Flying Tigers (film)

Flying Tigers aka Yank Over Singapore and Yanks Over the Burma Road is a 1942 blackandwhite Republic Pictures war film, starring John Wayne, John Carroll, and Anna Lee.

Jim Gordon John Wayne in his first war film leads the Flying Tigers, a squadron of freelance American pilots who fly Curtiss P40 fighters against Japanese aircraft in the skies over China. The pilots are a mixed bunch, motivated by money they receive a bounty for each aircraft shot down, or just the thrill of aerial combat.One day, old friend and former airline pilot Woody Jason John Carroll signs up under Jims command. An arrogant, hotshot aviator, he starts causing trouble immediately. When the Japanese raid the Flying Tigers airbase, the enthusiastic new arrival goes after them, taking up a P40 fighter without permission, not realizing until too late that it has no ammunition. As a result, Woody is shot down. He is unharmed after his fighter crash lands, but the precious P40 fighter is a total wreck. As time goes on, Woody shows that he has little use for teamwork, alienating and endangering the other pilots. He abandons his wingman, Blackie Bales Edmund MacDonald, in order to shoot down a Japanese aircraft. As a result, Blackie comes under fire from another and must bail out of his burning P40. While hanging suspended in his parachute, he is strafed to death by the Japanese pilot. ........

Source: Wikipedia