The China Air Task Force (CATF) was a combat organization of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

created in July 1942 under the command of Brig. Gen.

Claire Chennault Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Nationalist Air Force in World War II. Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit ...

, after the

Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...

of the 1st

American Volunteer Group The American Volunteer Groups were Military volunteer, volunteer air units organized by the United States government to aid the Kuomintang, Nationalist government of China against Empire of Japan, Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The only ...

of the Chinese Air Force were disbanded on 4 July of that year. It consisted of the

23rd Fighter Group The 23rd Fighter Group (23 FG) is a United States Air Force unit. It is assigned to the 23rd Wing and stationed at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. The 23rd Fighter Group was established in World War II as the 23rd Pursuit Group of the United ...

with four squadrons, the assigned 74th, 75th, 76th, and attached 16th Fighter Squadrons, plus the 11th Bombardment Squadron. It was a subordinate unit of the

Tenth Air Force The Tenth Air Force (10 AF) is a unit of the U.S. Air Force, specifically a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). 10 AF is headquartered at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base/Carswell Field (formerly Carswel ...

in India, commanded by Brig. Gen. Earl Naiden and (from 18 August 1942) by Maj. Gen. Clayton Bissell. "Chennault had no respect for Bissell as a combat airman," wrote his biographer Martha Byrd, and "Bissell had no respect for Chennault as an administrator." Their relationship, she wrote, was ugly.Byrd, p. 169 On 19 March 1943, the CATF was disbanded and replaced by the

Fourteenth Air Force The Fourteenth Air Force (14 AF; Air Forces Strategic) was a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). It was headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The command was responsible for the organizatio ...

, with Chennault, now a major general, in command. In the nine months of its existence, the China Air Task Force had been credited with shooting down 149 Japanese planes, plus 85 probables, with a loss of only 16

P-40 The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk is an American single-engined, single-seat, all-metal fighter-bomber that first flew in 1938. The P-40 design was a modification of the previous Curtiss P-36 Hawk which reduced development time and enabled a rapid entr ...

s. It had flown 65 bombing missions against Japanese targets in China, Burma and Indochina, dropping 311 tons of bombs and losing only one B-25 bomber. Flying Tigers plaque

Notes

References

* Byrd, Martha. Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987) * Ford, Daniel. Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers (New York: HarperCollins, 2007) * Bright, Charles, ed. Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Air Force (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992) {{USAAF 14th Air Force World War II Military units and formations of the United States Army Air Forces Military task forces Military units and formations established in 1942 Military units and formations disestablished in 1943 Ad hoc units and formations of the United States China–United States military relations

See also

Notes

References