China - American Volunteer Group - Pilots Chit, 1941 - 1942.
This leather patch with a printed national flag of China and inscription dates from 1941 to 1942. After the Japanese invasion of China the aviators of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) were issued a silk cloth bearing a Chinese national flag, a Chinese inscription, and a "chop" of the Commission for Aeronautical Affairs. These symbols were intended to identify the nationality of airmen to the Chinese nationals, in the hope that they might provide aid if the pilot was shot down in the Chinese countryside.
Officially known as the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, they were nicknamed the "Flying Tigers" and helped the Nationalist forces defend China against the Japanese invasion. However, as the American presence expanded, many pilots and other air crewmen began to acquire locally fabricated chits like this example. These chits, sometimes called the airman's "Last Hope", all had similar inscriptions which roughly translate," [I have] come to China to aid in the war effort [against the Japanese]. [I am] a foreigner, an American. The army and civilians form a single group. Please rescue [me]. Air Force Council."
These chits became ubiquitous among the AVG and after America's entrance into World War II. American airmen serving in the China- Burma-India Theater copied them and added the United States flag and a China-Burma-India insignia.
It is often thought that the idea for the chits originated with the "Flying Tigers" but this type of flag was actually already in use in Asia by Western aviators and they are thought to have originated with British pilots flying in Mesopotamia during the First World War.
Provenance: Discovered by Carl Zaricor in 2004 in an antique shop in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
ZFC Significant Flag
Sources
American Volunteer Group, Wikipedia, 6 October 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Volunteer_Group
Baldwin, R.E., & Thomas W. McGarry, Last Hope: The Blood Chit Story, Schiffer Pub Ltd, Atglen, 1997.
