FLYING TIGER USED PARTS DEPARTMENT, TOUNGOO, BURMA: (AVG)

FLYING TIGER USED PARTS DEPARTMENT, TOUNGOO, BURMA: (AVG)

In another remarkable color image form Brad Smith’s collation of his father’s wartime photographs, AVG Flight Leader and Fighter “Ace” Robert “R.T. Smith is seen at the AVG “Bone Yard” at Kyedaw, the Royal Air Force airfield just outside the Burmese city of Toungoo. Kyedaw was the airfield where the American Volunteer Group was physically formed and trained. The “Bone Yard” contained the wrecks and remains of the unit’s Hawk 81-A-2’s (P-40’s) that had been damaged or destroyed in training accidents, and were utilized for spare parts. It is believed that the two (P-40’s) that are seen resting on their bellies to the right of Smith, were eventually put back into service by the AVG’s remarkably talented and motivated ground staff.