"[This] is a comprehensive history of this often overlooked conflict. Håkan Gustavsson explores the impact of the 1937 Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, which provided Soviet armament to the Kuomintang government; the strained relationship between the Chinese and the Soviets; the introduction of the Flying Tigers - the 1st American Volunteer Group - commanded by the renowned Claire Chennault in 1941; and the eventual retreat and defeat of the Japanese following their last offensive in 1945 and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."--Jacket.

China's Air War with Japan: Sino-Japanese Air Battles, 1937-1945, Volume 1 examines the conflict between the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) and the Japanese Air Service (Japanese Army Air Force and Japanese Naval Air Force) in the Chinese theater during the Second World War. Relative to their opponent, the ROCAF was backwardly equipped, poorly trained, and passive at the beginning of the war; by 1940, when Japanese Zero fighters were put into service, the ROCAF was basically expelled from the air. With the assistance of the Allies, especially the United States, the ROCAF gradually regained its strength from 1943 onwards. By the war's end, the Chinese-American Composite Wing (CACW) and ROCAF had gained control of the airspace on the Chinese battlefield. This book describes the Sino-Japanese war in the air during the Second World War, primarily from the Chinese side, though with examination of sources from both sides.