Trace of Flying Tigers 2：Flight jacket with bullet holes
Editor’s note:
Flying Tigers is an honorary name to the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force, as well as to the successive US Air Task Force in China, the 14th Air Force of the United States Army, the Hump Air Transport Command, China National Aviation Corporation and the Chinese American Composite Wing. All led by U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault, the organizations were in function from July 1941 to August 1945.
The Flying Tigers is historically bonded with Yunnan. From 1941 when Chennault was invited to Yunnan to form the AVG to the recent visit by the Flying Tigers veterans in early November 2023, Yunnan has witnessed the friendly exchanges and cooperation between China and the US for more than 80 years.
The healthy and stable development of China-US relations in the new era requires the participation and support of “a new generation of Flying Tigers”. To carry forward the spirit of the Flying Tigers, we have some special Flying Tigers stories for our readers. Today, let’s take a closer look at a flight jacket with bullet holes.
Chen's flight jacket with bullet holes is displayed at the Kunming Flying Tigers Museum.
Trace of Flying Tigers 2：Flight jacket with bullet holes
A flight jacket with bullet holes is displayed at the Kunming Flying Tigers Museum. The jacket’s owner, Chen Bingjing (also known as Chen Ping Ching), was one of 12 Chinese “Flying Tigers” of the 14th Air Force of the United States Army during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and the jacket with bullet holes has an unforgettable story.
Chen works for the 14th Air Force in the 1940s.
In March 1943, Chen was assigned to the 75th Squadron of the 23rd Brigade of the US 14th Air Force, where he flew P-40 aircraft as a warrant officer in the almost exclusively American section.
In the following six months, Chen followed the Flying Tigers around the battlefield, shooting down more than 10 Japanese warplanes, killing more than 10 Japanese soldiers, and blowing up many Japanese military supplies and ships.
On one mission over Vietnam, he first managed to shoot down a Japanese plane, but his plane was also hit by another Japanese plane that followed up. Chen Bingjing then parachuted and drifted into a virgin forest near the Sino-Vietnamese border. He was captured by the Japanese invaders six days later.
Chen works for the 14th Air Force in the 1940s.
With seven gunshot wounds in his right shoulder and right arm at the time, Chen was detained in Nanjing Tiger Bridge Prison without receiving proper medical treatment.
A Japanese fascist then cut open his arm but did not took out the bullets, leaving the wounds inflamed with the intention of destroying his right arm. Thanks to the care of a Taiwanese military doctor, Chen saved his arm and survived the tortures via his perseverance and aids from fellow inmates.
The gunshot wounds on Chen’s body finally healed, but the deadly air battle was recorded for good by the bullet holes on his flight jacket.
Chen lives in peace in his late years.
Following Japan’s surrender in August 1945, Chen Bingjing was released and assigned to Zhijiang in central China’s Hunan province, together with his American peers. In 1959, he resigned from the military and settled in Hong Kong, engaging in international trade.
When the Kunming Flying Tigers Museum opened in December 2012, Chen presented his blood-stained jacket to the museum, reminding the future generations not to forget about history and do cherish peace.
On December 23, 2022, Chen passed away in Hong Kong at the age of 104.
By YICC reporters