Chennault was originally a graduate of Louisiana State Normal College in the United States, working as a teacher in the countryside, and by chance, he first went to Louisville Christian Church as a sports coach, and then was admitted to the Benjamin Noncommissioned Officer School in Indiana and officially joined the army.
However, he soon retired from the military and went to study at the Crilliver Aviation School, and after obtaining a pilot position, he was hired as an air force officer by the newly formed Army Aviation.
But it wasn't long either.
During a joint land-air exercise, Chennault had a dispute with The War Department General Staff Officer Kilburn and was removed from the officers' roster in 1934, when Chennault was 44 years old, deaf, sick, and his future prospects for life seemed bleak.
Mao Bangchu, the nephew of Chiang Kai-shek's original wife, Mao Fumei, extended a helping hand to Chennault when he was down, recommending him to Soong Mei-ling, then secretary general of the China Aviation Commission.
Song Meiling, who had always been superstitious about Americans and had a special affinity for Americans, sent an invitation to Chennault to serve as an air force adviser in China.
In his 1949 memoir, The Road of a Warrior, Chennault detailed the scene in which Roy Holbrook took him to see Mrs. Chiang, with a detail: "Roy poked me and said to her, 'Mrs. Chiang, please allow me to introduce, this is Colonel Chennault.'" ’”
Note that Chennault, who retired from the U.S. Military with the rank of captain, had never previously received a higher rank than major. If Holbrooke did call him "Colonel," the title was forged by these Americans, either from the Chinese government.
Considering that the Chinese officers who worked with Chennault in the 1930s unanimously concluded that the Chinese government did not confer a title on him, the statement that "Americans falsified military ranks" became a fact.
How did Chennault come to China?
In 2017, in order to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, on August 24, the Sichuan Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Chennault Aviation Military Museum of the United States held a lecture on "Promoting the Spirit of flying tigers and spreading Sino-US friendship" in Chengdu, inviting Nell calloway, director of the Chennault Aviation Military Museum and granddaughter of General Chennault, to give a speech.
Kelewei told reporters that her maternal grandfather once said: "The task of coming to China, in addition to a little good remuneration, is of great significance, because my meager strength may affect history, and it is really impossible to refuse." ”
So, what is Chennault's "slightly decent pay"?
According to the contract signed by the Government of the Republic of China with American pilots, each pilot is paid $600 per month, the squad leader is paid $650 per month, and the squadron leader is paid $700 per month. There is also a $500 bonus for each Japanese aircraft shot down.
In contrast, a year later, the monthly salary of a U.S. Army Air Corps pilot was only $347 at most, while the highest-ranking Air Force colonel pilot at that time was only equivalent to $180 in January.
From this, it can be seen that Chennault's Flying Tigers are definitely a pure high-paid mercenary force.
Not only that, these Flying Tigers have all received state guest-level treatment in China.
According to Chennault's request, the National Government "shall provide each pilot with a single room ... Separate, separate bathrooms and toilets for all staff... A game room is provided for every fifty people. These rooms should have a card table, a games table or a ping-pong table. ”
According to Flying Tigers correspondent R.m Smith in "Flying Tigers Diaries: With Chennault", when he arrived in Kunming, "the house was new and clean." There was white cloth on the table... And nice American ham, eggs, coffee. Camel brand cigarettes were bought in the guest house. Bathroom with shower and hot water... There is also a real bar on the second floor... Life here is too effortless... I threw the dirty clothes on the floor, and the waiter took it away, washed it and brought it back, and put it in the appropriate closet. When I was eating lunch or breakfast, two or three Chinese servants were washing my car. ”
The Nationalist government provided these mercenaries with high standards of food, which became a heavy burden everywhere: cattle in Kunming were killed, followed by buffalo and yak.
According to the deployment of the Japanese Army Air Force on the Burma battlefield at that time and the Japanese war damage data, the Flying Tigers shot down 115 Japanese fighters and lost 80 fighters themselves.
Compared with the Soviet Volunteer Air Force' destruction of 195 Japanese aircraft in the Chinese battlefield from 1937 to 1941, providing a low-interest loan of 250 million US dollars to China, and selling 1285 aircraft and other combat materials to China, its positive significance in China's War of Resistance was much higher than that of the Flying Tigers.
However, simply positioning the Flying Tigers as high-paid mercenaries is not very accurate.
Because Chennault's participation in the war in China was encouraged and tacitly accepted by the U.S. government and the military, he was later able to return to the U.S. army and become a senior officer as the commander of the 14th Air Force.
Why did the U.S. government and military encourage Chennault to come to China to fight?
There are roughly three reasons for this:
First, let Chennault come to China to help China rebuild its air force and prevent Japan from controlling China;
Second, allowing Chennault and the "Flying Tigers" to come to China to accumulate actual combat experience in Japanese aviation operations will be conducive to the future operations of the US military against Japan;
Third, through the US media coverage of Chennault and the "Flying Tigers", we will promote Congress to abandon isolationism and appeasement.
Finally, I would like to point out in particular that on August 5, 1949, after the United States published the white paper "The Relationship between the United States and China," Chairman Mao wrote four commentaries for the Xinhua News Agency, and in the article "Farewell, Stuart Layden", he directly exposed Chennault's crime of helping Chiang Kai-shek fight the civil war; in the early fifties of the last century, the People's Daily also published "Evidence of chennault's airlift massacre of Chinese people", "The US military has wantonly insulted and plundered my compatriots, and the citizens of Kunming angrily accused and exposed the crimes of chennault, an air robber".
Having introduced Chennault, the following can be said to be his widow Chen Xiangmei.
In fact, needless to say, Chen Xiangmei is not Chennault's original wife!
Chennault was born in 1893, and as early as 1911, when he was a teacher in rural Louisiana, he married the beautiful girl of the same school, Nell Thomson.
But when Chennault and his Flying Tigers made a big splash in China, when his heroic deeds and "savior" identity seduced chen Xiangmei, the then 19-year-old "little fan sister", in order to get Chen Xiangmei, he returned to China, without saying a word, and left the aging Nell Thomson.
On December 21, 1947, at the age of 54, Chennault happily entered the marriage hall with chen Xiangmei, who was 23 years old.
In other words, how was Chen Xiangmei hunted by Chennault?
Chen Xiangmei's father, Chen Yingrong, was a juris doctor from Oxford University and a doctor of philosophy from Columbia University, and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he served as a Chinese diplomat in the United States and met Chennault when he was in the United States.
In fact, the visas for the Flying Tigers to China were also handled with the assistance of Chen Yingrong.
After graduating from Lingnan University, Chen Xiangmei was selected as the first female war correspondent of the Central News Agency to work in the Kunming branch of the Central News Agency.
Then, in the process of interviewing the hero Chennault many times, the two sparked.
Chen Xiangmei later recalled that she and Chennault were in love at first sight and had a mutual affection.
She put it this way: "This is the beginning of our spiritual harmony and tacit understanding, which continues until the end of his life." ”
From Chen Xiangmei's point of view, she is the first to open her heart, and it is difficult to control herself.
From Chennault's point of view, just like Qian Zhongshu said in "Siege of the City": the love of the elderly is like the old house on fire, there is no way to save it, it can only be burned to the end.
Therefore, Chennault had no remorse, after returning to China, he abandoned his wife and children, and wholeheartedly plunged into the love career with Chen Xiangmei, and he saw people at that time and said: "I have only tasted real happiness for decades now!" ”
Unfortunately, this happiness only lasted for more than a decade - on July 27, 1958, Chennault left the world due to illness at the age of 67.
Chen Xiangmei was only 33 years old, and led the two daughters born to Chennault to begin a long road of widowhood, which was kept for 60 years! He died at his home in Washington on March 30, 2018, at the age of 93.
However, in this long 60 years, Chen Xiangmei has not wasted it.
When Chennault was alive, she was just a shadow living under Chennault's figure; after Chennault's death, she really lived herself.
She managed Chennault's company, wrote books, and translated, and slowly entered the mainstream society of Chinese participation in politics, became the first female vice president of American Airlines, joined a major Bank of America, became the first Asian director, participated in and witnessed many major historical moments, and became a great woman.