"Flying Tiger"
Just months before the United States entered World War II, Ensign Peter Wright resigned his U.S. Navy commission to go and fight a different war. Recruited in June 1941 while serving on the aircraft carrier Yorktown, the 24-year-old Wright became one of the original pilots of the "Flying Tigers." Officially the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese air force, and under the command of former U.S. Army Air Corps major Claire Lee Chennault, the Flying Tigers were sent to China, in the China-Burma-India Theatre, to help slow down the Japanese invasion and protect the vital Burma Road.
Wright says his decision to leave the Navy for the one-year AVG contract was fourfold. The primary reason was the opportunity to marry his girlfriend, Mary Roberts, in a year—naval regulations at the time forbade young officers marrying during their first years of service. Second, he felt like a boxer trained to fight, but with no one to challenge. The AVG would provide that opportunity. Third, he had read of the war in China, and like many Americans he was sympathetic to the plight of the Chinese. And fourth, the pay of $600 a month as opposed to the $200 he was paid, as a Navy ensign was nothing to scoff at.
The Navy did not let him go easily. When Wright and fellow squadron mate John Petach informed their squadron commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. George Montgomery, of their decision, he, realizing the need to retain pilots, tried to change their minds. Failing, he confined Wright and Petach to quarters, planning to keep them locked up until the ship left in two days. The next morning, however, when the mess steward opened the door to slip in breakfast, Wright gave him a letter and a tip to deliver it to Rutledge Irving, the retired Navy commander who had recruited him for the AVG. By 2 that afternoon, Wright was out of the Navy with all the paperwork completed.
Wright traveled west on the Dutch ship Jaegersfontein. At Singapore the new recruits realized the risk they were taking. They heard Tokyo Rose on the radio at the Raffles Hotel announce that a shipload of mercenary pilots from the United States had arrived, and they were all going to be shot down and executed. The AVG pilots proceeded to Rangoon, Burma, then by train to an old Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Toungoo. Some 100 pilots and 200 ground staff were based there. The volunteer pilots received orientation on the Curtiss P-40s they would be flying.
Colonel Chennault—Wright remembered him as a very rugged, no-nonsense individual, but also very personable— spent many weeks instructing the pilots on tactics to defeat the Japanese in their superior Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighters. The three-tier system of a leader and two wingmen then being used by the U.S. Navy was changed by the AVG to a more effective two-tier system, with a leader and one wingman—which the Navy later adapted. The pilots were also warned to never turn or climb with a Zero, as the more maneuverable enemy would quickly be on their tail.
They were only to dive on a Zero, using the advantage of the P-40's weight, strength and armor. If attacked by a Zero, they were to go into a steep dive, the only way a P-40 could outrun the Japanese aircraft. The monsoon season began near the end of their training. It was like nothing Wright had ever experienced. "It felt as if you were going to drown when you were outside in this torrential rainfall," he recalled. Although they would fly when it was not raining, it was usually through a solid overcast several thousand feet high. When they returned to Toungoo, located between two parallel mountain ranges, the pilots had to guess where to descend through the cloud cover.
The pilots were divided into three squadrons—Wright was assigned to the second with the majority of the Navy pilots. According to Wright, "You could see right away, the way the guys flew, that the Navy guys were much more disciplined and, I felt, better pilots." He attributed this to the discipline required for carrier landings.
Wright noted that the pilots in the AVG never referred to themselves as Flying Tigers; the name was given to them by the press. The hallmark shark teeth painted on the nose of the AVG P-40s were inspired by those used by No. 112 Squadron, RAF, in North Africa. The Japanese occupied Indochina after their attack on Pearl Harbor and advanced toward Rangoon. The AVG's 3rd Squadron was sent to Mingaladon airfield outside that city, while the other two were sent farther north into China, to Kunming at the end of the Burma Road. The Japanese sent bomber squadrons to practice bombing Kunming, since they expected no opposition. On December 20, 1941, the Tigers' second day at Kunming, they received word through the network of Chinese spotters that 10 bombers were headed for the city. The pilots surprised the Japanese bombers and shot down six of the 10 in their first action. Chennault congratulated them, but told them, "Next time get them all."
Between Christmas 1941 and New Year's Day 1942, the 2nd Squadron replaced the 3rd at Mingaladon. In January 1942 the Japanese made several attempts at low-level (3,000 feet) night bombing of that airfield. Although the material damage was slight, the volunteers suffered exhaustion, as they were awakened night after night to drive out into the country for safety. The AVG needed to counter the attacks. They decided to send up a single fighter, minimizing potential loses, knowing that any aircraft encountered would be an enemy.
Wright flew the night of January 8, patrolling at 2,000 feet and hoping to spot the enemy bombers by their exhaust plumes against the lighter sky. He was disappointed: He never saw the enemy; they apparently became lost and dropped their bombs some distance away in a rice paddy. As Wright lowered his flaps on final approach on the darkened runway, a spray of hydraulic fluid blinded him. Hitting the runway hard, his landing gear collapsed and the P-40 skidded and crashed into a Chevrolet sedan. A fellow pilot who was attempting to help Wright land had parked next to the runway and turned on his headlights. Watching the P-40 skid, he managed to run out of its path. Wright received bruises and a concussion.
On July 9 Wright had the distinction of shooting down the last aircraft credited to the Flying Tigers. This was during a two-week volunteer contract extension to train incoming Army Air Forces (AAF) pilots. In the course of those two weeks his good friend and squadron mate John Petach was killed on a strafing run. Wright's most memorable experience came not in the air but on the ground. While evacuating Myitkyina, Burma, in the face of the advancing Japanese in March 1942, Wright was approached by a British father desperate to move his family to safety in India. Thousands of refugees were fleeing the onslaught, and there was little transportation available. Wright contacted one of his British friends who agreed to squeeze the family of four onto an outgoing DC-3. His friend then gave him the keys to an almost new GMC truck, to keep it from falling into enemy hands.
Wright decided to drive the truck up the Burma Road, which he had protected for so long, accompanied by a young Burmese teen. First he drove to an abandoned hospital and hastily loaded up medical supplies ahead of the Japanese. The two then set out on the crude two-lane route, which wound 500 miles north into China through the edge of the Himalayas, utilizing numerous switchbacks. The road was filled with vehicles, virtually bumper to bumper, carrying refugees north to escape the enemy, and south to bring Chinese troops to fight the Japanese. It took Wright 10 days to reach China, often driving 16 hours a day. One day he did not even shift out of low-low gear. The Flying Tiger crossed into China on the rickety suspension bridge over a deep gorge formed by the Salween River. (Two months later, he would return in his P-40 to destroy the bridge to prevent the Japanese from entering China.)
On May 3, with two-thirds of his journey complete, a totally exhausted Wright stopped at a hostel on the edge of Paoshan, a small city in China, and was awakened by the sound of loud engine noises. "We ran out and saw 27 Japanese twin-engine bombers on their bomb run," he recalled. He was mesmerized by the glittering effect as the falling bombs reflected the sun, then the whole city became engulfed in explosions of dust and debris. When another wave of 27 bombers approached 10 minutes later, he figured he needed to "get the hell out of there." As Wright and the Burmese teen ran up a hill, a bomb destroyed the hostel.
Shortly afterward a Chinese driver drove up and said a Tiger pilot was injured, and the Chinese wanted to amputate his leg. Wright wanted to find their doctor to examine him. As they drove through the city, all over the streets were smoldering piles, many of which the driver could not avoid and simply ran over. It took a few minutes for Wright to realize that they were bodies. Between 10,000 and 15,000 had been killed, many while in the streets celebrating a holiday. They arrived at the hospital, but Ben Foshee, the Tiger pilot with his leg blown open, quickly died. The doctor soon arrived, and Wright held a lantern for 12 hours while he operated, stitching and bandaging hundreds of casualties in assembly line fashion.
In its months of combat, the AVG downed 297 enemy aircraft while losing seven pilots. Peter Wright was credited with 3 1/2 kills. He returned home and married Mary in the fall of 1942. The AAF offered him a job flying back in China, but he had "been there done that." Instead, Wright joined a new airline, American Export Airlines, which flew contracts for Military Air Transportation Service and Naval Air Transportation Service. After the war, Wright founded Keystone Helicopter in West Chester, Pa., a commercial helicopter maintenance facility, and helped found the American Helicopter Museum. In December 1996 Wright received his Distinguished Flying Cross for his service with the Flying Tigers.
Peter Wright
Donald A. Wambold Jr.
World War II Magazine