A group of American WWII veterans, including 40-plus members of the renowned "Flying Tigers," visited a war cemetery in Nanjing on Monday and paid homage to aviators who died in battle.

The US volunteer group fighting in China during WWII, known as the "Flying Tigers," was organized by Claire Lee Chennault in 1941. Between December 1941 and September 1945, they helped China in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

The aviation martyrs cemetery in Nanjing is the final rest place of more than 3,000 pilots from China, the former Soviet Union and the US. About 2,000 of them were American pilots.

(Xinhua News Agency September 14, 2005)