Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger

by Martha Byrd Hoyle

Book Overview

A balanced, well-documented portrait of a brave and controversial airman who commanded a training air force for Nationalist China.

Born in rural Louisiana in 1893, Claire Lee Chennault worked as a teacher before joining the army and becoming a commissioned officer. Although he was initially rejected for flight school, he continued to apply and was finally accepted in 1918. He eventually became the lead pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps'...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817312927
• ISBN13: 9780817312923
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

the definitive biography

Martha Byrd was a good historian, and she wrote a good biography of Claire Chennault--leader of the AVG Flying Tigers, commander of the 14th Air Force, and founder of the airline that became the CIA's Air America. Writing about Chennault isn't an easy job (I know, because I wrote a history of the AVG) because he was part genius, part crackpot, and all-over trouble for his superiors. Byrd did a superlative job of sorting myth from fact, and of telling the unvarnished truth about Chennault without ever losing sight of his great humanity and his tactical brilliance. Seek out this book, second-hand or in a library, and hope that it will be republished.