"LAST HOPE" US ARMY AAF WW2 AVG "FLYING TIGERS" PILOT BLOOD CHIT REFERENCE BOOK

Description

In early 1941, US Army Air Forces officer Claire Lee Chennault formed the American Volunteer Group (AVG), better known as the "Flying Tigers". An ad hoc group of AAF, Navy, and Marine Corps pilots on private contract to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese government, they flew P-40 Warhawk fighters emblazoned with garish red and white shark's teeth to protect the Burma Road, the vital lifeline between Burma and China. The Flying Tigers became world famous as free wheeling, devil may care American aviators defending freedom in the Far East. Chennault and his AVG pilots soon learned the value of the "blood chit", or "Rescue Patch" as they called it, which featured the Nationalist Chinese flag and a message in Chinese, identifying the man as an American aviator, and encouraging locals to offer friendly assistance to the pilot. Those and other Allied blood chits of WW2 have been of great interest to collectors for decades, leading R.E. Baldwin and Thomas Wm. McGarry to write an authoritative reference book on the subject in 1997. This "LAST HOPE" US ARMY AAF WW2 AVG "FLYING TIGERS" PILOT BLOOD CHIT REFERENCE BOOK is in near mint, unread condition, with only some light scattered storage wear evident (most pictured). Otherwise, the book is in near mint shape, with no other damage. Most interestingly, it boasts an elegantly illustrated dust jacket over hardcovers, and sports 206 pages full of descriptive text, period pictures, and color photographs of 14th Volunteer Bombardment Squadron (VBS) blood chits, AVG "Flying Tigers" blood chits, British RAF pre-WW2 India and Mesopotamia "goolie chits", AAF escape and evasion "money purses", RAF and AAF "shuttle mission" to Russia blood chits, Chinese made silk blood chits, US made rayon blood chits, CBI hand painted leather and hand embroidered silk souvenir chits, "Pointie Talkie" language booklets, and many other scarce escape and evasion aids. A beautiful example of a "LAST HOPE" US ARMY AAF WW2 AVG "FLYING TIGERS" PILOT BLOOD CHIT REFERENCE BOOK. Now celebrating over 20 years on eBay. Bid with confidence and please view our other great military, aviation, and sporting classics, including a German WW2 MWC LUFTWAFFE PILOT B-UHR AUTOMATIC WRIST WATCH in MINT, unworn, new in the box condition, sporting a crisp 60 minute/12 hour (outer/inner) white numbers black dial, and featuring the classic big "onion" crown and sweeping seconds hand with hacking function.
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