF: Lee author interview; Fighter 53-54.
Page 16: Recent Chinese: FRUS 1937 IV, 317. The name stuck: Trumble Columbia interview. While there is no war: AFHRC 248.211-214.
Page 17: had a [Curtiss fighter]: James McHugh 2 Oct 1938, supplied by David Dunlap. Chennault as combat pilot: Joseph Alsop author interview 1985; Byrd 86-88; Fu, Lee, Wang author interviews. Orgy of looting: Frank Lockhardt in FRUS 1938 III, 243. CAMCO: Curtiss Flyleaf Sep-Oct 1942.
Page 18: Oblivious of shrapnel: Greenlaw to army historian 1947, AVG Achives 7. 14th Sq.: James McHugh 23 May 1938, AFHRC 248.211-214. Leonard's report: FRUS 1939 III, 160.
Page 19: A fighting unit: Chennault, "Air Warfare in China" 1952, AFHRC K239.716252-17. The Russians didn't like: Lee author interview. Chennault's reports 1938 to AG: AFHRC 248.211-214. He was a smallish: Paul Frillmann, China: The Remembered Life (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1968) 19.
Page 20: Changes in aviation commission: McHugh report 1938, AFHRC 248.211-214.
Page 21: Enviable cocksman: A.L. Patterson letter to author 1987. Nobody flies: Jack Samson, Chennault (New York: Doubleday, 1987) 55. When he strapped: John Williams author interview 1987.
Page 22: Peasants born: Theodore White & Ann Jacoby, Thunder Out of China (New York: Sloane, 1946) 20, 12. The bombers came: White, In Search of History (New York: Harper, 1978) 82; Taciturn and courtly: ibid 74.
Pages 23-24: CAF aviation program: Curtiss Flyleaf Sep-Oct 1942; Morgenthau Diary 324:143; Olga Greenlaw & Daniel Ford, The Lady and the Tigers (San Jose: Writer's Club Press, 2002) 22-23.
Pages 25-26: Without any direct: John King Fairbank, "Air Program" 1942, supplied by William Leary. Soong's want list, Universal Trading Corp: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Morgenthau Diary (Washington: GPO, 1965) 178-179, 50-51.
