Posted by Professor Klaus Werner Immerschreiben on July 06, 2000 at 21:25:12:
In Reply to: Beginning of the Flying Tigers posted by Bill Cosson on July 06, 2000 at 15:43:44:
Mr Cossen’s comments are both historically and morally correct. As I made clear in my article on Jake Cutter in the Seiber Islands Historical Journal (at the web site referred to below):
“Moreover, Jake's short stint in China in 1937 was not with the Flying Tigers--which would not be created until 1941--but with the China National Aviation Corporation ("CNAC"). [Footnote omitted] Although hired to fly cargo and passenger aircraft, he flew a few missions with the otherwise ill-fated 14th Volunteer Squadron at Hankou. “
My father, who had the honour of interviewing Jake Cutter from 1969-1971 made it very clear to me that Jake Cutter never claimed to be a “Flying Tiger”. (By the way, Jake Cutter’s ill-fated flight was—as pointed out in my article--in 1972, not as stated in my former research assistant’s posting, 1962.) Jake stated in those interviews that his “original” jacket did have a “blood chit” on it, but this was, of course, from his days flying with the CNAC and was not an AVG blood chit.
From these and other comments made by my father, as well as my own review of my father’s notes of the interviews, I am sure that Jake, himself, would have been quite concerned that he was mistakenly identified as a “Flying Tiger” in the American television series TOTGM. Jake’s own bravery and contributions to the defense of freedom against Japanese militarism are both well-known and well-documented—-he certainly did not need to bask in anyone else’s well-deserved honour and glory.