The CATF’s combat tactics were characterized by mobility and surprise, attacking enemy supply lines, dock facilities, military installations and airfields across a 1,000-mile battle front while simultaneously being prepared to take off and intercept incoming Japanese aircraft that had been sighted by the Jing-Bao warning net. Originated by the AVG, the term Jing-Bao meant to be alert, and became the name for a system of observers scattered throughout the China front who reported enemy aircraft movements using a combination of radio and semaphore signals. By way of this system, CATF fighters were regularly able to intercept Japanese aircraft long before they reached their targets. And as the CATF planes were moved from one forward base to the next, their spinners and markings were often repainted to mislead Japanese observers. The tactics and the warning net were effective enough to cause Japanese intelligence analysts to grossly overestimate American air strength in China through the balance of 1942; they believed the CATF was operating a force of at least 200 planes when, in fact, there were no more than 30 operational at any one time.

As new combat units arrived in late 1942 and early 1943 to boost CATF numbers, the stress on the supply system intensified. The recently constituted India-China Division of Air Transport Command (ATC) was unable to keep up with the combined demands of the Chinese army, U.S. forces in the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater and the CATF, a problem made worse because nearly all the CATF bases were at the ends of the supply lines. Priorities on materials were set by Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, the U.S. theater commander in China, and Maj. Gen. Clayton L. Bissell, Tenth Air Force commander, to which the CATF was technically subordinate. The situation was further aggravated by Chennault’s habit of consulting directly with Chiang Kai-shek or the White House and ignoring the normal chain of command, a practice greatly resented by Stilwell and Bissell.

Out of this fractious command relationship the CATF was reconstituted as the Fourteenth Air Force on March 5, 1943, with its headquarters in Kunming. Although Roosevelt was generally not in the habit of interfering with the prerogatives of military leadership, in this instance he created a wholly new numbered air force by presidential order. As part of the same order, Chennault was promoted to the rank of major general and given command of the new organization. In contrast to the military chain of command (Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall termed Chennault disloyal, Chief of the AAF Henry H. Arnold rated him a crackpot, and Stilwell referred to him as a jackass), Roosevelt admired the feisty Chennault, whom he had met in 1941. But perhaps more important, he knew that Chiang Kai-shek would have been angered by the appointment of anyone else.

Although the Fourteenth had been elevated to the status of a theater-level air force, its mission remained essentially guerrilla in nature: to disrupt, harass and confuse the movements of a numerically superior enemy. According to several references, Fourteenth Air Force headquarters perceived itself as responsible for the following military objectives: (1) defend the Allied supply lines over the Himalayas; (2) seek and destroy enemy aircraft and troop concentrations; (3) destroy enemy military and naval installations; (4) interdict and destroy enemy shipping along China’s coastline and inland waterways; (5) interdict and destroy enemy supply lines within China, Indochina, Thailand, Burma and Formosa; (6) provide close air support to Chinese ground forces; and (7) encourage the Chinese resistance to assist AAF airmen in enemy-occupied territories. In short, they were to stall Japanese forces as long as possible, not defeat them. It would ultimately be the job of Chiang Kai-shek’s armies to repel the Japanese, but in early 1943 Chiang’s poorly trained and ill-equipped forces could scarcely defend the territory they already held.

Chennault recommenced combat operations as the Fourteenth Air Force with an arsenal of about 170 aircraft, mostly obsolete P-40s, one reconnaissance squadron of Lockheed F-5s (photoreconnaissance version of the P-38) and one squadron of B-25s; however, lack of logistical support caused the B-25s to be grounded for much of early 1943. Opposing the American airmen at that time was a force of approximately 450 aircraft belonging to Japanese army and navy units. The Fourteenth’s numbers were bolstered in May by the arrival of B-24s of the 308th Bomb Group (Heavy), which had the effect of greatly extending the command’s radius of attack, especially to the faraway centers of Japanese shipping and supply, and, as described by Hobart Jones, the B-24s possessed the added advantage of being logistically self-supporting.

Throughout the spring and summer of 1943, the Fourteenth’s two P-40-equipped fighter groups, the 23rd and 51st, were called on to perform a variety of tasks: protection of AAF and Chinese bases from enemy air attacks; fighter sweeps near Japanese bases that were designed to lure enemy fighters into action; fighter-bomber interdiction of Japanese supply routes, particularly along the Burma Road in the southeast; and escorting the B-24s and B-25s on bombing raids against major enemy military and supply installations. When scrambled via the Jing-Bao warning net, there were sometimes only two or three P-40s available to oppose formations of 30 to 40 Japanese bomber and fighter aircraft, but such measures were often sufficiently disruptive to cause the bombs to miss their intended targets.

The Chinese-American Composite Wing (CACW) became a part of the Fourteenth Air Force in July 1943. The CACW consisted of Chinese aircraft and crews trained under Lend-Lease with a combination of Chinese and USAAF officers serving as the wing’s group, squadron and flight leaders. Organized as two fighter groups of P-40s and one bomber group of B-25s, CACW units began their first combat operations in October 1943. The coming in of the CACW effectively gave Chennault command and control over all tactical aviation operations occurring within the China theater.

As increasing numbers of aircraft and aircrews enabled the Fourteenth to expand its reach, the command was split into two composite wings in December 1943, roughly dividing operations between east and west China along the 108th meridian. The 69th Wing, commanded by Colonel John Kennedy, was headquartered in Kunming and assumed responsibility for an area that extended west to Burma and included the Hump supply lines; the 68th Wing, commanded by Colonel Casey Vincent, which operated as more of a frontal unit, was given the responsibility for an area that extended from Shanghai to Indochina and also included the shipping lanes in the South China Sea and the Formosa Strait (today known as the Taiwan Strait). Sustaining the 68th’s widespread combat operations would ultimately prove problematic because of the great distances from normal supply lines, with the result that its aircraft were sometimes grounded for lack of fuel.

Starting the new year with 285 aircraft on hand, Fourteenth Air Force operations in the early months of 1944 were characterized by a lull in activity by Japanese ground forces in China and poor weather conditions. The fighters, whose ranks were now augmented by P-38s of the 449th Fighter Squadron and a handful of North American P-51s to replace the aging P-40s, continued to fly sweeps and fighter-bomber strikes, while the B-25s simultaneously concentrated on river and sea sweeps along the Yangtze River and South China Sea. Heavy bombardment operations were delayed in the first four months of the year due to fuel shortages. During the same period, however, Japanese forces in China had been building up to mount an offensive aimed at opening a north-south corridor from Hankow all the way to Indochina. Such a move would not only create overland rail routes between their territories, but would also eliminate many of the forward bases from which the Fourteenth was flying antishipping strikes. The Japanese offensive, a three-pronged attack involving a force of 250,000 men, began on April 17, 1944, and continued off and on through the remainder of the year, eventually pushing the Chinese lines another 200 miles inland from Chengchow to Indochina and causing the Fourteenth to lose 13 of its bases in eastern China.

Even with the loss of valuable bases, the Fourteenth was not deterred by the Japanese onslaught. With two new groups of Republic P-47s and two more squadrons of B-25s joining it in the spring and early summer of 1944, the Fourteenth began a series of intensive interdiction strikes along the newly established north-south Japanese corridor. Chief among the targets were the railways — bridges, tunnels, locomotives and marshaling yards. At the same time, the B-24s of the 308th Bomb Group stepped up their attacks on Japanese shipping in the sea lanes and the rivers, which included laying mines, and fighter units flew hundreds of sorties in support of the Chinese army all over the huge frontal area.

During the time the Japanese offensive in China was in full swing, Boeing B-29s of the XX Bomber Command began arriving in the CBI for eventual deployment from bases located in the Chengdu area of central China (see Operation Matterhorn, Aviation History, July 2003). Taking their orders directly from the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, however, the B-29s were officially attached to the Twentieth Air Force and in no way connected to tactical operations within China itself but intended for strategic attacks on the Japanese Home Islands. Chennault’s repeated demands to use the Superforts against the Japanese armies in China only served to widen the chasm between himself and the Joint Chiefs. The B-29s were ultimately withdrawn from the CBI in early 1945 and moved to the Mariana Islands.

In spite of Japan’s 1944 offensive, the India-China Division of the ATC continued to increase the tonnage of supplies being delivered across the Hump, which in turn permitted the Fourteenth to further expand its operations. All through the fall and winter of 1944, new Merlin-equipped P-51s began to arrive in China to form the new 311th Fighter Group and also replace many of the war-weary P-40s operating in other groups. During this period, other new aircraft and crews were added to the Fourteenth’s roster, such as two squadrons of troop-carrying Douglas C-47s and the 426th Night Fighter Squadron, equipped with Northrop P-61 Black Widows. Before year’s end, the command’s inventory had risen to a force of 700 aircraft versus an estimated Japanese force of 1,200 planes — still outnumbered but in far better shape than the year before.

The new year — 1945 — turned out to be a time of major transformation for the Fourteenth Air Force. Its determined interdiction efforts during the enemy offensive had borne fruit: The Japanese advance was permanently stalled, and counterattacking Chinese forces, supported by the Fourteenth and the CACW, were starting to regain territory. Equally as important, the Allies, after a yearlong push, had regained enough of Burma by February 1945 to reopen the overland supply routes from India. The Fourteenth was now positioned to become the conventional striking force envisioned by Chennault — one that would eventually thrust at the Japanese mainland.But the reopening of the supply lines brought about sweeping changes in the CBI. The CACW was abolished, and the Fourteenth and Tenth air forces were placed under a unified command, the China Theater Air Forces (CTAF). While Chennault might have seemed the most logical choice to lead the new command, it was given instead to Lt. Gen. George Stratemeyer.

Following FDR’s death, Generals Marshall and Arnold made plans to limit Chennault’s role by giving him a job in one of CTAF subcommands. It probably surprised no one when Chennault refused. On July 8, 1945, Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault retired for the second time. Plans to use the CTAF in support of the invasion of Japan never materialized, and what had once been the Fourteenth Air Force disappeared from China by the end of 1945.

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This article was written by E.R. Johnson and originally published in the November 2005 issue of Aviation History magazine. For more great articles subscribe to Aviation History magazine today!

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