Two US pilots who helped fight against invading Japanese troops 60 years ago are back in China for a reunion with their Chinese wartime friends.

The two 83-year-old Mark McDonnell and 81-year-old Paul Crawford are part of a US "Flying Tiger" Friendship Delegation. They arrived on Thursday in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei Province. It is their first visit back since they left in 1945.

"The war 60 years ago is a painful memory," McDonnell said.

"It claimed many people's lives and left the survivors homeless. We should not forget the miserable history. I hope there will be no fighting and wars in the world any more."

Crawford said China had transformed itself.

"China had no cars at that time and a few trucks were used for military service," he recalled. "China's changed so much except that the people are always warm-hearted and hard-working."

The two veterans arrived in China as Flying Tigers in the fall of 1944 and left in June 1945.

They participated in bombing runs against Japanese supply routes in Hebei, and were even privileged to meet once with Mao Zedong.

The four Chinese veterans they came back to see have not forgotten their wartime friendship with the American aviators.

Yan Xin, one of the four, once saved seven Flying Tigers from a cataclysmic fate.

He was serving as the head of a local anti-Japanese committee when the seven were shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire.

"We tried to provide the Americans with the best food we had, eggs and millet, because they came to China voluntarily to help us fight off the Japanese invaders. We felt we should provide them with our best food," Yan said.

.During their meeting, the two US pilots and their Chinese friends expressed hopes that Sino-US friendship will flow forever like China's grand Yangtze River and the mighty US Mississippi.

The Americans visited Guilin in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Xi'an in Shaanxi Province before they arrived in Shijiazhuang for the reunion.

The Flying Tigers were a band of US military aviators sent secretly to Asia by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt even before the United States entered World War II.

They joined an air force organized by legendary US Army Colonel Claire Lee Chennault, who went on to become a major general as commander of the unit.

Chennault died a hero to his country and to all of China in 1958.

(China Daily March 28, 2005)