Fifteen former American Flying Tigers paid their respects to fallen comrades at the Nanjing Memorial Cemetery to Anti-Japanese Aviator Martyrs.
In this capital of Jiangsu Province yesterday, they presented flowers and searched inscriptions for the names of their comrades during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
The Flying Tigers was formed in August 1941, known as the American Volunteer Group, later nicknamed the tigers.
They flew to China to aid the war effort and in their first combat mission, they downed six enemy bombers and damaged four. In the next six months, they flew over 100 combat missions, shooting down 272 enemy aircraft and destroying 225 on the ground.
More than 3,000 flyers - Americans, Russians and Chinese - are buried in the Nanjing Cemetery.
On one mission, tiger Joseph Hart, now 86 years old, shot down more than 40 Japanese aircraft. He too was shot down but rescued by a Chinese girl. "Today I was very gloomy, for 60 of my comrade-in-arms were buried here," he said.