Remains of three US planes which crashed during World War II have
been discovered in the border area between southwest China and
Myanmar.
Six pieces of wreckage were found in Yingjiang County, southwest
China's Yunnan Province, neighboring Myanmar.
Jia Po, secretary of the Communist Party of China's Zhina Township
Committee, led a search party after hearing that wreckage of an
American plane had been sighted on Mount Erniang, near Lushan
village.
The searchers found that the plane had caused an extensive fire
when it crashed.
Wreckage from the two other planes was found less than 30
kilometres (20 miles) away across the border in Myanmar.
It
has been determined that the three planes were members of the
Flying Tigers, which made great contributions to the Chinese War of
Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Former US Air Corps Major Claire L. Chennault
formed the American
Volunteer Group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, to protect the
Burma Road supply route to China during the the war against
Japan.
The Tigers consisted of about 100 volunteer pilots and 200
groundcrew, according to the US Air Force Museum website.
Despite their aging P-40B aircraft, the Tigers inflicted heavy
losses on Japanese bombers attempting to attack the provincial
capital Kunming in December 1941. Wreckage from other US wartime
crashes has been discovered in Yunnan.
Elderly people in Lushan Village recall seeing a plane crash in
1943.
(China
Daily January 4, 2002)