China Air Task Force: Replaced the American Volunteer Group

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B-25. Chennault later said, ‘It was a striking example of what could be done with a few airplanes, a little gas, some bombs, and determined air crews.’

After the November strikes, the CATF was deployed back to the airfield at Kunming. The fighter squadrons were sent to airfields at Chanyi and Yunanyi to cover the supply line.

December 1942 was a dismal month for the CATF. Items like soap, warm clothing and mail were in short supply; fighters and bombers were grounded for days because of bad weather and a lack of supplies. The Hump airlift failed to deliver all of the 1,998 tons of supplies Chennault had been promised each month. The CATF got only 300 tons of supplies over the Hump in January 1943, 400 tons in February and 615 tons in March.

CATF fighters flew a few strafing missions into Burma during January, despite a fuel shortage so acute that Chennault forbade victory rolls. The CATF’s gasoline supply was nearly exhausted after those missions, and its planes were grounded for 33 days.

On March 19, the CATF was disbanded and replaced by the Fourteenth Air Force, with Chennault, now a major general, still in command. ‘The CATF passed into history with its planes still grounded for lack of gas,’ Chennault wrote, ‘and its personnel huddled around charcoal stoves all over Yunan, still cursing Delhi for the lack of supplies.’

In the nine months of its existence, the China Air Task Force shot down 149 Japanese planes, plus 85 probables, with a loss of only 16 P-40s. It had flown 65 bombing missions against Japanese targets in China, Burma and Indochina, dropping 311 tons of bombs and losing only one B-25 bomber.

‘The CATF was probably the smallest American air force ever to be dignified by the command of a general,’ Claire Chennault wrote. ‘It certainly was the raggedest. Its paperwork was poor, and salutes were scarce, but when the signals were called for combat, it never missed a play.’

This article was written by William B. Allmon and originally published in the March 1997 issue of Aviation History magazine.

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Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Aerial Combat, Airborne Operations, Aviation History, Historical Conflicts, World War II