lying Tigers were credited with shooting down 299 enemy planes and destroying 200 on the ground, even though the Japanese at times outnumbered Chenault’s group 15 to one. On one day in late February 1942, the Flying Tigers downed 28 Japanese planes while losing none,” the report said.
“During one of the 1942 engagements, General Bond destroyed three Japanese I-97 planes while piloting his P-40B. He was credited with nine kills in all.”
One of the reasons he eventually joined the Flying Tigers was the promise of US$500 for every Japanese plane he shot down, the report said, adding that he used the money earned as a flying ace to help his parents buy a house.
Bond was shot down twice while serving in Myanmar – on May 4, 1942, and again on June 12 of the same year. Later that year he returned to the US before serving as a commander in the Vietnam War. In 1984 he co-authored a book – A Flying Tiger’s Diary – that details his exploits in Myanmar and is described by one reviewer as “by far the best account currently in print from the point of view of one of the original Flying Tiger pilots”.
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