WWII Flying Tiger pilot Ho Weng Toh dies at 103

Taipei, Jan. 7 (CNA) Ho Weng Toh (何永道), a former pilot in the World War II American volunteer group know as the Flying Tigers, died Saturday in Singapore at the age of 103, a relative said later that day.

Ho was a B-25 Mitchell bomber pilot, who flew 18 missions over Japanese-occupied northern China during the war, as a member of the Flying Tigers, a volunteer group of American and Chinese pilots who were recruited by then retired United States Army Captain Claire L. Chennault to fight the Japanese in Burma (Myanmar) and China.

After the U.S. entered World War II, the group, also known as the American Volunteer Group (AVG), was incorporated into the regular U.S. Army Air Forces and Chennault was recalled to active duty in 1942. American members of the unit who wished were absorbed into the U.S. 10th Air Force.

Ho, who had been living with his family in Singapore from 1953 to the time of his death, had said in an exclusive interview with CNA in 2020 that joining the ROC Air Force was life-changing decision for him, as that led to his recruitment in the Flying Tigers.

Although he was a Chinese expatriate living in Southeast Asia, he did not flee to the U.S. or Australia like others did during WWII, but instead he joined the Air Force to defend the nation's security and safeguard his family, he said in the interview when he was 100 years old.

Born in 1920 in the small town of Ipoh in Malaysia, Ho was a university student in Hong Kong when Japanese forces invaded China during World War II.

At the end of 1941, the situation in Hong Kong was turbulent, due to Japan's occupation, Ho said, recounting that he witnessed the Japanese bombing of Kai Tak Airport. The war not only interrupted his studies in Hong Kong, but also resulted in him losing contact with his family in Ipoh, he said.

Amid many challenges, he said, he managed to flee from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, where he saw a government poster for air force recruitment, and he decided to join the military to fight against the Japanese.

He enrolled in the Air Force Academy in 1942 and received preliminary flight training in India the following year, he said.

Ho then signed up as trainee pilot with the Flying Tigers and joined other Chinese and American pilots in Arizona, where they received intensive flying training.

On completion of his training in Arizona, he was sent on missions over China as bomber pilot with the Flying Tigers, he said. Piloting a B-25 Mitchell bomber, he flew a total of 18 missions with the Flying Tigers, he said.

After the war, Ho resigned from the ROC Air Force, and he returned in 1951 to Malaysia, where he worked as a pilot for the now-defunct Malayan Airways. The carrier later split into two airlines -- Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines (SIA) -- and Ho was a pilot with the latter.

In 2019, Ho published an autobiography titled "Memoirs of a Flying Tiger: The Story of a WWII Veteran and SIA Pioneer Pilot."

His death, at the age of 103, was announced on Saturday in a Facebook post by his nephew John Ho.

Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security of Singapore, Teo Chee Hean (張志賢), paid tribute to Ho in a Facebook post on Saturday.