The Flying Tigers: The Untold Story of The American Pilots Who Waged A Secret War Against Japan
By: Sam Kleiner / Narrated By: Stephen Graybill
Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
Graybill’s narration makes this the better of the two books on “the Tigers”
There’s another book on the famed Flying Tigers, the masters of the Chinese skies before and during WWII. It’s When Tigers Ruled the Sky by Bill Yenne. It’s been around, oh I’d say a couple of years by now. I can’t tell you if it’s stellar or not, as it has the unfortunate Jonathan Yen as narrator, and he is a less than enthusiastic performer.
The Flying Tigers by Sam Kleiner is lucky to have Stephen Graybill doing the honors of delivering the content. Make no mistake—sometimes Graybill doesn’t deliver on the excitement (the Japanese bombing their barracks and airstrips, dazzling dogfights where you, the listener, can see that a pilot has shot the jaw off a gunner in an enemy plane, evacuations and refugees suffering horrific bombardment, being strafed by enemy fire while hanging from the parachute, even POW camp breaks, for heaven’s sake!), and that had me listening at x1.25 speed for the most part, even x1.5 at times.
Still, those pilots were magnificent. They gave their all with fanfare that came pretty late in the game. But they were guided by the unrelenting and heroic Claire Chennault, just a normal man who wanted to be home fly fishing but wanted China to survive even more (and, actually, you’ll see that while he longs for home, when he is home, he’s a fish outta water). He was constantly on the outs with the army, and he ran his crews without guidance, without much oversight, and especially, without all the things that he needed. Like, say, not enough planes?
You’ll get to know most of the young pilots, though there are so many, I have to admit that at times I had to pause to regroup, to try to remember when exactly was the last time said man was mentioned.
Maybe this wasn’t the best audiobook I’ve ever listened to about WWII, but it’s about a group of heroes that are pretty much lost to time, two audiobooks on them notwithstanding. It’s just under 10 hrs., is graphic in some places, tender in others, and it was a jolly good listen.
…have I mentioned how Jonathan Yen isn’t an inspired narrator?… Seriously, take my word for it. Try The Flying Tigers instead…
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