It looks like a photo of the Flying Tigers. The plane behind them is a P-40 in flying Tiger paint scheme.

Wikipedia has an extensive article

Thanks! Do you see any insignias that may give any further information?

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Definitely a P-40, and definitely not the Flying Tigers seeing that the nose art is a snake head. After a quick google search this is what I found with identical nose art:

The “Bushmasters” of the 78th Fighter Squadron / 15th Fighter Group operated their P-40K’s from the Hawaiian Islands and Midway in 1943. They carried a large snake head on the noses of their aircraft. An interesting if somewhat obscure marking.

Anyway, that is an impressive find! Love this kind of stuff

Holy crap. I've looked at this picture as closely possible and I never saw that snake. Guess I need to get glasses. I'll look that unit up and see if perhaps there's a organization comprised of surviving members (although too many years may have passed). Thank you!

No problem! I just finished reading Baa Baa Black Sheep by Gregory Boyington, who himself was a Flying Tiger. According to him the Flying Tigers were a kind of “off the books” unit. No one wore rank or any insignia. They technically weren’t in China doing what they were doing (wink wink). So after seeing all the insignia on these pilots I figured something was amiss and looked closer at the nose art.

Edit: The Flying Tigers technically weren’t even in the US military

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The 78th has a very interesting history, and upon googling, I actually saw this same picture. It's too old for it to be a random copy, so I'd assume it's owner has some connection to the unit. I'll check out that book, and in return, recommend to you "Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors", possibly my most favorite WWII novel. If you enjoy books about naval warfare it's second to none.

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The flying tigers were Chinese Air Force. The planes had Chinese insignia. They were part of a group of squadrons known as the AVG (American Volunteer Group). When the US entered the war the AVG was disbanded and absorbed into the USAAF.

There were similar units flying for the Canadians and British. They were also disbanded and absorbed after 1941.

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A mix of officers and enlisted men. This is likely the personnel of a fighter squadron.

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I’ve read it! One of my favorites as well.

The P-40 is correct. The Flying Tigers is not.

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The way the picture was folded, it almost looks like it could’ve been used as a bookmark.

So which is it?

It would be interesting and maybe informative to see what is written in the discolored area around the crouching man 4th from right on bottom row. There is a violet rectangle of discoloration that extends from below his feet up into the chest of the man directly behind him.

Across that violet area on crouching man's chest to his knees you can clearly see some words written in old fountain pen. I don't see a similar mark anywhere else. The writing may be reversed if the note was against the photo or it could be that the original owner of the photo knew that man or was that man.

Anyway, great photo. Dig up some history for us.

Read the top comment.

I believe I did ⬆️⬆️ ;-)

Not just technically, but literally. They were hired by the Chinese corporation CAMCO, pilots for hire (mercenaries really) that were recruited from the US army air corps and the U.S. navy by Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, who was hired by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to build a credible Chinese Air Force basically from scratch…..

There is some print on the prop of the plane . Maybe this can b enlarged

I was going to say it was that the 2nd guy from the right in the middle row had a passing resemblance to Claire L Chennault. Really nice, obscure find.

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Yeah. You did.

But for anyone to see that they have to go to your account because the post you made is auto-killed since it contains a link to external material and this sub, for reasons known only to the mods, does not allow links to external sites even if the site is totally benign and has excellent info directly related to the post thread.

I found a post here one time made by a guy who had located a collection of old photos taken in Arizona back in the last couple decades of the 19th century. They belonged to his family and fell to him by inheritance. He had no idea who any of the people were but I instantly recognized Tom Horn, Nelson Miles, several famous Apache scouts, etc and dug into it posting lots of links for him to know that his ancestor likely served as an Apache scout with the group who followed Geronimo into Mexico and later captured him. Anyway, none of my posts appeared since they had external links and the guy never found out who any of those people were since no other poster looked for or found any of them. Really frustrating after doing so much research. I was not bright enough to message the guy to tell him to look at my account for info. Big mistake by me.

According to the website this photograph is attributable to a guy by the name of Jerry Yellin who was involved with this squadron I believe. Look him up in Google.

Ahhhhh. Thank you very much. I was wondering why it got no traction. seemed pretty pertinent to me. I'll try a screenshot....

That's pretty cool that you found the Arizona info. I also had no idea about looking at the account...

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https://preview.redd.it/2nzcmx06xija1.jpeg?width=1673&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=ffa49936af963d362516e891abdc7f609123c643

Since my previous post of this link is not viewable in the sub (thanks u/mayperalnavigator for explaining it to me..) here's a screen shot of the very same pic with the website link viewable... check it out...

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This is crazy, there’s no way they’re all going to fit in that thing.

Thanks for tightening that up! I remember this from the book but couldn’t quite recall the details last night.

Very cool

Those folds kill me. The price to restore this was quoted at around 200 by a highly recommended company in Manhattan who do good work. If it was from a family member I'd do it, but other than being an interesting fond I'm having a hard time spending that kind of $

Hey! Is that George Santos in that pic?!

That picture exudes badass.

There is a reddit page that restores old photos, they have done a quick job for me before sometimes even colorize it.

He, in fact, took the photo himself and invented the processing technology to get it developed.

r/estoration

My eyes aren't perfect, but it looks like a signature. The name Wright perhaps?

Good catch on the discoloration.

We are poor little lambs,

Who have lost our way,

Baa, BAA, baa

(Intro to the TV series)

I knew it was a P-40 but didn't see the nose art so I was wondering who they were with. I knew it wasn't the Tigers. Cool. Thanks.

Great Book.

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Great find. Someone wanted to be remembered if it was deliberately placed where you found it. Fun unravelling the mystery.