After being formed in August 1943, the Chinese-American Wing's squadrons were individually trained at an air base in Karachi, India, before flying over the Himalayas to China and carrying out operations against the Japanese.

In the final two years of World War II the CACW flew more missions than the rest of the Chinese Air Force combined.

When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1937 with the Marco Polo Bridge incident, the Republic of China (ROC) Air Force went into action at the Battle of Shanghai.

Much of it was destroyed during the campaign in the Yangtze River valley by the end of 1937, and the Soviet Volunteer Group that arrived in China that year did most of the fighting from that point, alongside what was left of the ROCAF, until it withdrew in 1940.

[2][3][4] By this point in the war, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek wanted to prioritize the air campaign over ground operations, and supported Chennault's efforts to attack Japanese targets from his bases in China.

[4] President Franklin Roosevelt agreed with their proposals, including to eventually launch attacks on Japan from China, and wanted the commander of the USAAF, General Henry H. Arnold, to send the needed aircraft.

[2][3] Chennault proposed forming fighter and bombardment squadrons that would be led by American officers and include experienced Chinese air crews, which Arnold accepted.

[7] When the first steps were being taken to form the Chinese-American wing in the late spring of 1943, USAAF Brigadier General Howard Davidson was in charge of the project, which was code-named "Lotus.

The Chinese members included veterans that had been fighting from the start of the war to more recent recruits that just returned from pilot training in the United States.

[14] Because all of the Chinese-American Wing's units were part of the ROC Air Force, the Chinese government was initially responsible for providing supplies, housing, and other logistical services for their members.

[19] Code-named "Mission A," it was an air campaign by the Chinese-American Wing to disrupt a Japanese offensive from north China to capture the entirety of the Beijing–Hankou railway.

After this, the 3rd Fighter Group and the 2nd Bombardment Squadron spent the time from May to June 1944 waging attacks against Japanese ground forces and other targets near the Yellow River.

But the Chinese-American Wing inflicted significant damage, and the 3rd Fighter Group and 2nd Bombardment Squadron received a Distinguished Unit Citation.

[23] In June 1944, all component units of the CACW, in the north and in the south, were moving from one base to another as the situation on the frequently changed, and the overall headquarters was also transferred.

[24] The 3rd Bombardment Squadron, the last unit of the CACW to complete its training, did not arrive in China right away and spent the summer of 1944 supporting the Chinese Y Force during the Burma campaign.

The fighter and bombardment groups of the former CACW were later moved to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War and became part of the Taiwanese Republic of China Air Force.

The CACW air crews changed the U.S. star on the sides of their aircraft with the Chinese Nationalist Blue Sky and White Sun roundel.