Claire Lee Chennault

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Claire Lee Chennault
Claire L. Chennault.jpg
Born (1893-09-06)September 6, 1893
Commerce, Texas, U.S.
Died July 27, 1958(1958-07-27) (aged 64)
New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
Allegiance  United States of America
Service/branch USAAC Roundel 1919-1941.svg U.S. Army Air Corps (1917–1937)
Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) Logo.svg Republic of China Air Force (1937–1942)
US Army Air Corps Hap Arnold Wings.svg U.S. Army Air Forces (1942–1945)
Years of service 1917–1945
Rank US-O9 insignia.svg Lieutenant general
Commands held 1st American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers)

World War I
Sino-Japanese War
World War II

Awards Army Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Distinguished Flying Cross (2)
Order of the Cloud and Banner
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of Blue Sky and White Sun
Spouse(s) Nell Thompson (1911-1946)
Anna Chennault (née Chen Xiangmei) (1947-1958, his death)

Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his mercenary leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Republic of China Air Force in World War II. Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fighter-interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U.S. Army Air Corps was focused primarily on high-altitude bombardment. Chennault retired from the United States Army in 1937, and went to work as an aviation adviser and trainer in China. Starting in early 1941, Chennault commanded the 1st American Volunteer Group (nicknamed Flying Tigers). One mission which never came to fruition was the bombing of Japanese cities; the bombers did not arrive before Pearl Harbor. (B-29's started bombing from China in 1944, but they were not under Chennault's command.) He headed both the volunteer group and the uniformed U.S. Air Force units that replaced it in 1942. He feuded constantly with General Joseph Stilwell, the U.S. Army commander in China, and helped China's leader Chiang Kai-shek to convince President Roosevelt to remove him in 1944. By that time, however, Washington saw China as a backwater in the war.

The surname Chennault is French[Note 1] and is often pronounced shen-o. However, his American family pronounced the name "shen-AWLT."[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Chennault was born in Commerce, Texas, to John Stonewall Jackson Chennault and Jessie (nėe Lee) Chennault. He grew up in the Louisianan towns of Gilbert and Waterproof. He began misrepresenting his year of birth as either 1889[3] or 1890, possibly because he was too young to attend college after he graduated from high school, so his father added three years to his age.[4][5]

Military career[edit]





Poor health (deafness and chronic bronchitis) and disputes with superiors and the fact that he was passed over as unqualified for promotion, led Chennault to resign from the military on April 30, 1937; he separated from the service at the rank of captain. As a civilian, He then was induced to go to China and join a small group of American civilians training Chinese airmen.[9]

Before the Flying Tigers[edit]


Capt. C.L Chennault poses in front of a Boeing P-12E, 1934.

However, Soviet bomber and fighter squadrons increasingly took over from China's battered units, and in the summer of 1938 Chennault went to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in western China, to train and organize a new Chinese Air Force along the American model.[11][12]



Chennault's mission to Washington ultimately brought up the idea of creating an American Volunteer Group of pilots and mechanics to serve in China. By then Dr. Soong had already begun negotiations for an increase in financial aid with U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Federal Loan Administrator Jesse H. Jones on October 17.[14]

US Army Air Forces video:"Flying Tigers Bite Back"


The 100 planes were crated and sent to Burma on third country freighters during spring 1941. At Rangoon, they were unloaded, assembled and test flown by personnel of Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO) before being delivered to the AVG training unit at Toungoo.[Note 2] Their first battle occurred on December 20, 1941 with aircraft flying out of Kunming.[16]


Chennault was able to recruit some 300 American pilots and ground crew, posing as tourists, who were adventurers or mercenaries, not necessarily idealists out to save China. But under Chennault they developed into a crack fighting unit, always going against superior Japanese forces. They became the symbol of America's military might in Asia.[17] They became the Flying Tigers.[13]

Plan to bomb Japan[edit]

By early 1941 the U.S. was preparing to send American planes flown by American pilots under American command, but wearing Chinese uniforms, to fight the Japanese invaders and even to bomb Japanese cities, all using the Flying Tigers, as soon as they were in place. A year before the U.S. officially entered the war, Chennault developed an ambitious plan for a sneak attack on Japanese bases. His Flying Tigers would use American bombers and American pilots, all with Chinese markings. He made the fantastic claim that a handful of fliers and planes could win the war single handed.[citation needed]

The U.S. military was opposed to this scheme and raised obstacles, noting that being able to reach Japan depended on Chiang Kai-shek's troops being able to build and protect airfields and bases close enough to Japan, which they doubted he could do. They also had little confidence in Chennault having pushed him out of the air forces earlier. Despite the military advice the idea of China winning the war with Japan swiftly with only a few American men and planes was too tempting to the civilian leaders. It was adopted by top civilian officials including Treasury Secretary Morgenthau and President Roosevelt himself.[Note 3]

By October 1941, bombers and crews were on their way to China. However, the American attack never took place: The Nationalist Chinese had not built and secured any runways or bases close enough to reach Japan, just as the military brass had warned. The bombers and crews arrived after Pearl Harbor and were used for the war in Burma, for they lacked the range to reach Japan from the secure bases in China.[18][19][20]

Flying Tigers[edit]


Just weeks after the Japanese air Attack on Pearl Harbor (Sunday morning, December 7, 1941), the first news reports released to the public pertaining to Chennault's war exploits occurred on December 20, 1941, when senior Chinese officials in Chungking that Saturday evening released his name to United Press International reporters to commemorate the first aerial attack made by the international air force called the American Volunteer Group (AVG).[21][22][23][24] These American flyers encountered 10 Japanese aircraft heading to raid Kunming and successfully shot down four of the raiders. Thus, Colonel Claire Chennault became America's "first military leader" to be publicly recognized for striking a blow against the Japanese military forces. However, at the time Chennault was not a member of the American military having been forced out as a captain. He was an American civilian mercenary who was paid and promoted to colonel by Chiang Kai-Shek. In 1948, Chennault made the controversial claim that General Clayton Bissell had not informed him of the subsequent Doolittle raid, and that the raiders took unnecessary casualties because of it but was never able to demonstrate how telling him could have helped. He was not even an American officer at the time.[25]

Based primarily out of Rangoon, Burma, and Kunming, Yunnan, Chennault's 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) – better known as the "Flying Tigers" – began training in August 1941 and fought the Japanese for seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chennault's three squadrons used P-40s, and his tactics of "defensive pursuit," formulated in the years when bombers were actually faster than intercepting fighter aircraft, to guard the Burma Road, Rangoon, and other strategic locations in Southeast Asia and western China against Japanese forces. As the commander of the Chinese Air Force flight training school at Yunnan-yi, west of Kunming, Chennault also made a great contribution by training a new generation Chinese fighter pilots. The Flying Tigers were formally incorporated into the United States Army Air Forces in 1942. Prior to that, Chennault had rejoined the Army with the rank of colonel. He was later promoted to brigadier general and then major general, commanding the Fourteenth Air Force.[citation needed]

The first magazine photo coverage of Chennault took place within Life magazine in the Monday, August 10, 1942, issue. The first Time magazine photo coverage of Chennault took place in its Monday, December 6, 1943, issue.[26] The name Flying Tigers refers to the Louisiana State University Tigers.

China-Burma-India theater[edit]

Throughout the war Chennault was engaged in a bitter dispute with the American ground commander, General Joseph Stilwell. Chennault believed that the Fourteenth Air Force, operating out of bases in China, could attack Japanese forces in concert with Nationalist troops. For his part, Stilwell wanted air assets diverted to his command to support the opening of a ground supply route through northern Burma to China. This route would provide supplies and new equipment for a greatly expanded Nationalist force of twenty to thirty modernized divisions. Chiang Kai-shek favored Chennault's plans, since he was suspicious of British colonial interests in Burma and was not prepared to begin major offensive operations against the Japanese. He was also concerned about alliances with semi-independent generals supporting the Nationalist government, and was concerned that a major loss of military forces would enable his Communist Chinese adversaries to gain the upper hand.[citation needed]


Chennault and second wife Chen Xiangmei


Chennault, who, unlike Joseph Stilwell, had a high opinion of Chiang Kai-shek, advocated international support for Asian anti-communist movements. Returning to China, he purchased several surplus military aircraft and created the Civil Air Transport, (later known as Air America).[27] These aircraft facilitated aid to Nationalist China during the struggle against Chinese Communists in the late 1940s, and were later used in supply missions to French forces in Indochina[27] and the Kuomintang occupation of northern Burma throughout the mid- and late-1950s, providing support for the Thai police force. This same force supplied the intelligence community and others during the Vietnam conflict.[citation needed]






Statue of Chennault located in Taipei's New Park

Chennault was promoted to lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force on July 18, 1958, nine days before his death on July 27, at the Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans.[29] He died of lung cancer. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery (Section 2, 873).[30]

Personal life[edit]



His children from the first marriage were John Stephen Chennault (1913–1977), Max Thompson Chennault (1914–2001), Charles Lee Chennault (1918–1967), Peggy Sue Chennault Lee (1919 - 2004), Claire Patterson Chennault (November 24, 1920 – October 3, 2011),[31] David Wallace Chennault (1923–1980), Robert Kenneth Chennault (1925–2006), and Rosemary Louise Chennault Simrall (September 27, 1928 – August 25, 2013).[32]

The Chennault daughters from the second marriage are Claire Anna Chennault (born 1948) and Cynthia Louise Chennault (born 1950), a professor of Chinese at the University of Florida, Gainesville.[33]

Claire P. Chennault, one of Claire Lee's sons, was a U.S. Army Air Corps and then U.S. Air Force officer from 1943 to 1966 and subsequent resident of Ferriday, Louisiana.[31]



Chennault was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 40¢ Great Americans series (1980–2000) postage stamp.[35][36]



For many years Chennault was viewed negatively within the People's Republic of China, due to his role against the Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War. However, this has changed slowly since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the U.S., with Chennault being viewed more positively. In 2005, the "Flying Tigers Memorial" was built in Huaihua, Hunan Province, on one of the old airstrips used by the Flying Tigers in the 1940s. On the 65th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and PRC officials unveiled a statue of Chennault in Zhijiang County, Hunan.[39] The Kunming Flying Tigers Museum opened on December 20, 2012, on the 71st anniversary of the first combat in Kunming of the Flying Tigers.[citation needed] Chongqing is also home to a Flying Tigers Memorial and Exhibition dedicated to Chennault and his aviators. It's opposite the former residence of General Stilwell.

Awards and decorations[edit]


See also[edit]



  1. ^ The family name is French. Claire Lee Chennault is a French-American by ancestry. He is in the genealogy book: Descendants of Estienne Chennault who came to the U.S. in the 1800s.[1]


  1. ^ "Profile: Chenault, Claire Lee." Retrieved: September 7, 2010.
  2. ^ "Chenault profile." Retrieved: October 5, 2011.
  4. ^ Hessen 1983, p. ix.
  5. ^ Byrd 1987, Chapter 1.
  7. ^ Byrd 1987, Chapter 3.
  8. ^ Owen 1985[page needed]
  9. ^ Byrd 1987, Chapter 6.
  10. ^ Byrd 1987, Chapter 7.
  13. ^ a b c d Byrd 1987, Chapter 8.
  14. ^ Byrd 1987, Chapters 7–8.
  15. ^ Dr. T.V. Soong: President of the Bank of China.
  16. ^ Schultz 1987[page needed]
  19. ^ Schaller, Michael. "American Air Strategy in China, 1939-1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare". American Quarterly(JSTOR), Edition 28, issue 1, 1976. pp. 3-19.
  25. ^ Considine, Bob. "Under Fire.", October 18, 2007. Retrieved: February 11, 2010.
  27. ^ a b Smith 1995
  29. ^ Byrd 1987, p. 367.
  30. ^ "Military Figures: General Chennault." Retrieved: December 2, 2009.
  31. ^ a b "Lt. Col. Claire Patterson Chennault." Natchez Democrat, October 5, 2011. Retrieved: October 15, 2011.
  32. ^ "Rosemary Chennault Simrall." Monroe News-Star. Retrieved: August 27, 2013.
  33. ^ "Descendants of Claire Lee Chennault.", June 7, 2010.
  39. ^ "Former U.S. President James Carter attends peace festival in central China.", September 8, 2010. Retrieved: September 8, 2010.



External links[edit]

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Cover of Time Magazine
December 6, 1943
Succeeded by
Charles Edward Wilson