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Please note that our logo is used on our website images only and does not appear on our products. Spoiling the Party by Stan Stokes. Claire Chennaults American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) continues to capture the imagination and interest of aviation history buffs more than fifty years after they flew combat missions for the Chinese Air Force. Composed of about ninety pilots and another 200 ground support personnel, the Tigers arrived in China in mid-1941. Flying Curtiss P-40s that had been rerouted from Britain to China, the Tigers flew from December of 1941 until mid-1942. Engaging a numerically superior Japanese force over a very wide front, the AVG was officially credited with downing 299 Japanese aircraft in aerial combat, and an additional 240 aircraft destroyed during ground attack missions. The Flying Tigers slowed the Japanese conquest in China, and caused Japan to focus more resources on this theater of operations than they had planned. Stan Stokes painting depicts a three-plane raid of a Japanese airstrip near Tak, Thailand. Early in the morning of January 3, 1942, three 2 d Pursuit Squadron (Panda Bear) P-40s based at Mingaladon piloted by Tex Hill, Jim Howard, and Scarsdale Jack Newkirk attacked the airfield while the Japanese pilots appeared to celebrating the completion of their dawn attack at an RAF airfield at Moulmein. Circling around the field to get the sun at their backs the P-40s swooped low over the field at 250-MPH. A number of Japanese Army Air Force Nates were on the ground and were taken by surprise. Some ceremony was taking place and there were grandstands with spectators. The guests got quite an air show that morning! The Flying Tiger pilots were focused on the vulnerable targets on the ground, that they didn't initially realize that other Japanese aircraft were in the air, and had not yet landed. The late Jim Howard (who won the only Medal of Honor awarded to an Eighth Air Force fighter pilot later in the War) was focused on the vulnerable aircraft on the ground, and failed to notice a Nate on his tail. Tex Hill broke off a strafing attack to come to Howards aid, and downed the Japanese aircraft. Newark would also claim an aerial victory during the fracas. Near the end of the attack Jim Howards engine died, and he circled for a belly landing on the strip he had just mauled. Seconds before putting his Tomahawk on the ground, the Allison sputtered to life, and the pilot slipped away. When the three Panda Bear pilots returned to Minaladon, they celebrated their victory and relived their attack in words. Jim Howard was reluctant to admit that Tex Hill had shot a Japanese aircraft off of his tail. To solve the argument they went out to the flight line. There were eleven bullet holes in the tail end of Howards aircraft. An inspection also revealed no less than thirty-three bullet holes in the wings of Hills aircraft. VIEW ALL STAN STOKES AVIATION ART VIEW ALL TOMAHAWK AIRCRAFT ART AMAZING VALUE! - The value of the signatures on this item is in excess of the price of the print itself! Item Code : STK0166 Spoiling the Party by Stan Stokes. - This Edition TYPE EDITION DETAILS SIZE SIGNATURES OFFERS YOUR PRICE PURCHASING PRINT Signed limited edition of 500 prints. Only two prints of this edition remain. Great value : Value of signatures exceeds price of item! Size 22 inches x 18 inches (56cm x 46cm) Hill, Tex Rector, Ed Keeton, Robert B Wright, Peter Layher, Robert F Mott, Charles D + Artist : Stan Stokes Signature(s) value alone : £295 £40 Off! Now : £260.00 All prices on our website are displayed in British Pounds Sterling

Signatures on this item
*The value given for each signature has been calculated by us based on the historical significance and rarity of the signature. Values of many pilot signatures have risen in recent years and will likely continue to rise as they become more and more rare.
Name	Info
Colonel Ed Rector (deceased) *Signature Value : £55	Born 28th September 1916, Ed Rector originally flew dive bombers off carriers before being recruited into the A.V.G. flying with the 2nd Squadron. Ed Rector was one of the five pilots who volunteered for continuous service in China after 4th July, 1942 and joined the 23rd Fighter Group. He returned to China later for a 2nd tour of duty. He had a total of 10.5 air victories. He died on 26th April 2001.
Colonel Tex Hill (deceased) *Signature Value : £75	Tex Hill was born in Korea on 13th July 1915. Tex Hill graduated as a Naval Aviator in 1939, and after serving as a Navy Pilot, Tex Hill volunteered for the A.V.G., becoming Squadron Leader in the 2nd Sqn (Panda Bears) until disbandment in 1942, by which time he had 12.25 air victories, making him the second highest ranking Ace in the American Volunteer Group. He remained in China, as the first squadron commander of the 75th F S /23rd F G before returning to the U.S. He went back to China to command the 23rd F G, increasing his total to 18.25 victories. In late 1943 he led a group of 30 aircraft on the first strike against Formosa. During this mission, 42 enemy aircraft were confirmed destroyed, with a possible 12 more, while all 30 aircraft under Tex Hill's command returned safely. Returning to the US, he commanded the 412th Fighter Group, the first jet aircraft group. Here, he flew P-80 Shooting Stars and YP-59 Airacomets. His decorations include a Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, 4 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Air Medals, 2 Presidential Unit Citations, 6 decorations awarded by China, and a Distinguished Flying Cross from the UK. Sadly, Tex Hill died on 11th October 2007.
Flight Leader Charles D Mott (deceased) *Signature Value : £45	Charles D. Mott was one of the first Americans to join the Flying Tigers that battled the Japanese during World War II. A native of Powelton and a 1932 graduate of West Philadelphia High School, he had dreams as a young man of being a pilot. Charles D. Mott was studying for his bachelors degree in civil engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, he was in the Army ROTC. After graduating in 1936, he joined the Navy. He received his wings two years later and was assigned as an aircraft-carrier dive bomber pilot. He served three years in the Fleet as a Dive Bomber pilot of Bombing Three aboard carriers Ranger, Saratoga and Lexington. Charlie resigned from the Navy in June, 1941 and volunterred for the American Volunteer Group the Flying Tigers. After the 2nd Squadron was deployed to Rangoon in late December 1941, he flew experimental but ineffective missions against night attacks because close radar control was not available. The AVG then seized the initiative by attacking Japanese airfields in Thailand. While leading an attack on the airfield at Mesoht, Thailand, he was shot down by ground fire and captured, severely wounded. He was the first allied pilot to be captured in Asia. The Japanese let him recuperate from his wounds and tropical fevers and in July, 1942 put him in with British troops captured at Singapore. For three years he experienced the conditions in POW camps along the River Kwai railway and was repatriated at the end of the war. Charles D. Mott was recommissioned into the regular Navy and completed a Naval Aviator career of Lt. through Captain, specializing in ordnance and guided missiles. His Navy career included command of a four-engine squadron and operations officer of an attack carrier. He was the planning officer in the 7th Fleet, responsible for the joint China (Taiwan) resupply Quemoy during the 1958 incident and was honored by the Chinese with the Cloud and Banner Medal. He retired from the Navy in 1963. Flight Leader Charles D Mott died on July 29th 2004 of a stroke at home in Vienna, Va USA at the age of 89.
Flight Leader Peter Wright (deceased) *Signature Value : £45	Peter Wright was born in 1917 in Portland, Oregon and grew up in the Philidelphia, Pennsylvania area. After attending Yale for 2 years, he joined the Navy and earned his wings by 1940. He served as a dive-bomber pilot aboard the USS Yorktown, Ranger and Wasp. When he joined the AVG in 1941, Peter was assigned to the Panda Bears squadron, and participated in what would prove to be some of the AVG s more significant battles, including the dive-bombing mission in the Salween River Gorge. After the AVGs disbandment, Peter volunteered to remain in China for 2 extra weeks, helping check out new incoming American pilots. During this time, he added an additional enemy aircraft to his score, giving him a total of 3.65 victories. After the war, Peter became highly involved with the helicopter industry, acquiring a number of prestigious awards, and ultimately being instrumental in establishing the American Helicopter Museum in Westchester, Pennsylvania, the nations first of its kind. Peter has remained extremely active with his AVG companions throughout the years, and always recalled those days with great fondness. Peter Wright sadly died 1st June 2007.
Flight Leader Robert B Keeton (deceased) *Signature Value : £35	Robert 'Buster' Keeton was born in 1915 in Manzanola, Colorado. Following college graduation, he entered Naval flight training at Pensacola and received his wings and commission in 1938. As a member of VP-12, he was assigned to a patrol/bomber station at North Island, CA. Bus resigned his naval commission in mid-1941 to join the AVG. Assigned to the Panda Bears squadron, he scored his first of 3.5 confirmed and 4 probable victories on February 3, 1942. Bus flew a number of significant AVG combat missions, including the March 24 raid on the airfield at Chiang Mal, Thailand, in which squadron leader Jack Newkirk was killed. 'I was flying on Frank Lawlors wing,' he remembers. 'We shot up a lot of trains, train stations and warehouses. I saw Newkirk go in as I was making a climbing turn after strafing a row of warehouses.' After the AVG, he joined the Naval Reserve and flew as a contract carrier, delivering war supplies in C-54s across the North Atlantic. Once the war had ended, he flew for several commercial carriers before beginning a career with Pan American Airlines until 1975. He retired at age 60, having accumulated 27,320 hours at the controls of a wide variety of aircraft during his 40 years of flying. Robert Keeton passed away on 25th January 2011.
Flight Leader Robert F Layher (deceased) *Signature Value : £40	Part of the American Volunteer Group. Robert Layher died 17th November 2006.

ARTIST

Stan Stokes

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