Editing Claire Lee Chennault (section)

==In China==
Chennault arrived in China in June 1937. He had a three-month contract at a salary of $1,000 per month, charged with making a survey of the Chinese Air Force. [[Chiang Kai-shek|Chiang]]'s English-speaking wife, [[Soong Mei-ling]], known to Americans as "Madame Chiang", was in charge of the Aeronautical Commission and thus became Chennault's immediate supervisor. Upon the outbreak of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] in August, Chennault became Chiang Kai-shek's chief air adviser, assisted in the training of new Chinese Air Force pilots, and sometimes flew scouting missions in an export [[Curtiss H-75]] fighter. His duties also included organizing the "[[Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (1937–1945)|International Squadron]]" of mercenary pilots.<ref>Byrd 1987, Chapter 7.</ref> In late 1937, the Chinese Air Force considered attacking the Japanese home islands with bombers launched from the mainland of China with Chennault in an advisory role. Various pilots of the International Squadron, specifically the [[Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (1937–1945)#Units of the Chinese Nationalist Air Force 1937–1945|14th International Bomber Squadron]], from Britain, France, Netherlands, and the United States, proposed raiding [[Kagoshima]] with incendiary bombs but were all declined because of the "exorbitant remuneration" demanded by the foreign "volunteers". The mission was ultimately tasked to Capt. [[Xu Huansheng]] and Lt. Tong Yen-bo of the 8th Bomber Group.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chai|first=George|title=第八大隊大隊長 徐煥升|url=http://www.flyingtiger-cacw.com/new_page_658.htm|access-date=2020-11-23|website=www.flyingtiger-cacw.com|quote=就在人們為轟炸機一事發愁時，美、英、法、荷等國的多名志願飛行員來到中國參戰，同時帶來了馬丁-139WC(B-10)轟炸機4架、伏爾梯V-11輕轟炸機7架和剛剛從歐美淘汰的諾斯洛普G2E(Gamma)輕轟炸機數架。國民黨空軍似乎又看到了希望，但外籍飛行員卻稱執行這項任務風險太大，提出了讓國民黨政府無法接受的天價酬金。針對此情況，國民黨政府航委會決定由中方飛行員來執行這一任務。這時，編在委員長侍從室的專機飛行員徐煥升上尉自告奮勇地提出由他負責重新組建遠征轟炸隊的具體事宜。|archive-date=October 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211009132847/http://www.flyingtiger-cacw.com/new_page_658.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Under the [[Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact|Sino-Soviet Treaty of 1937]], Soviet-made bomber and fighter aircraft increasingly replenished China's battered air force units previously equipped with US-made aircraft, such as the [[Hawk III]]s and [[Boeing P-26 Peashooter|Boeing 281 Peashooters]], and were also augmented by [[Operation Zet|Soviet volunteer combat aviators]];<ref>{{Cite web|last=Matt|first=P. E.|date=2015-04-28|title=The Soviet Volunteer Group In Action|url=https://pacificeagles.net/the-soviet-volunteer-group-in-action/|access-date=2020-11-23|website=Pacific Eagles|language=en-US|quote=The Soviet Volunteer Group, as well as Chinese pilots flying new Russian fighters supplied via Operation Zet, would have their first taste of combat as the Japanese forces closed in on Nanking. With the pre-war Chinese Air Force down to its last few Hawks, the reinforcements came just in time.}}</ref> while the [[Republic of China Air Force Academy|Chinese Air Force Academy]] in [[Hangzhou Jianqiao Airport|Jianqiao Airbase]] was pushed hinterland with the [[Battle of Shanghai|Fall of Shanghai and Nanjing]], Claire Lee Chennault went along to [[Kunming]]'s [[Kunming Wujiaba International Airport|Wujiaba Airbase]], in the capital of [[Yunnan]] Province in southwestern China, to reorganize and train new Chinese Air Force cadets at the academy along the American army air corps training model.<ref>Xu, Guangqiu. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mpSkIrOCrQkC&dq=madam+chiang+kai+shek+and+Chinese+Air+force&pg=PA116 ''War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949.''] Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-313-32004-0}}.</ref><ref>[http://www.flyingtigersavg.22web.net/tiger1.htm "The Flying Tigers American Volunteer Group – Chinese Air Force."] ''flyingtigersavg.22web.net''. Retrieved: May 20, 2011.</ref>

On October 21, 1939, as the Imperial Japanese [[schnellbomber|schnellbombing]] (fast bombers flying without fighter escorts) campaign raged [[Bombing of Chongqing|terror on the cities of Chengdu and Chongqing]],<ref>Cheung, 2015, p. 74. The Soviet-made fighters burning low-grade fuel simply did not have the performance necessary to engage the high-tech Japanese raiders with superchargers and burning high-octane... Chinese fighters could make only one slow firing-pass at the Japanese bombers...</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Hui|first=Samuel|title=Chinese Air Force vs. the Empire of Japan|url=https://www.warbirdforum.com/cafhist.htm|access-date=2020-11-23|website=www.warbirdforum.com|quote=The schnellbomber (fast bomber) was just what the Japanese needed... the Japanese believed that they could force Chiang Kai-Shek and his government to submit using only strategic bombing... the Japanese planes planned to penetrate Chinese airspace and use superior speed to avoid fighter interception and drop their bombs in safety.}}</ref> Chennault, accompanied by four Chinese officials, boarded the Pan American Airways [[Boeing 314#Variants|Boeing B-314]] ''California Clipper '' in [[Hong Kong]], arriving at [[San Francisco]] on October 26, on a special mission for Chiang Kai-shek. By 1940, seeing that the Chinese Air Force in dire need because of obsolescent aircraft, ill-trained pilots and shortage of equipment, Chiang again sent Chennault, accompanied by Chinese Air Force General [[Mao Bangchu]], to the United States to meet with banker Dr. [[T. V. Soong]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], with the following goal: "to get as many fighter planes, bombers, and transports as possible, plus all the supplies needed to maintain them and the pilots to fly the aircraft." Together, they departed on October 15, 1940, from [[Chongqing, China]], transited at Hong Kong where they boarded Pan Am Boeing B-314 ''American Clipper'' on November 1, arriving at San Francisco on November 14. They reported to the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, [[Hu Shih]].<ref name="Byrd, 1987">Byrd 1987, Chapter 8.</ref>

===Creation of the American Volunteer Group, the "Flying Tigers"===
Chennault's mission to Washington generated the concept of creating an ''American Volunteer Group'' of pilots and mechanics to serve in China. By then Dr. [[T. V. Soong|Soong]] had already begun negotiations for an increase in financial aid with U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Federal Loan Administrator [[Jesse H. Jones]] on October 17.<ref>Byrd 1987, Chapters 7–8.</ref>
[[File:Flying Tigers Bite Back.ogg|thumb|250px|US Army Air Forces video:"Flying Tigers Bite Back"]]
[[File:LA Memorial P40.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Curtiss P-40 Warhawk]] "Joy" at the USS ''Kidd'' Louisiana Veterans Memorial & Museum in [[Baton Rouge]]]]

Washington provided the money. How to obtain the shopping list of aircraft, aviation supplies, volunteers, and funds for the [[Bank of China]] was further discussed in a meeting held at the home of Treasury Secretary [[Henry Morgenthau Jr.]] with Chennault, Dr. Soong, and General Mao on December 21.<ref>Dr. T.V. Soong: President of the Bank of China.</ref> On April 25, 1941, the United States and China formally signed a $50 million stabilization agreement to support the Chinese currency. By December 23, 1940, upon approval by the War Department, State Department, and the President of the United States, an agreement was reached to provide China the 100 P-40B Tomahawk aircraft which had originally been built for Britain, but which the British were persuaded to give up in preference for newer models rapidly being built. With an agreement reached, General Mao returned to China aboard the [[SS Lurline (1932)|SS ''Lurline'']], departing from [[Los Angeles, California]], on January 24, 1941. Chennault followed shortly after with a promise from the War Department and President Roosevelt to be delivered to Chiang Kai-shek that several shipments of P-40C fighters were forthcoming along with pilots, mechanics, and aviation supplies.<ref name="Byrd, 1987"/>

The 100 planes were crated and sent to [[Burma]] on third-country freighters during spring 1941. At [[Rangoon]], they were unloaded, assembled and test flown by personnel of [[Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company]] (CAMCO) before they were delivered to the AVG training unit at [[Toungoo]].{{#tag:ref|"AVG fighter aircraft came from a Curtiss assembly line producing Tomahawk IIB models for the Royal Air Force in North Africa. The Tomahawk IIB was similar to the U.S. Army's earlier P-40B model, and there is some evidence that Curtiss used leftover components from that model in building the fighters intended for China. The fighters were purchased without "government-furnished equipment" such as reflector gunsights, radios and wing guns; the lack of those items caused continual difficulties for the AVG in Burma and China.|group=Note}}  Their first battle occurred on December 20, 1941, with aircraft flying out of Kunming.<ref>Schultz 1987 {{page needed|date=July 2015}}</ref>

CAMCO delivered 99 Tomahawks before war broke out. (Many of those were later destroyed in training accidents.) The 100th fuselage was trucked to a CAMCO plant in Loiwing, China, and later made whole with parts from damaged aircraft. Shortages in equipment with spare parts almost impossible to obtain in Burma along with the slow introduction of replacement fighter aircraft were continual impediments although the AVG received 50 replacement P-40E fighters from USAAF stocks that had been originally scheduled for shipment to Britain but cancelled by the Tomahawk's inferior flight performance to German fighters.<ref name="Byrd, 1987"/>

Chennault recruited some 300 American pilots and ground crew, posing as tourists, who were adventurers or mercenaries, not necessarily idealists out to save China. But under Chennault they developed into a crack fighting unit, always going against superior Japanese forces. They became the symbol of America's military might in Asia.<ref>Sehnert, Walt. [http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/1490747.html "McCook's Glen Beneda and the Flying Tigers."] ''mccookgazette.com'', January 5, 2009. Retrieved: May 22, 2009.</ref> They became the Flying Tigers.<ref name="Byrd, 1987"/>

===Plan to bomb Japan===
A year before the U.S. officially entered the war, Chennault developed an ambitious plan for a sneak attack on Japanese bases. His Flying Tigers would use U.S. bombers and U.S. pilots, all with Chinese markings. He made the fantastic claim that a handful of fliers and planes could win the war single-handed.  The U.S. Army was opposed to that scheme and raised obstacles by noting that being able to reach Japan depended on Chiang's troops being able to build and protect airfields and bases close enough to Japan, which they doubted that he could do. It also had little confidence in Chennault.<ref>Michael Schaller,  "American Air Strategy in China, 1939–1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare." ''American Quarterly'' 28.1 (1976): 3–19 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2712474 online].</ref>

Despite the military advice, U.S. civilian leaders were captivated by the idea of China winning the war with Japan swiftly with only a few U.S. airmen and planes. It was adopted by top civilian officials including Treasury Secretary Morgenthau and President Roosevelt himself.{{#tag:ref|The official Army history notes that 23 July 1941 FDR "approved a Joint Board paper which recommended that the United States equip, man, and maintain the 500-plane Chinese Air Force proposed by Currie. The paper suggested for the force to embark on a vigorous program to be climaxed by the bombing of Japan in November 1941." [[Lauchlin Currie]] was the White House official dealing with China.<ref name="Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland">Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland. [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-CBI-Mission/USA-CBI-Mission-1.html "China-Burma-India Theater: Stillwell's Mission to China"]. ''U.S. Army in World War II'', 1953, p. 23. Retrieved: September 17, 2014.</ref>|group=Note}} However, the American attack never took place: The Nationalist Chinese had not built and secured any runways or bases close enough to reach Japan, just as the military had warned. The bombers and crews arrived after the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, and were used for the war in Burma, as they lacked the range to reach Japan from secure bases in China.<ref name="Romanus, Charles F. and Riley Sunderland"/><ref>Schaller, Michael. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2712474 "American Air Strategy in China, 1939–1941: The Origins of Clandestine Air Warfare."], ''American Quarterly''(JSTOR), Edition 28, issue 1, 1976. pp. 3–19.</ref><ref>Alan Armstrong, ''Preemptive Strike: The Secret Plan That Would Have Prevented the Attack on Pearl Harbor'' (2006) is a popular version.</ref>

===Flying Tigers===

Chennault's 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) – better known as the "[[Flying Tigers]]" – began training in August 1941 and was primarily based out of [[Rangoon]], Burma, and Kunming, Yunnan. Just weeks after the Japanese [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], senior Chinese officials in Chongqing released details of the first aerial attack made by the group, when the American flyers encountered 10 Japanese aircraft heading to raid [[Kunming]] and successfully shot down four of the raiders.<ref>"Burma Road Air Defense Scores." ''[[Associated Press]],'' Chongqing, December 20, 1941.</ref><ref>"'Crazy' Maneuver Used by Colonel," ''Associated Press'', New Orleans, December 20, 1941.</ref><ref>"Domei Says Japs Downed Five Ships," ''Associated Press'', Tokyo, December 20, 1941.</ref><ref>"American Fliers Engage Japanese," ''Associated Press'', Chungking, December 20, 1941.</ref>

Thus, Claire Chennault became America's "first military leader" to be publicly recognized for striking a blow against the Japanese military forces – despite not being a member of the American military, but a civilian mercenary who was paid and promoted to colonel by Chiang Kai-Shek.

The Flying Tigers fought the Japanese for seven months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Chennault's three squadrons used P-40s, and his tactics of "defensive pursuit", formulated in the years when bombers were actually faster than intercepting fighter aircraft, to guard the [[Burma Road]], Rangoon, and other strategic locations in [[Southeast Asia]] and western China against Japanese forces.

As the commander of the [[Republic of China Air Force|Chinese Air Force]] flight training school at {{ill|Yunnanyi Airport (WWII)|lt=Yunnanyi|zh|云南驿机场 (二战时期)}}, west of [[Kunming]], Chennault also made a great contribution by training a new generation of Chinese fighter pilots. The Flying Tigers were formally incorporated into the [[United States Army Air Forces]] in 1942. Prior to that, Chennault had rejoined the Army with the rank of [[Major (United States)|major]] on April 7, 1942. Three days later he was made [[colonel]]. Twelve days later he was promoted to [[brigadier general]], and then within a year to [[major general]], commanding the [[Fourteenth Air Force]].{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} 

Chennault had 900 aircraft at his disposal, which was more than Japan had in China.<ref name="Crean">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=75}}

The first magazine photo coverage of Chennault took place within ''Life'' magazine in the Monday, August 10, 1942, issue. The first ''Time'' magazine photo coverage of Chennault took place in its Monday, December 6, 1943, issue.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070713024355/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19431206,00.html "Time cover (December 6, 1943)."] ''time.com''. Retrieved:  September 17, 2014.</ref> Shortly before the ''Time'' issue appeared, Chennault encountered British [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[Winston Churchill]] at the [[Cairo Conference]]. According to historian [[Carlo D'Este]], Chennault "had been nicknamed 'The Hawk' by ''Time'' Magazine and described by [[Antony Head]], a member of the Joint Planning Staff, as 'resembling a Red Indian Chief who had just taken somebody's scalp.' Turning to [Gen. Hastings Lionel] [[Hastings Ismay, 1st Baron Ismay|Ismay]], Churchill asked the name of the American officer in a loud voice that was overheard by the U.S. delegation and produced an embarrassed silence, finally broken when [Churchill] announced: 'I'm glad he's on our side.'"<ref>{{cite book |last=D'Este |first=Carlo |author-link= |date=2008 |title=Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874–1945 |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins Publishers |page=392 |isbn=978-0-06-057573-1}}</ref>

===China-Burma-India theater===
Throughout the war Chennault was engaged in a bitter dispute with the American ground commander, General [[Joseph Stilwell]].

Chennault believed that the Fourteenth Air Force, operating out of bases in China, could attack Japanese forces in concert with Nationalist troops. For his part, Stilwell wanted air assets diverted to his command to support the opening of a ground supply route through northern Burma to China. The route would provide supplies and new equipment for a greatly expanded Nationalist force of twenty to thirty modernized divisions.

Chiang Kai-shek favored Chennault's plans, since he was suspicious of British colonial interests in Burma. He was also concerned about alliances with semi-independent generals supporting the Nationalist government, and was concerned that a major loss of military forces would enable his Communist Chinese adversaries to gain the upper hand.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}}

The sharply differing assessments held by Stillwell and Chennault came out in a meeting in 1943 with President Roosevelt, who asked both commanders for their opinion of Chiang.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 400">Fenby, Jonathan ''Chiang Kai-Shek China's .Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost'', New York: Carrol & Graf, 2004 p. 400.</ref> Stillwell stated: "He's a vacillating, tricky, undependable old scoundrel who never keeps his word."<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 400"/> Chennault by contrast told Roosevelt: "Sir, I think the Generalissimo is one of the two or three greatest military and political leaders in the world today. He has never broken a commitment or promise to me."<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 400"/> Chennault was supported in his disputes by [[Soong Mei-ling]], Chiang's politically powerful wife, who was one of the richest women in 1930s China<ref name="Peterson">Peterson, Barbara Bennett (ed.). (2000). ''Notable Women of China: Shang Dynasty to the Early 20th century''. M.E. Sharp publishing. {{ISBN|0-7656-0504-X}}.</ref> and, unlike her husband, fluent in English.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383"/>

Stilwell and Chennault loathed each other partly because of their very different personalities, which were described by the British journalist Jonathan Fenby as a clash between Stilwell, the New England Puritan and proud "Yankee" who "prized moral courage" above all else, and Chennault, the Southern gentleman and "Good Ole Boy", who accepted "human foibles" as natural.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383">Fenby, Jonathan ''Chiang Kai-Shek China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost'', New York: Carrol & Graf, 2004 p. 383.</ref> For example, Chennault opened up a brothel in [[Guilin]] for his pilots and recruited English-speaking prostitutes from Hong Kong who fled to the inland of China to escape the Japanese. He argued that his men needed sex and it was better to have his "boys" visit a brothel that was regularly inspected to reduce venereal diseases.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383"/> Chennault felt his men were going to visit brothels, regardless of what the rules said, and that was better to have them visit a brothel whose women were inspected for venereal diseases than one that was not since a man in the hospital for a venereal disease was one less man who could participate in the war. Stilwell was enraged when he heard about Chennault's brothel and promptly had it shut down by saying it was disgraceful that an officer of the US Army Air Force would open such an establishment.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383"/> British Field Marshal [[Alan Brooke]], who met both Stillwell and Chennault in late 1943, wrote that Stillwell was a "hopeless crank with no vision" and Chennault was "a very gallant airman with a limited brain."<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383"/>

In November 1943 the Japanese Army air forces were ready to challenge Allied forces again, and they began night and day raids on Calcutta and [[the Hump]] bases while their fighters contested Allied air intrusions over Burma. In April 1944, the Japanese launched [[Operation Ichi-Go]]—the largest Japanese offensive of all time—that committed 1 million Japanese soldiers to action.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 416">Fenby, Jonathan p. 416.</ref> The 14th Air Force was involved in strafing and bombing attacks against the Japanese advancing on the city of Changsha, which Japanese had tried and failed to take three previous times since 1938, making the city into a symbol of Chinese defiance.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 417">Fenby, Jonathan ''Chiang Kai-shek China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost'', New York: Carroll & Graf, 2004 p. 417.</ref> Relations between Stilwell and Chennault reached their low point in 1944.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 383"/> Stilwell used the success of Operation Ichi-Go as proof the fallacy of Chennault's claim that air power alone could defeat Japan while Chennault accused of Stilwell of deliberately taking a defeatist attitude as a gambit to force Chiang to cede more powers of command to him.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 417-418">Fenby, Jonathan pp. 417–418.</ref> As the Japanese took Changsha in June 1944, Chennault criticized Stilwell for trying to command the Chinese armies from Burma, sending a message to Washington saying no-one had seen Stilwell in southern China recently.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 419">Fenby, Jonathan p. 419.</ref>

Following their victory in the Fourth Battle of Changsha, the Japanese began to advance on the city of [[Hengyang]] held by the 10th Chinese Army commanded by General [[Xue Yue]].<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 419"/> The 14th Air Force bombed the supply lines of the advancing Japanese and Chennault reported to Washington that his "boys" had shot down 210 Japanese planes in the aerial battles over Hengyang.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 420">Fenby, Jonathan p. 420.</ref> However, the Chinese soldiers holding Hengyang were ill-equipped, with the American journalist Teddy White reporting that only a third of the Chinese infantrymen had rifles, their artillery consisted of just two French artillery guns from World War I, and the majority lived on starvation rations of one bowl of rice per day.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 420"/> Despite their bravery in resisting Japanese assaults on Hengyang all through July and August 1944, the Chinese weaknesses in regards to weapons and food began to tell with Xue reporting his men badly needed supplies to hold Hengyang.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 420"/> Channault wanted to airdrop food, weapons and ammunition to the 10th Army but was vetoed by Stilwell on the grounds that to air drop supplies would "set a precedent for further demands that could not be met."<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 421">Fenby, Jonathan p. 421</ref> Chennault did have the pilots of the 14th Air Force brave Japanese anti-aircraft fire to fly in as low as 300 feet to drop supplies of food, ammunition and medical supplies, but Xue stated he needed far more.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 421"/> A request from Chennault to air drop 500 tons of weapons to the 10th Army was rejected by Stilwell as a "waste of effort."<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 421"/> On 7 August 1944, Xue reported the Imperial Japanese Army had broken his defense lines and entered Hengyang and the next day, Hengyang fell with Xue ordering his men to abandon the city.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 421"/> Fenby wrote that Hengyang would have probably fallen as the Japanese had committed overwhelming force, but the city could have held out far longer than the seven weeks that it did if only Xue and his 10th Army had received more supplies, stating that Stilwell was remiss in attempting to command Sino-American forces fighting in Burma and in China at the same time.<ref name="Fenby, Jonathan page 421"/>

The Japanese ground forces advanced and seized Chennault's forward bases. Slowly, however, the greater numbers and greater skill of the Allied air forces began to assert themselves. By mid-1944, Major General [[George Stratemeyer]]'s [[China Burma India Theater|Eastern Air Command]] dominated the skies over Burma, a superiority that was never to be relinquished. At the same time, logistical support reaching India and China via the Hump finally reached levels permitting an Allied offensive into northern Burma. Chennault had long argued for expansion of the airlift, doubting that any ground supply network through Burma could provide the tonnage needed to re-equip Chiang's divisions. However, work on the [[Ledo Road]] overland route continued throughout 1944 and was completed in January 1945. Training of the new Chinese divisions commenced; however, predictions of monthly tonnage (65,000 per month) over the road were never achieved. By the time Nationalist armies began to receive large amounts of supplies via the Ledo Road, the war had ended. Instead, the airlift continued to expand until the end of the war, after delivering 650,000 tons of supplies, gasoline, and military equipment.{{citation needed|date=September 2014}} Chennault was replaced as commander of the U.S. 14th Air Force by Lt. Gen. [[George E. Stratemeyer]] in June 1945.  Following the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Chennault retired from the Army Air Forces on October 31, 1945.