Tigers In The Valley

L/E of 199 Giclee Prints
S/N by the Artist
Image Size: 30" x 19.5"
Paper Size: 35.5" x 24"

Plane Type: P-40 Warhawk

In the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, the P40Es of the Eleventh Fighter Squadron, 343rd Fighter Group were painted like the Flying Tigers. This was out of respect for AVG Commander General Claire Chennault and for his son John Chennault, who commanded the Eleventh Fighter Squadron,. Know as the "Aleutian Tigers," and sometimes as the "Bengal Tigers," the Eleventh Fighter Squadron faced a fierce and entrencehed enemy in bitter arctic weather. Major John Chennault's Aleutian Tigers decorated their P40Es in a similar fashion to his father's Flying Tigers in China. Ten of the Aleutian P-40s moved to Umnak Island in May 1942 and scored one victory during the initial Japanese attack in June of that year. Joined in the 343rd Fighter Group, Eleventh USAAF by the Eighteenth and Fifty-fourth Fighter Squadrons and by 11 Kittyhawks of the Royal Canadian Air Force's No. 111 Squadron, the Aleutian fighters numbered 80 aircraft by the end of the Japanese occupation of U.S. territory. PLANE JUNKIE - Tigers in the Valley by Jack Fellows (P-40 Warhawk)