"Fighting Tigers"
by Robert Taylor

"Greetings, you American bandits of the Flying Tigers, and especially you young American kids of the USAAF who have come to take their place. The invincible Japanese Air Force will utterly destroy you on your first day of activation - the Fourth of July - your Independence Day!"

Tokyo Rose was screeching her propaganda over the shortwave radio out of Shanghai as the 23rd Fighter Group prepared to assume the mantle of Chennault's American Volunteer Group - the Flying Tigers. Her rantings served only to fill the new pilots with greater determination, and to provoke Chennault into immediate action: "We will not wait till the 4th. We'll hit them on the
3rd!" vowed General Chennault on hearing the broadcast, and that is precisely what the young American kids did. Flying their P-40 Warhawks, 29 rookie pilots ripped into a force of 48 Zeros over Kweilin, chopping down 34 enemy aircraft without loss on their first day in combat - a full day before the 23rd FG officially came into being. Tokyo Rose fell silent the following day.

Robert Taylor has painted a superb picture reconstructing an action fought over the Hsiang Chiang river on August 5, 1944. Following a successful attack on Japanese forces just north of Changsha, P-40 Warhawks of the 75th and 16th Fighter Squadrons, 23rd FG, are attacked by enemy Nakajima fighters and a massive dog-fight has developed with aircraft wheeling and turning in all directions. The action is set against the distinctive, haunting landscape of Southern China, Robert's panoramic
canvas capturing all the atmosphere of a crucial aerial campaign fought in the skies above a distant land so many years ago.

Only 500 prints are available worldwide and each print is personally signed by five Flying Tigers, to include: Major General John Alison, Colonel 'Tex' Hill, Lt. Colonel Don Lopez, Colonel Ed Rector, Brigadier General Wiltz Segura, and, of course, the artist, Robert Taylor.