This december,the city of kunming,a metropolis of 4.6 millionin southwest China, is celebrating a group of Americans who 75 years ago saved the city from devastation. The First American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers, was a short-lived unit, but during the seven months they flew combat, under the leadership of Claire Lee Chennault, they destroyed almost 300 Japanese attacking airplanes. To honor the group, the Kunming City Museum is mounting an exhibit of photographs taken by one of the pilots: R.T. Smith, a fighter ace, photographer, and author of the 1986 memoir Tale of a Tiger. His photographs show the shark-faced Curtiss P-40s that the group became famous for, as well as scenes of their life on the base in Kunming. What they don't show is the desperation of a city that lay within easy reach of Japanese warplanes or the furious air battles that saved it.
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机译：12月，中国西南部460万大都市昆明市正在庆祝一群75年前挽救了这座城市免遭破坏的美国人。美国第一志愿小组，即俗称“飞虎队”，是一个短命的部队，但在克莱尔·李·陈纳德（Claire Lee Chennault）的领导下，进行了七个月的战斗，他们摧毁了近300架日本攻击机。为了纪念这个团体，昆明市博物馆正在展示由一名飞行员R.T.史密斯（Smith）是一位战斗王牌，摄影师，并且是1986年的回忆录《老虎的故事》的作者。他的照片展示了该团伙闻名的鲨鱼脸柯蒂斯P-40，以及他们在昆明基地的生活场景。他们没有表现出的是一座绝望的城市，它位于日本战机可及的范围之内，或者是拯救它的激烈空战。
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