A Tiger Zoo--Flying Tigers AVG, CBI, & 23rd Fighter Grouping + Other PTO ETO Heroes

[josesharontraders]

Thank you all for posting your fantastic collection of AVG Flying Tigers artefacts.

 

Also I thank the ADMIN for fixing my account into which I could not log in because of the email address requirement--THANK YOU, ADMIN!!!!

(now I can reply to messages)

 

Jose

[josesharontraders]

In June 2019, my fam and I visited the San Diego Air & Space Museum.  Here are the pictures I took. We were invited by its Chairman, Terry Brennan, to view also the basement workshops and vaults. They hope to find a donor for a P-40 Kittyhawk.

 

Please enjoy firstly  a smattering of museum including the Flying Tigers AVG section photos taken by my daughter: 

 

 

 

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And, with some minor overlap, here are the photos I took:

 

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To get the full feel of the busy museum, last of the basement photos:

 

[josesharontraders]

And so, as promised some years ago, posted today my SDASM visit. Hope you like, my friends...

 

 

 

[Scott C.]

Thanks for posting all of the great photos - especially the basement, which I've never had the honor to visit. I remember going the museum with my dad when it was in the Electrical Building before the fire in '78. My parents were fixtures in the San Diego flying community from the late 1940s thru the late 1990s when my dad passed away.

[josesharontraders]

Dear Scott,

 

Happy Sunday. I'm glad you enjoyed this, helping to bring up good memories of your parents. You're so welcome.

 

jose

 

 

[GAZOO]

Recently added this set of Chines Made 23rd Fighter group DUI 's to my collection +++++
 

 

   

 

[warguy]

Very nice set!

[GAZOO]

3 hours ago, warguy said:

Very nice set!

  Thanks very much, I still need to find a nice Original 23rd patch to go along with the set :)
 

[Phroger46]

These pins are absolutely beautiful.  A collection to definitely be jealous of.

[Ilin1979]

On 11/29/2019 at 8:22 PM, josesharontraders said:

Why British India Made Unofficial Period AVG Patches of the Flying Tiger were so differently drawn by Indian tailors? Comparing the stocky, wide-faced tiger drawn by Jinxing Street tailors of Kunming, China for the 1st & 2nd Official AVG Flying

Tigers patches as well as the CATF period AVG reproduction patches ordered by RT Smith, or AVG HQ Skip Adair, it is simply that Amur tigers (or Siberian tigers) were fondly elevated in drawings & folk legend because of their scarcity at the lower northern regions of China and the paucity of any man-eating events. Whereas, Bengal tigers were always described in Urdu or Hindu writings as a sleek monster with a helmet, too hard to spear, whose quick head & neck would snap out to pluck little children from open windows as it strolled through the stricken Indian towns at night.

 

Here is an excerpt from an article about the hunting and killing of the Champawat Bengal Tiger, which lived in the early 1930s in the time when tigers commonly ate an average of 5,000 Indians per year. So you can see how that reflected in the way Indian tailors embroidered Unofficial Period AVG patches for AVG Bob Neale or Pappy Paxton.

 

...Corbett tracked his quarry to near the village of Champawat. When he arrived, he found all of the residents boarded up inside their homes. No one had dared venture outside for five whole days.

 

The tigress struck again soon after Corbett’s arrival, this time killing a 16-year old girl. This was to be her final kill and the one that allowed Corbett to track her. As he recalled, “The track of the tigress was clearly visible. On one side of it were great splashes of blood where the girl’s head had hung down, and on the other side the trail of her feet.”

 

The tracks and blood led Corbett straight to the ferocious tiger, which he finally brought down with his rifle. By the time he had taken her down in 1907, he estimated she had killed about 436 people over the course of four years. ...

 

Valuable Br.India made AVG Insignia. Pin owned by fellow collector Kanemono & the other ordered mid June 1942 by AVG finance person Pappy Paxton stationed in Calcutta in behalf of 1st Squadron or any other AVG--missing out on the May 22, 1942 Official 1st Series AVG Flying Tigers Patch distribution--and requesting in the last 40 days of the AVG to July 4, 1942

 

 

 

 

 

Hello do you have more information on this type of pin? I cant find pictures of it anywhere else, never seen them anywhere. 

I have one and would love to find out more. 

The one i have has a Pinback that was broken off and looks like attempted to be repaired. 

Thank you.

[josesharontraders]

Hi Llin 1979,

 

You have a period British India-made pin. They're worth $8k to $10k if in good condition. Here below is mine in ok condition.

 

 

 

There is a documented anecdote about Gen. Chennault gambling this pin in his poker game with other China Burma Theatre generals, having emptied his pockets with this pin left.

 

Good find, my friend.

 

 

Jose