To fly missions against the Japanese in combat over the Burma Road and to keep open the pathway to China by defending the Chinese strategic rear lines in Chongqing, Kunming and along the Burma Road, were the main tasks of first detachment of the US Army Air Force's American Volunteer Group (AVG), who set out towards China from San Francisco on July 10th, 1941. In their passports the AVG’s occupations were marked as musicians, students, bankers, farmers etc.

The mere 200 airmen and ground staff of the AVG in China was under command of the US Force Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault, who since 1937 had been serving as special adviser to the Chinese Air Force. Original to be stationed in Burma, the AVG’s main task was the aerial defense of this external passageway during the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan.

On December 7th, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. On December 8th the USA subsequently declared war against Japan – this marked the official beginning of the Pacific War. Consequently, General Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Air Force Group was moved to China, where they set up camp in Kunming City, Yunnan.

The 20th of that month was a defining moment for the reputation of the AVG in China. At 9:45am that day, ten Japanese bombers rook off from their bases in Vietnam prepared for air raids bombing Kunming. Only 30 minutes before they appeared above the city, the US American Curtiss P-40 Squadron took off from Kunming’s Wujiaba airfield to combat the aggressors: Nine Japanese Air Force planes were shot down; the last one was hit but could escape. No one of the American Volunteer Group was injured.

The next day, a local newspaper gave the USA Army Air Force's (USAAF) American Volunteer Group a resounding name: "Flying Tigers". In China and abroad this name has been used ever since to refer to the AVG. The "Flying Tigers" vigor would be followed by more performance of outstanding service.

On July 4th, 1942, the "Flying Tigers" air squadron were incorporated officially into the USAAF's 10th Air Force, which was stationed in the Chinese war zone as special task force. Later, they would be enlarged and became the 14th Air Force Division whose commander was General Claire Chennault.

They would loose 500 plans until the end of the war, and loose equally many aircraft pilots who shot down altogether 2,600 Japanese enemy aircrafts, bombared and sank or inflicted heavy losses on 2.23 million tones of enemy cargo ships, 44 marine vessels, 13,000 inland shipping vessels of over 100 tones, and shot dead 66,700 officers and soldiers.