210: The Pacific War 1944: From the Cairo Conference to the Marianas Turkey Shoot

**Greg Jackson** (0:10)
It's December 20th, 1941, we're in southwestern China in the Yunnan province's capital city of Kunming. And Claire Lee-Shenalt is at his newly established headquarters, likely poring over maps and charts, doing all he can to make sure his volunteer pilots are ready to strike the Japanese Air Force the moment they get the chance.
See Claire, or old Leatherface, as the nearly 50-year-old, hard-of-hearing World War I vet, and feisty Louisianan is known. May have been pressed to retire from the US Army Air Corps a few years back, but he was quick to accept an offer abroad. Now, he holds the rank of Colonel in the Chinese Air Force. Nor is he the only American here. Back in April, President Franklin Roosevelt quietly authorized reserve officers and enlisted men in the US military to resign if they wanted to join the ranks of old Leatherface's flyboys in China, the American Volunteer Group, or the AVG. With Japan having laid waste to China for years at this point, as we learned back in 193, it was a slick way to get American flyers into Chinese skies without the US declaring war on Japan. That loophole doesn't feel so important a little less than two weeks out from the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, but no matter. What's important in the moment is this. The AVG is in China, and now with Kunming still reeling from a deadly bombing just two days ago, old Leatherface has brought his boys to town, ready to give Japan a fight if they again dare to strike this vital city through which American lend lease and other foreign supplies supporting the embattled Republic of China flow.
At 9:45 a.m., Claire's phone rings.
It's Commander of the Chinese 5th Air Force and Chief of Staff for the AVG, Colonel Wang Shu-ming. Ten Japanese bombers crossed the Yunnan border at Lao Cai heading northwest. Claire snaps to it as his pilot scrambled. This is it. This is the American Volunteer Group's moment. It's time to inspire the beleaguered Chinese people with a forceful show of American might, or to confirm that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was but the beginning of the end for all who oppose the Empire of the Rising Sun. No pressure.
Old Leatherface has a red flare fired, the signal for takeoff. And with that, eight to ten Curtis P-40s from the Panda Bear, aka Second Squadron, each one likely wearing the AVG's fierce shark-tooth paint job under its roaring single engine, tear down the runway. Taken to the sky, they form two formations, one of which ascends to provide top cover patrolling over the city, the other off to hunt. Both groups soon disappear into the clouds.
On the ground, Claire listens as one of his squad leaders, Jack Newkirk, radios back. Shark Fin Blue calling base. Bandit sighted 60 miles east. Attacking.
Then, silence. Minutes pass. Still silence. Oh, God. With a heavy heart, Claire calls up the Adam and Eve's 1st Squadron. 14 Shark Toothed P-40s tear into the sky.
Charlie Bond is thrilled. As the well-trained but fresh-to-the-fight pilot will later write, This time, it was the real thing.
Numbering among the 1st Squadron reinforcements, he's soaring at roughly 20,000 feet, somewhere to the southeast of Kunming, peering through the clouds looking for the enemy when, Yes, that's them. 10 Mitsubishi Type 97 bombers. In turn, the Japanese bombers spot the Americans. Immediately, they cut from their flight path and turn back toward their base at Hanoi. But Charlie and the rest of the Adam and Eve's are in hot pursuit. Pushing to full throttle or close to it, indicating a speed of 225 miles per hour, the P-40's grinning shark teeth grow closer and closer to the fleeing Japanese tails. Caught somewhere between the nerves and excitement of his first taste of battle, Charlie double checks his oxygen mask and gun switch. He homes in, feels his heart pounding, and what? Nothing? Oh shoot, the nervous pilot checked his gun so many times he locked it. Too close to the Japanese to do anything but break off, he circles back around. This time, he's got it.
Charlie lets it rip, his 50 cal machine gun tears at the Japanese bombers, right as other Americans do the same. They're on top of each other. It's nothing short of a miracle that the Americans don't kill one another with friendly fire. Meanwhile, the Japanese fire back in kind. But as they do, two are smoking. The Americans continue to hit the lot of them from every direction. With fuel getting low, Adam and Eve leader Robert Sandy Sandal calls his boys off. They fly back to Kunming. And oh, are these young flyboys ecstatic. While the full outcome of this engagement is yet to be known, they clearly got the better of the Japanese, which feels so good right after Pearl Harbor. And they've sent a clear message to friend and foe alike. Japan's open season bombings on China are over.