David Lee Hill, Flying Tigers

Flying Tigers!

David "Tex" Hill

By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

Print Size 18 x 24"

Limited Edition $75.00

Open Edition $25.00

Limited Editions are signed by Tex Hill and the Artist.

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David "Tex" Lee Hill

By Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette

David Lee Hill was born on July 13, 1915 in Kwangju, Korea. David’s father was a Missionary in Korea and came back to American to become the Chaplin for the Texas Rangers. He picked up the nickname “Tex” while attending Mc Callie High School in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

His father encouraged David to further his education in collage and later when he became a Naval aviator. David attended Texas A&M for two years and graduated from Austin Collage in Sherman, Texas. He then joined the Navy and entered flight training. The year was 1938 and world war was still several years away. However the Japanese were in South East Asia occupying Korea, some of Viet Nam and the eastern part of China. There was war in Asia and Japan was building up its Army, Navy, and Air Force beyond the limits it was restrained by with the treaties signed after the first World War.

David and his family were more aware of this going on since they spent so many years in Korea. Many in American were not yet alarmed by the Japanese expansion but the American Government and military were keeping a keen eye in the situation.

His first assignment was aboard the USS Saratoga flying with Torpedo Squadron Three, VT-3, in which he served one year. In 1941 the world was at war. Europe, Asia and North Africa were torn with conflict with all the major nations except America involved. American pilot like David were itching for some action. Many had already joined the RAF and were fighting from the shores of England to Egypt.

China was suffering from Japanese occupation and the governments of America and China were planning a covert operation where the US would provide aircraft, aircrews and pilots. China would be paying for most all the expense including offering a financial bonus for every Japanese aircraft shot down.

Claire Chennault was a retired U.S. Army officer who had become restless with the advancement of aviation in the American military. Being somewhat of a rough, Chennault sought opportunity in the conflict in China and had befriended the leader of the country and his wife. They welcomed and financially sponsored his help with piecing together a defensive air force of pilots from many countries and a mixed collection of aircraft, which were all obsolete. Their only hope was help from the United States.

Chennault flew, fought and administered the makeshift air force. Finally he went to Washington to petition at the request of the Chinese leaders for military support. His request was granted after much lobbying. Agents were recruited to go to Army Air Force and Navy bases to find volunteers for the new group. The American Volunteer Group was born.

David was serving with Scouting Squadron 41 on board the USS Ranger when the recruiter approached David for the AVG. Ed Rector and David both signed up for this Far Eastern Adventure. The recruiter was Rutledge Irvine who was very persuading but the thought of the opportunity to see combat was the closing dealmaker. They would see combat. The war was ragging and Rutledge assured them that as soon as they filled the ranks of aviations and support personal they would be shipped out right away and be taking off of airfields in the jungles of South East Asia fighting against the Japanese within a few months.

Truly very exciting David told me. Never could a young man ever be so lucky to be at the right place at the right time with all the right skills. An Aviator is a person different from the rest. Adventure is in their hearts. Flying a fighter, or a bomber for a living is not quite like working at the grocery store. The aviator knows that they love their job, but death or injury was and still is an occupational hazard always around the corner, over the next hill, or the next landing.

Much has been written about the famous boat ride to China. Yes, it was a slow boat David told me named the Bloomfontein. On one ship was the entire hope and future of China. Mechanics, a doctor, armament personal and aviators with a hand full of staff were headed into history. Being at the right place at the right time for some would indeed be glorious. For many it would be their demise.

The conditions of the airfields were primitive. Thousands of Chinese workers leveled the airfield-using Ox pulling heavy logs back and forth with high areas leveled and the low areas filled in by pure human effort. The buildings were a mixed sort of wooden shacks along with huts made from local vegetation. Aircraft were worked on in the open in all weather twenty-four hours a day.

Chennault developed an early warning system starting on the outskirts of every Japanese airfield right to his field command. The Chinese people worked wonderfully with the Americans in an effort to fort the Japanese. All this was simply amazing to David and the rest as they arrived. The P-40 aircraft they received in crates were to be sent to England but were rerouted to Chennault. The P-40’s were put back together, lubed, oiled, filled with fuel and started as the mechanics fine-tuned the engines. Machine guns, landing gear and all electronics were gone over and connected.

David told me the sight of P-40’s lined up with their props spinning was a thrilling sight. Meanwhile the Japanese continued their attacks as the American laid low until they were ready. The wait would not be long.

David was assigned to the Second Squadron. They gave the three squadrons nicknames. The First was the “Adam & Eve Squadron” representing the first pursuit. The Second was the Panda Squadron with Panda Bears, and the Third was “Hells Angels” with a lively group of Red Angels with wings. Bert Chrisman painted the Panda Bears on the aircraft of the Second Squadron. Bert was a good friend of David’s. Bert would later be killed in combat after bailing out of his fighter shot by a Japanese pilot while in his parachute.

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor while the AVG was preparing for combat. A few weeks after the Japanese attack Jack Newkirk on January 3, 1942 led David, “Tex” and James Howard on a Japanese airfield near the village of Tak, Thailand. This surprise attack caught an official ceremonial event on the airfield with all defenses down.

The event was to celebrate the return of the Japanese pilots from the Third Hintai who were led by the Japanese aviation hero, Captain Eto from a raid on an English airfield. The local peoples were supporters of the Japanese and would rally after each raid welcoming back the victorious aviators.

Tex, Howard, and Newkirk were unaware of what was going on at the airfield, all they saw was aircraft in their final landing patterns and easy pray. As Tex told me this story he said that it was all so surreal in how it all happened. They lined up behind the unsuspecting landing aircraft, which were flying slowly with flaps deployed and landing gear stretching out to grab again the safety of earth. Tex had always wanted to fire his guns in combat and now he was leaning forward looking through his gun sights with his heart and engine racing, his finger was, on the trigger.

Many of the returning Japanese aircraft were already on the ground taxiing into their assigned areas. There were stands along the runway were the local peoples were cheering the returning warriors. The commanding officer and the rest of the airfields officers were lined up in dress uniforms watching each aircraft touchdown and roll past them. Things changed.

A Japanese aircraft exploded just fifty feet off the ground as an aircraft that at first looked like it too was in the landing pattern sprayed the casually flying Japanese with gunfire. Only this fighter was not Japanese and it was now roaring down the field followed by others all firing at once.

Japanese aircraft that were lined up and parked were exploding. David’s fighter was shaking from the roar of the six fifty-caliber machine guns as he fired into the parked enemy aircraft. Tex told me the dream like state hit him as he was barreling down the runway full throttle firing his guns and then he looked out his side canopy to see a crowd of spectators in stands. The once cheering section turned to innocent spectators to open war. Bellows of joy were stricken from their throats replaced with screams of horror. Scars of tragedy forever changed faces filled with delight.

Fireballs erupted on the field. Newkirk led the group with Howard second and Tex following. Just as quickly as they attacked a Japanese pilot threw his fighter into full throttle and pulled in between Howard and Tex. The Japanese pilot was skilled and instantly fired on Howard. Tex was only a hundred yards behind Howard and the Japanese was in-between them. They were now leaving the cleared runway and approaching the jungle. He saw the Japanese fire and his bullets hit Howard’s fighter. This all happens so fast Tex described.

With almost no effort, Tex pulled back on his stick just a little literally pointing the nose of his fighter at the enemy before him. He could not miss. A quick burst into the unarmored Japanese fighter took it into the trees below as the pilot who was hit by Tex nosed down the last couple hundred feet.

With Howard’s P-40 badly damaged Tex and Newkirk covered him as they fought their way out of enemy territory. The three of them were able to officially claim seven aerial victories between them and a hand full of burning crates on the ground. David claimed two of the seven in the air. That was one home coming the Japanese would not forget. And they did not. From that day on it would be a duel between the newly named “Flying Tigers” and the Imperial Japanese Navy and Army Air Forces.

Howard was able to nurse his fighter back to base and now would begin the efforts by the ground crews to keep the fighters patched up and flying in strenuous conditions, lack of spare parts and much jury-rigging. That story will be continued here in the future. The story of the plane captains and the ground crews were as important as any of the combat experiences the pilots would endure.

David was able to add to his aerial victories on January 23^rd when he shot down two more enemy aircraft. The next day David became an ace by destroying a twin-engine bomber and another fighter over Rangoon.

Tex severed as flight leader and squadron leader of the Panda Bears until the unit was disbanded on July 4, 1942 when the United States Army Air Force replaced the Tigers with the 75^th Fighter Squadron, 23^rd Fighter Group. While many of the original Flying Tigers left and would not join the new group, Tex decided to stay on. A rising star in his own right, Robert Scott, led the 23rd. Tex felt that Scott would continue the new groups efforts where the Tigers had left off. Scott had been working with the Tigers in the last month of the unit’s brief history. Scott was not an official Flying Tiger however but he was able to fly with the group several times.

The Flying Tigers were considered heroes back in the United States. World wide the allies had suffered much from the Germans, Italians, and Japanese. One defeat after another graced the front page of American newspapers. Yet during this time of seaming complete defeat, it was the stories of the glorious Flying Tiger that caused cheer on the home front.

In the ten months that the Flying Tigers were in combat their well-planned attacks against the Japanese staggered the enemies advance just long enough for America to enter the war. Once America entered the conflict, President Roosevelt who was a strong supporter of Chennault quickly directed arms, equipment, men, and aviators to the South East Pacific. But the Pacific war with Japan covered millions of square miles numbering dozens of Islands and several continents. Supplying everyone would be a logistics task of gigantic proportions.

Flying the P-40, the Flying Tigers made good account of themselves. I am no longer listening to anyone berate the attributes of the P-40. It was a fine aircraft. A stable platform with a good large flat area encompassing the underneath of the wings and the way they join the fuselage almost forming one continuous wing area. The fighter was just fine in the right hands. Yes the Japanese Zero was nimble but an experienced pilot in their P-40 could and did out maneuver the enemy by knowing the flaws of his foe.

This information and knowledge was recorded and reported by Chennault and his fellow pilots before the Flying Tigers were formed. Then the real science of learning was passed on to the pilots of the AVG who then learned their own lessons living to fly and fight another day. The Flying Tigers was officially credited with 297 aerial victories with the loss of only four of their on. Did I hear someone say something bad about the P-40? Take it back. I talked to Tex, Rossi, and many of the Tigers and they said that the P-40 was a workhorse. It saved their lives many times and brought down many a Japanese airman.

David “Tex” Hill finished his career with the Flying Tigers as the second highest scoring ace with 12.25 confirmed and shared victories. Some accounts him with 12.75.

Tex officially transferred on July 19^th to the 23^rd with a promotion and commissioned a Major. Tex had many hours in the cockpit ahead of him. David returned to the United States in November 1942, in ill health from dysentery and malaria. Before David left he had four more victories to his credit. Upon recovering and some R&R he served with the Proving Ground Group at Eglin Field, Florida as the Commanding Officer. When David returned to his group he was made Commanding Officer of the 23^rdfighter on November 4, 1943 and held that position until October 15, 1944 when David returned to the States leaving the war behind.

He was assigned to the 412^th Fighter Group as Commanding Officer of the first operational jet squadrons flying the Bell YP-59 and then the P-80. The P-80 “Shooting Star” was impressive to a man that flew a P-40 into combat. David told me the jet was so smooth and was a pleasure to fly.

The quote most remembered by David’s fellow pilots was the one he often used as he led them into combat, “Y’all follow me!”

David earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with Two Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, and Presidential Unit Citation with one Oak Leaf Cluster. The British Distinguished Flying Cross, Chinese Order of the Cloud Banner (4^th, 5^th, and 6^th order) and the Chinese Victory Medal. His final aerial combat tally was 18 ¾ confirmed with one probable and five damaged.

David “Tex” Lee Hill is a Flying Tiger. Story by Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette