TIGERS IN THE GORGE - Framed Collector's Piece

The sound of snarling Allison engines rings through the gorge over the Li River as shark-mouthed P-40s of the legendary American Volunteer Group, the ‘Flying Tigers’, return to their base in Kweilin, China, 1942.

By mid-May of 1942, the forces of Imperial Japan had completed a string of cruel conquests and began a large armored advance along the Burma Road toward Kunming, China. In an effort to confound the enemy, the fleeing Chinese blew up the bridge at the bottom of the tortuous Salween River Gorge. Nothing but a handful of daring pilots of the American Volunteer Group stood in the way of China’s probable demise. After dive-bombing the winding road above, “Tex” Hill, an ace of the famed Flying Tigers, is shown here leading an attack to cut short the enemy’s attempt to construct a makeshift bridge across the river. As a result of the AVG’s valiant effort, the enemy was forced to retreat, and Kunming would not fall.