Tiger Fight

By Anthony Saunders

Formed in the months before Pearl Harbor by veteran U.S. aviator Claire Chennault, then a recently-appointed brigadier-general in the Chinese Air Force, an intrepid band of buccaneering American pilots and ground crew volunteered to fight against the Japanese in China. Officially named the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), they would soon become known more simply as the Flying Tigers.

By 1941 Chinese forces, having been at war with Japan since 1937, were struggling. Strangled by a Japanese blockade of their ports they were left with a single lifeline through which to receive supplies from the outside world – the infamous Burma Road, a tortuous trail hacked through the jungles and mountains linking south-west China to the port of Rangoon. With the Imperial Japanese Air Force determined to bomb the trail into oblivion, the task of stopping them was given to Chennault’s Flying Tigers.

Heavily outnumbered with seldom more than 50 or 60 serviceable P-40s once intended for the British, and always starved of spares, the Flying Tigers went into action for the first time on 20 December 1941 over Rangoon, and with great air battles raging over Christmas the Japanese quickly got the message - they were in for the fight of their lives. Over the next few months of the AVG’s brief but glorious existence, their three squadrons were credited with destroying nearly 300 Japanese aircraft with probably an equal number damaged.

Seldom had a unit achieved so much, so quickly and with so little. The AVG had become one of the most famous fighter units of all times and created a legend that will live long in the annals of air combat history but, having blazed their way into glory, on 4 July 1942 Chennault’s tiny ‘air force’ ceased to exist, amalgamated into the U.S. 23rd Fighter Group.

Overall Print Size: 19½" x 26½" 

Image Size: 14¾" x 22¾"

The Signatories

  ~ Colonel Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Older - 3rd Pursuit Squadron - Hell’s Angels (as depicted in Tiger Fight) / 18¼ air victories
  ~ Brigadier General David L. ‘Tex’ Hill - 2nd Pursuit Squadron - Panda Bears / 18 ¼ victories

Limited Edition - Signed By the Artist

• $105 USD
• Edition Size - 225

The Collectors Edition - Signed by Tex Hill and Chuck Older

Adding considerable historic significance, each copy in these highly-restricted editions has been mounted to full conservation standards to include the original and authentic autographs of two of the AVG’s most famous pilots:
  ~ Colonel Charles H. ‘Chuck’ Older
  ~ Brig. Gen. David L. 'Tex' Hill
  ~ Approximate overall size: 23¼" x 30"

Artist Proof - Signed by Tex Hill and Chuck Older

• $315 USD
• Edition Size - 15

Remarque - Signed by Tex Hill and Chuck Older

• $595 USD 
• Edition Size - 15

Double Remarque - Signed by Tex Hill and Chuck Older

• $895 USD 
• Edition Size - 10

The Remarque Editions are matted with the same signatures as the Collectors edition with the same approximate measurements, but with the addition of either a single or double size original artist's drawing in the lower print border.

Giclée on Canvas - Signed by the Artist

• $595 USD 
• Edition Size - 75