Details
FIGHTING TIGERS (ACES EDITION)
by Robert Taylor
Overall Print Size: 31 1/4" x 23 1/2"
Edition Size: 500
Secondary Market
"Greetings, you American bandits of the Flying Tigers, and especially you young American kids of the USAAF who have come to take their place. The invincible Japanese Air Force will utterly destroy you on your first day of activation - the fourth of July - your Independence Day!" Tokyo Rose was screeching her propaganda over the shortwave radio out of Shanghai as the 23rd Fighter Group prepared to assume the mantle of Chennault's American Volunteer Group - the Flying Tigers. Her ranting served only to fill the new pilots with greater determination and to provoke Chennault into immediate action: "We will not wait till the 4th. We'll hit them on the 3rd!" vowed General Chennault on hearing the broadcast and that is precisely what the young American kids did. Flying their P-40 Warhawks, twenty-nine rookie fighter pilots ripped into a force of forty-eight Zeros over Kweilin, chopping down thirty-four enemy aircraft without loss on their first day in combat - a full day before the 23rd FG officially came into being. Tokyo Rose fell silent the following day.
"FIGHTING TIGERS" is a superb depiction of an action fought over the Hsiang Chiang river on August 5, 1944. Following a successful attack on Japanese forces just north of Changsha, P-40 Warhawks of the 75th and 16th Fighter Squadrons, 23rd Fighter Group, are attacked by enemy Nakajima fighters and a massive dog-fight has developed with aircraft wheeling and turning in all directions. The action is set against the distinctive, haunting landscape of Southern China, Taylor's panoramic canvas capturing all the atmosphere of a crucial aerial campaign fought in the skies above a distant land so many years ago. Just 500 prints were available worldwide each signed by five Flying Tigers.
In addition to the artist this print is individually signed by FIVE P-40 pilots who flew and fought the brutal air war above China and Burma with the elite Flying Tigers:
Major General JOHN ALISON
Colonel 'TEX' HILL
Lt. Colonel DON LOPEZ
Colonel ED RECTOR
Brigadier General WILTZ SEGURA
Comes with Certificate of Authenticity.
