| American Volunteer Group (AVG) 3rd Pursuit Squadron “Hell’s Angels” Flight Leader Robert Tharp (R.T.) “Tadpole” Smith (February 23, 1918 – August 21, 1995) photographed these Curtiss H81-A3 Hawk fighters, equivalent to the Royal Air Force (RAF) Tomahawk IIB, as they headed northeast toward Pao Shan near the Salween River Gorge in Burma. Tharp was probably flying #47, Nationalist Chinese Air Force (NCAF) serial P-8127 (originally RAF serial AK542). #68 NCAF serial P-8109 (originally RAF serial AK480) was flown by Arvid Olson (October 31, 1916 – May 16, 1974); #46, NCAF serial P-8156 (originally RAF serial AM451) was flown by Robert Prescott (May 5, 1913 – March 3, 1978); #49 NCAF serial P-8133 (originally RAF serial AK562) was flown by Tom C. Haywood (September 13, 1917 – April 28, 1979); #24 NCAF serial P-8104 (originally RAF serial AK471) was flown by Ken Jernstedt (July 20, 1917 – February 5, 2013) that day; and #74 NCAF serial P-8193 (originally RAF serial AM512) was flown by Chauncey H. “Link” Laughlin (December 20, 1916 – March 25, 1995). R.T. Smith remembered William N. Reed (January 8, 1917 – December 19, 1944) flying #74, but Ken Jernstedt, the only pilot associated with the shot still living in 2010, says Bill Reed was not in the area at the time. However, there are 2 photographs taken on the same date during a refueling stop at Yunnan-yi, 1 taken by Erik Schilling (March 28, 1916 – March 18, 2002), the other taken by Tom Haywood, that include both Link Laughlin and Bill Reed as well as Ken Jernstedt, Robert Prescott and Arvid Olson. P-8127 crashed in China; its engine is said to be on display at Torrence airport in California. P-8109 damaged in a forced landing near Lashio in March 1942. P-8193 made a belly landing on October 31, 1941, and was repaired. Smith told how the photograph was taken in a letter to Terrill Clements, author of American Volunteer Group Colors and Markings. Smith seldom took his camera on combat missions, he explained, because “there was no place to stow it in the cramped space of a cockpit, which meant having to carry it on my lap secured only by a leather strap around my neck. Obviously the last thing a fighter pilot needs while frantically maneuvering in a combat situation is a camera flying around in the cockpit.” “It was a beautiful spring day, with a layer of strato-cumulus just above the mountain tops at about ten thousand feet off to our right. We were headed northeast near the Salween River which marked the China-Burma border, and although the air was relatively smooth I soon learned that taking a picture of this type was no easy task. It required trying to fly my plane on a steady course by holding the control stick between my knees, twisting back to my right while holding the camera with both hands, and waiting impatiently for the guys to stop the inevitable ‘yo-yo’ing and get into proper echelon formation. There was the added requirement, most important of all, of scanning the surrounding sky every few seconds to make sure no Jap[anese] fighters were about to ambush us. The resulting exposure, as I recall, was made about f8 at a two-hundredth of a second.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii2095.jpg |
| Image Size | 1,000.82 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3832 x 3096 |
| Photographer | Robert T. Smith |
| Photographer Title | American Volunteer Group |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | May 28, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | Salween River |
| Country | Burma |
| Archive | San Diego Air & Space Museum |
| Record Number | 1606 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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