Flying Tigers: Chennault in China (Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century Series, Weapons Book No. 29)

160 pp. In the skies over Burma, a handful of American pilots met and bloodied the "Imperial Wild Eagles" of Japan and became immortal as the Flying Tigers. They were recruited to defend beleaguered China for $600 a month plus $500 for each Japanese plane they shot down—fantastic money in an era when a Manhattan hotel room cost three dollars a night.