The Flying Tigers, Claire Chennault, China, a dramatic story symbolic of a generation of heroes and heroines is the subject of an eminently readable new book by author Sam Kleiner, THE FLYING TIGERS. Kleiner is Halli’s guest on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show, the podcast posted at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.

THE FLYING TIGERS is the unforgettable true account of the swashbuckling band of volunteer American men and women pilots who crossed the Pacific before Pearl Harbor to risk their lives defending China in its war with Japan. It is the thrilling tale of the American pilots who were secretly recruited to defend the nation’s desperate Chinese allies before Pearl Harbor and ended up on the front lines of the war against the Japanese in the Pacific

Led by legendary army pilot Claire Chennault, these men left behind an America still at peace in the summer of 1941 using false identities to travel across the Pacific to a run-down airbase in the jungles of Burma. In the wake of the disaster at Pearl Harbor this motley crew was the first group of Americans to take on the Japanese in combat, shooting down hundreds of Japanese aircraft in the skies over Burma, Thailand, and China. At a time when the Allies were being defeated across the globe, the Flying Tigers’ exploits gave hope to Americans and Chinese alike.

Taking readers into the cockpits of their iconic shark-nosed P-40 planes—one of the most familiar images of World War II—as the Tigers perform nail-biting missions against the Japanese, Kleiner profiles the outsize personalities involved in the operation, including Chennault, whose aggressive tactics went against the prevailing wisdom of military strategy; Greg “Pappy” Boyington, the man who would become the nation’s most beloved pilot until he was shot down and became a POW; Emma Foster, one of the nurses in the unit who had a passionate romance with a pilot named John Petach; and Madame Chiang Kai-shek herself, who first brought Chennault to China and who would come to visit these young Americans.

Aviation history, World War II, The Flying Tigers, China, Japan, heroes, heroines, Pearl Harbor, it’s history and heroes on The Halli Casser-Jayne Show the podcast posted at 3 pm ET at Halli Casser-Jayne dot com.