Small chrome plated badge made in the form a stylised aeroplane with the Chinese Nationalist flag flying above it. It is suspended from a chain which is intended to be pinned onto an item of clothing. The wings bear a Chinese inscription which roughly translates as "to get aviation to save the country". Length : 30mm. Nice condition.

From 1937 to 1940, the Republic of China Air Force were supplied aircraft by the Soviet Union and U.S.A.  In 1937 Captain Claire L. Chennault retired from active duty with the United States Army Air Corps and was invited by Madame Chiang Kai-shek (chief of the Aeronautical Commission and wife of the Chinese Nationalist leader) to carry out a survey of the Chinese Air Force. He then stayed in China until the end of W.W.II.  In 1941 he formed the A.V.G (American Volunteer Group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers) which flew over China and Burma, protecting the the country from Japanese bombing. The A.V.G. was made up of a group of U.S. volunteers, approx. 100 pilots and 200 ground crew, who operated three squadrons of U.S. built Curtiss P.40B Warhawk (Tommahawk) fighters. In 1942, shortly after U.S.A. entered the war they were absorbed by the USAAF's 23rd Fighter Group. By this time the AVG had destroyed no less than 286 Japanese aircraft, with only the loss of 12 pilots, killed or reported missing in action.

For more information on the Flying Tigers, please click on the link below :

Flying Tigers