中美关系愈发紧张，抗日战争时美国飞虎队的故事却上了CNN头版！美国媒体如何

时间：2023-10-10 20:18:02 | 来源：网站运营

时间：2023-10-10 20:18:02 来源：网站运营

中美关系愈发紧张，抗日战争时美国飞虎队的故事却上了CNN头版！美国媒体如何报导飞虎队的历史？：虽然中美关系持续恶化，美国CNN于前两天却在头版刊登了一条长文，详细讲述了抗日战争时期，在中国帮助对抗侵华日军的美国航空志愿军，俗称“飞虎队”的历史。虽然，从美国人的角度来讲述，避免不了有点对中国居功的意思，但文章整体比较客观，尊重史实，整体思想崇尚和平，字里行间也体现着对中美关系有所改善的希望。在当下双方愈演愈烈的舆论战中——甚至现在有的已经付诸行动之时，这篇文章着实让人感慨良多，特别是从普通美国人的角度，描写当时飞虎队与中国人民建立起的感情，仍能一直持续到现在，让人不禁为之感动。

有趣的是，飞虎队起初其实是一群非正规的雇佣兵，甚至可以说是“乌合之众”组织起来的杂牌军，并且成员参军的最初目的都不甚高尚。但最终，他们却为中国抗日战争立下赫赫战功，并与中国人民建立起深厚的友谊。这样的故事，就像俗套的美国电影里的情节一样，让人不可思议，但这确实是真实存在的一段历史。上个世纪，中国也有大量关于飞虎队的影视、文学作品，不夸张的说，他们的精神影响了一代人。

如今正处于中美关系的低点，这也是历史的又一次循环，也许是世界发展的必要过程。但再读飞虎队的故事，不禁让人对和平美好的国家关系充满向往——就像文章最后引用飞虎队陈纳德将军回忆录里写的一段话：

"It is my fondest hope that the sign of the Flying Tiger will remain aloft just as long as it is needed and that it will always be remembered on both shores of the Pacific as the symbol of two great peoples working toward a common goal in war and peace."

“我最大的愿望是，只要有需要，飞虎队将永远出现在高空，它作为两个伟大民族努力达成战争与和平的共同愿望的标志，将在太平洋两岸被永远铭记。”

文章虽然很长，但很有阅读价值，建议大家可以读完。原文出自CNN，全文没有删节，翻译出自西蒙，转载请注明“西蒙搬运”。

These American mercenaries were the heroes of China

这些美国雇佣兵曾是中国的英雄

来源：7.21, By Brad Lendon, CNN




Consider this job offer:

考虑一下这样的工作机会：




A one-year contract to live and work in China, flying, repairing and making airplanes. Pay is as much as $13,700 a month with 30 days off a year. Housing is included and you'll get an extra $550 a month for food. On top of that, there's an extra $9,000 for every Japanese airplane you destroy -- no limit.

这是一份为期一年的工作合同，需要在中国生活和工作，工作内容包括飞行、维修和制造飞机。薪水高达每月13700美元，并且每年有30天假期。不仅提供住宿，你每月还将额外获得550美元的伙食补助。最重要的是，每击落一架日本飞机，你将获得额外的9000美元奖金——数量没有上限。




That's the deal -- in inflation-adjusted 2020 dollars -- that a few hundred Americans took in 1941 to become the heroes, and some would even say the saviors, of China.

这是将2020年通货膨胀计算进去的美元数字——这就是1941年几百名美国人合同里的酬劳，但他们成为了当时中国的英雄，有些人甚至称他们为救星。




Those American pilots, mechanics and support personnel became members of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), later known as the Flying Tigers.

这些美国飞行员，机械师和后勤人员成为了美国航空志愿队（AVG）的成员，该组织后来被称为“飞虎队”。




The group's American-made warplanes featured the gaping, tooth-filled mouth of a shark on their nose, a fearsome symbol still used on the US Air Force's A-10 ground-attack jets to this day.

他们使用的美国战斗机的飞机鼻子上画着张开的，露着尖牙的鲨鱼嘴，这种令人畏惧的图案，现在美国空军的A-10对地战斗机上仍在使用。




The nose's symbolic fierceness was backed up by its pilots in combat. The Flying Tigers are credited with destroying as many as 497 Japanese planes at a cost of only 73 of their own.

飞行员在战斗中的表现也与凶猛的鲨鱼图案相称。飞虎队在战斗中摧毁了497架日本飞机，而只付出了73架飞机的代价。




Today, even with US-China tensions rising, those American mercenaries are still revered in China, with memorial parks dedicated to them and their exploits.

时至今日，即使中美的紧张局势加剧，在中国，那些美国雇佣兵仍然备受尊敬，也有着专门纪念他们和他们战功的纪念碑。




"China always remembers the contribution and sacrifice made to it by the United States and the American people during the World War II," says an entry on the Flying Tigers memorial page of China's state-run newspaper People's Daily Online.

中国的国家报刊《人民日报》在线版，在飞虎队纪念页中刊登的一篇文章说：“中国会始终记得美国和美国人民在第二次世界大战期间所作的贡献和牺牲。”




The formation of the Flying Tigers

飞虎队的起源




When these Americans arrived in China in 1941, the country was very different from the China we know today. Leader Chiang Kai-shek, a revolutionary who split with the Communist Party, was able to loosely unite the country's warlords under a central government.

当这些美国人于1941年到达中国时，这个国家与我们今天了解的中国截然不同。当时的国家首领是蒋介石，也是一名革命者，与共产党分庭抗礼。他领导着中央政府，并使全国的军阀们保持着相对松散的统一。




In the late 1930s, China had been invaded by the armies of Imperial Japan and was struggling to withstand its better equipped and unified foe. Japan was virtually unopposed in the air, able to bomb Chinese cities at will.

在20世纪30年代后期，中国遭受日本帝国主义军队的侵略，面对装备更好并更加统一的日军，中国的抵抗进行得十分艰难。日本空军基本上没有遭到反抗，他们能够肆意轰炸中国城市。




Faced with that dire situation, the Chiang government hired American Claire Chennault, a retired US Army captain, to form an air force.

面对这种严峻的形势，蒋介石政府聘请了已退休的美国陆军上尉克莱尔·陈纳德（Claire Chennault），来组建一支空军。




He spent his first few years in the job putting together an air raid warning network and building airbases across China, according to the Flying Tigers' official website. Then in 1940, he was dispatched to the United States -- still a neutral party in World War II -- to find pilots and planes that could defend China against the Japanese air force.

根据飞虎队官方网站上的信息，在这份工作的最初几年里，他在全中国各地建立了空袭预警网络和空军基地。之后，在1940年，他被派往美国——当时仍是第二次世界大战的中立国——寻找可以帮助中国抵抗日本空军的飞行员和飞机。




With good contacts in the administration of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and a budget that could pay Americans as much as three times what they could earn in the US military, Chennault was able to get the fliers he needed.

在与美国总统富兰克林·罗斯福政府的良好关系，以及可以向美国士兵支付相当于美国军方三倍的薪水的预算背景下，陈纳德得到了所需的空军士兵。




The planes posed a bit more of a problem. The US was making them in large numbers, but they were destined for Britain to use against Germany or for US forces, amid fears that the war in Europe would soon suck in the US.

飞机是个大问题。美国制造了大量飞机，但本计划是给英军来对付德国，或是留给美军——因为担心欧洲的战争会很快波及美国。










A deal was secured to get 100 Curtiss P-40B fighters built for Britain sent to China instead. For its hardship, Britain was promised a new and better model about to go to the assembly line.

双方达成协议，将100架本来为英国制造的柯蒂斯P-40B战斗机改为运往中国。作为补偿，英国得到承诺，会得到正进入装配线的一种新型号的战斗机。




In his memoirs, Chennault wrote that the P-40s purchased by China were lacking some important features, including a modern gun sight.

陈纳德在回忆录中写道，中国购买的P-40缺乏一些重要功能，包括现代化的瞄准设备。




"The combat record of the First American Volunteer Group in China is even more remarkable because its pilots were aiming their guns through a crude, homemade, ring-and-post gun sight instead of the more accurate optical sights used by the Air Corps and the Royal Air Force," he wrote.

“第一批前往中国的美国航空志愿队的战斗更令人敬佩，因为飞行员的枪支使用了粗糙的，自制的觇孔式瞄具（传统的机械瞄具）进行瞄准，而不是美国陆军航空兵团和皇家空军使用的更加精确的光学瞄准设备。”他写道。




What the P-40 lacked in ability, Chennault made up for in tactics, having the AVG pilots dive from a high position and unleash their heavy machine guns on the structurally weaker but more maneuverable Japanese planes.

对于P-40缺乏的性能，陈纳德在战术上做出了弥补。志愿军的战术是，飞行员从高处俯冲，并用重型机枪来对抗结构较脆弱但机动性更强的日本飞机。




In a low, twisting, turning dogfight, the P-40 would lose.

而在低空，需要飞机大量自转和转弯的缠斗中，P-40占据劣势。




A ragtag group of fliers

“乌合之众”组成的飞行部队




The pilots Chennault had to teach were far from the cream of the crop.

必须由陈纳德来训练的飞行员们距离成为飞行精英还差十万八千里。




Ninety-nine fliers, along with support personnel, made the trip to China in the fall of 1941, according to the US Defense Department history.

根据美国国防部的历史记录，1941年秋天，共有包括后勤工程人员在内的九十九名空军士兵前往了中国。




Some were fresh out of flight school, others flew lumbering flying boats or were ferry pilots for large bombers. They signed up for the Far East adventure to make a lot of money, to find lost girlfriends or because they were simply bored.

有的人刚从飞行学校毕业，有些人是缓慢的飞艇、或大型轰炸机的驾驶员。他们报名参加了这次远东冒险的原因，有的是为赚大钱，有的是为了寻找失踪的女友，有的仅仅是因为他们生活很无聊。




Perhaps the best known of the Flying Tigers, US Marine aviator Greg Boyington -- around whom the 1970's TV show "Black Sheep Squadron" was based -- was in it for the money.

可能最有名的“飞虎队”成员，就是美国海军陆战队飞行员Greg Boyington——70年代的电视节目《黑羊中队》就是以他为原型——他参军的目的就是赚钱。




"Having gone through a painful divorce and responsible for an ex-wife and several small children, he had ruined his credit and incurred substantial debt, and the Marine Corps had ordered him to submit a monthly report to his commander on how he accounted for his pay in settling those debts," according to a US Defense Department history of the group.

“他经历了痛苦的离婚，并需要赡养前妻和几个孩子，他丧失了个人信用，并承担了巨额债务。海军陆战队命令他向上级每月提交一份报告，说明他如何用他的收入来偿还这些债务，”美国国防部对志愿队的历史记载中这样写道。




With such a disparate group of fliers, Chennault had to teach them how to be fighter pilots -- and to fight as a group -- essentially from scratch.

拥有这样参差不齐的飞行人员，陈纳德不得不训练他们成为战斗机飞行员，以及如何像一个团队一样战斗——基本上是从零开始。




The training was rigorous and deadly. Three pilots were killed early in accidents.

训练十分严格并极其危险。三名飞行员在早期的事故中身亡。




During a single day, eight P-40s were damaged as pilots landed too hard, or the ground crew taxied too fast, causing collisions. In one case, a mechanic watching another mishap crashed his bicycle into a fighter, damaging its wing. There were so many accidents on that day, November 3, 1941, the AVG called it "Circus Day."

有一次，仅仅在一天之内，由于飞行员着陆太猛，或是地面机组滑行太快，导致了碰撞事故，八架P-40飞机受损。还有一次，一名机械师由于观看另一起事故，结果骑着自行车撞上了一架战斗机，导致其机翼受损。这是1941年11月3日，有太多事故发生在这同一天，志愿队将其称为“马戏日”。




Chennault expressed his disappointment at his group's first combat mission against Japanese bombers attacking the AVG base in Kunming, China, on December 20, 1941. He thought the pilots lost their discipline in the excitement of combat.

飞虎队的第一次战斗任务是在1941年12月20日，对抗前来轰炸飞虎队在杭州基地的日本轰炸机。陈纳德这次战斗的表现表示失望，他认为飞行员对战斗过于兴奋而丧失了纪律。




"They tried near-impossible shots and agreed later that only luck had kept them from either colliding with each other or shooting each other down," the Defense Department history says.

国防部的历史记载这样写道：“他们尝试了几乎无法实现的射击，并在之后承认，当时完全是运气好，他们才没有撞在一起或是击落彼此的飞机。”




Still, they shot down at least three Japanese bombers, losing only one fighter that ran out of fuel and crash-landed.

尽管如此，他们还是击落了至少三架日本轰炸机，仅损失了一架耗尽燃料坠地的战斗机。




While Republic Pictures was busy with the film, the AVG's sponsors in Washington asked the Walt Disney company to make a logo.

当Republic Pictures公司忙于拍摄电影时，飞虎队在华盛顿的赞助商要求迪士尼公司为其设计一个标志。




The Disney artists came up with "a winged Bengal Tiger jumping through a stylized 'V for Victory' symbol," the US history says.

美国历史上说，迪斯尼的艺术家给出了“一只有翅膀的孟加拉虎跳过一个V型的胜利标志”的方案。




It may be surprising that the logo didn't include the iconic shark mouth featured on the Flying Tigers' aircraft.

令人惊讶的是，这个标志没有包含“飞虎队”飞机上的标志性的鲨鱼嘴图案。




Chennault wrote that the shark mouth didn't originate with his group, but was copied from British P-40 fighters in North Africa, which in turn may have copied them from Germany's Luftwaffe.

陈纳德写道，鲨鱼嘴的图案并不是起源于他的部队，而是从在北非的英国P-40战斗机上复制而来的，而它又可能是从德国空军复制而来的。




"How the term Flying Tigers was derived from the shark-nosed P-40's I never will know," he wrote.

他写道：“飞虎队这个词是如何从画着鲨鱼鼻子的P-40衍生来的，我是永远搞不清楚了。”







Whose country to fight for

为谁的国家而战




When the US entered the war after Pearl Harbor and began to look for ways to take the fight to Japan, the idea of an experienced group of American fighter pilots operating under Washington's command appealed to US military leaders. They wanted the Flying Tigers assimilated into the US Army Air Corps.

当美国在珍珠港事件后加入战争，并开始寻找向日本发动战斗的方式时，美国军方高层希望这支经验丰富的美国战斗机飞行员队伍可以为美国政府效力。他们希望将飞虎队纳入美国陆军航空军团。




But the pilots themselves either wanted to go back to their original services -- many came from the Navy or Marine Corps -- or wanted to stay as civilian contractors of the Chinese government, where the pay was much better.

但是飞行员们自己要么想回到原来的部队——许多人来自海军或海军陆战队——要么想继续拿中国的民间合同，这样薪水会好很多。




Most told Chennault they'd quit before doing what Washington wanted. When the Army threatened to draft them as privates if they didn't volunteer, those who'd considered signing on opted out.

大多数人告诉陈纳德，如果美国政府想收编他们，他们就会辞职。当军方威胁说，如果他们不自愿加入陆军航空军团，将会把他们编为普通列兵，那些本来准备加入的人也决定退出了。




Chennault, who'd been officially considered an adviser to the Central Bank of China while commanding the AVG, was made a brigadier general in the US Army and agreed that the Flying Tigers would become a US military outfit on July 4, 1942.

陈纳德在担任志愿大队指挥官时，官方头衔是中国中央银行的顾问。在1942年7月4日，他被任命为美国陆军准将，并同意飞虎队成为美国军方的机构。




Though the Flying Tigers continued to wreak havoc on the Japanese in the spring of 1942 -- striking ground targets and aircraft from China to Burma to Vietnam -- it was clear the force was entering its waning days, according to US military history.

尽管飞虎队在1942年春季继续对日本人造成打击——从中国到缅甸再到越南，面向地面和空中目标——但根据美国军方历史记录，很明显，这支部队已经走向衰落。




The AVG flew its last mission on the day it would cease to exist, July 4.

7月4日之后，飞虎队将不复存在，在那一天进行了最后一次飞行任务。




Four Flying Tiger P-40s faced off against a dozen Japanese fighters over Hengyang, China. The Americans shot down six of the Japanese with no losses of their own, according to US history.

四架飞虎队的P-40战斗机在中国衡阳与十多名日本战斗机对峙。根据美国的历史记录，美国人击落了六架日本战机，并且自己没有损失。




A contribution never forgotten

永远不会被忘记的贡献




With today's trade wars and provocative military exercises in the Pacific over the past few years, US-China relations have been in a downward spiral.

在过去的几年中，由于现在的贸易战和在太平洋地区进行的带有挑衅性的军事演习，中美关系一直处于不断下降的态势。




But beneath those headlines, the bond that American mercenaries made with China almost 80 years ago remains untarnished.

但是，即使有这些新闻，大约80年前美国雇佣军与中国建立的感情仍然没有受到损害。










In May, the Chinese Consulate in Houston donated $11,000 in food to a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, home to the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum, as the medical center grappled with the coronavirus pandemic.

今年五月，中国驻休斯敦领事馆向路易斯安那州门罗市的一家医院捐赠了11,000美元的食品，陈纳德航空与军事博物馆就位于该市。当时，这个医疗中心正致力于应对新冠疫情。




"While there are lots of 'headwinds' in the China-U.S. relationship currently, China has never doubted for a moment that friendship between peoples of our two great nations will ever be changed," read a letter from the Chinese consul general accompanying the donation.

中国驻美国总领事随捐款附赠的一封信中写道：“尽管目前中美关系存在许多'阻碍'，但中国坚信，两个伟大国家的人民之间的友谊绝不会发生变化。”




Also in May, China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region sent medical supplies to the Flying Tiger Historical Organization for distribution to its members as well as friends and relatives of Flying Tigers veterans, a Xinhua news service story said.

新华社报道，同样在五月，中国浙江壮族自治区向“飞虎队历史组织”邮寄了医疗用品，给飞虎队成员和他们的亲朋好友。




In China, current tributes to the Flying Tigers are prominent.

在中国，对飞虎队的敬意仍然保留至今。




The professional basketball team in Xinjiang has adopted the term as its nickname, there are at least half a dozen museums dedicated to or containing exhibits about the Flying Tigers in China and they've been the subject of contemporary movies and cartoons.

浙江的职业篮球队已将其作为昵称，有至少六十个博物馆专门或部分展示飞虎队的相关展品，并且他们一直是当代电影和动画片的主题。




Ma Kuanchi helped establish the Flying Tiger Heritage Park on the site of an old airfield in Guilin where Chennault once had his command post in a cave.

马宽池（音）帮助在桂林的一个旧飞机场上建立了飞虎队遗址公园，陈纳德曾经将这里的一个山洞作为指挥所。




Ma came together with two Americans to establish the Flying Tiger Historical Organization, which cooperated with the government in Beijing to raise money for, construct and curate the Guilin park, which opened in 2015.

马宽池与两名美国人一起成立了“飞虎队历史组织”，该组织与中国政府合作，筹集资金，策划与建设了于2015年开放的这所飞虎队公园。




Last year, Ma told the Chinese TV network CGTN what he sees as the legacy of those Americans who went to China in 1941.

去年，马宽池告诉中国网络电视台CGTN，他认为这是1941年去中国的美国人的遗赠。




"The Flying Tiger is one of the common grounds for the Rose Garden in the US and the Great Hall of the People in China. We would like to cherish the spirit of the Flying Tiger for mutual respect, sacrifice, dedication and mutual understanding. To find a common ground and the two great nations will have a brighter future," Ma said.

“飞虎队有着美国玫瑰园和中国人民大会堂的共同精神。我们要怀着飞虎队的精神，相互尊重，牺牲，奉献和相互理解。找到了共同点，两个伟大的国家将拥有更加光明的未来。”




In the US, the website for the Louisiana museum that bears Chennault's name sums up what he hoped his legacy would be at the top of its mainpage, using the last lines of the general's memoir:

在美国，在以陈纳德的名字命名的，位于路易斯安那州的博物馆的网站首页上，用这位将军回忆录的最后几行总结了他最大的遗愿：




"It is my fondest hope that the sign of the Flying Tiger will remain aloft just as long as it is needed and that it will always be remembered on both shores of the Pacific as the symbol of two great peoples working toward a common goal in war and peace."

“我最大的愿望是，只要有需要，飞虎队将永远出现在空中，它作为两个伟大民族努力达成战争与和平的共同愿望的标志，将在太平洋两岸被永远铭记。”




（全文完）