The reason the Japanese aircraft ignited ablaze so easily was they did not have self sealing fuel tanks. They knew about it but wanted all the speed possible.
The Flying Tigers were volunteers flying for China just after Japan invaded China, before WWII officially started with the invasion of Poland by Germany. The Flying Tigers were officially under the Democratic Chinese government. The Communist were in favor of the Flying Tigers because of their efficiency against the Japanese AND because they weren't going to be staying after the war ended, so China would stay Chinese and wouldn't have to worry about trained military non chinese staying in the country who were probably not inclined towards Chinese communism. China did need the Tigers, and for the US, it gave us experienced fighter and bomber pilots when we finally entered WWII.
Theres a great book about them by Jack Samson, called "The Flying Tiger" Dan, you mentioned getting into history books, and thats a great one. So is Shattered Sword.
Hey Dan, for some reason this has been playing in my head. I don't know why or how it got stuck in my head. I've rabbit holed this topic with a heap of small video's. For something different you might like to react to: The Most Bloodthirsty Tyrant In Africa, The Ending Of IDI AMIN DADA by Ultimate Discovery. It's about 30mins long. The Butcher of Africa, Uganda's making & breaking.
Luftwaffees deadliest mission, and Y29 are a couple of episodes that i don't see in the History channel Dogfights playlist and a few others, the episodes you won't find on History, you can find on "Military Heroes" channel
