Liuzhou Military Museum

The Liuzhou Military Museum holds one of the more interesting collections of Second World War aircraft in southern China, with several surviving P-40 Warhawks and other aircraft associated with the American Volunteer Group — the Flying Tigers — who operated from Liuzhou's airfields in the early 1940s. The collection is supplemented by vehicles, weapons, and documents from the various conflicts that have passed through this part of China, including the Sino-Japanese War and the later Sino-Vietnamese conflict.

The museum is housed in a purpose-built facility and the exhibits are well maintained. It is the kind of museum that rewards visitors who arrive with some background knowledge — the context of Liuzhou's strategic importance as an American air base, then its fall to Japanese forces during Operation Ichi-Go, makes the collection far more interesting than the aircraft alone. There is a significant Chinese-language component to the displays, but the aircraft and vehicles speak for themselves.

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A story
The Flying Tigers — formally the American Volunteer Group and later the China Air Task Force — flew P-40 Warhawks out of Liuzhou from 1942, using the city as a forward base for missions against Japanese shipping and supply lines. The distinctive shark-mouth nose art on the P-40s became one of the most recognisable images of the Pacific War. The Japanese response was to capture Liuzhou in 1944 during Operation Ichi-Go, destroying the airfields and forcing American forces to retreat.