Blood Chit is the popular name used for a rescue patch worn or carried by airmen from most nations in most wars. The image that comes to mind when you hear the words blood chit are those 10 1/2” x 8” patches sewn to the back of leather flight jackets worn by members of the American Volunteer Group which is better known by the name the Chinese gave them: The Flying Tigers.

The AVG blood chit was silk-screened on lined silk. Below the Nationalist Chinese flag Chinese characters were placed that announced to the population that the bearer of the chit is a friend, an enemy of the Japanese and asks assistance in any way possible. That assistance will be rewarded. Thus blood = life and chit = IOU. Authority is given to this message by having the chop or sign of the Chinese Aero Commission stamped in red in the middle of the text.

Most would agree that the English (in India) initiated the widespread use of blood chits (or goolie chits as their barracks language identified them)earlier in the century. The blood chit takes many forms in a variety of materials. The most common are those printed on paper and later on a water proof rayon like material. All blood chits display the flag or insignia of the parent country along with a text(s) in the appropriate language(s) to the region overflown.

The blood chits of the China, Burma, India theater during WWII hold the greatest fascination. Many were theater made in a variety of languages (the Hump pilots carried a chit with 17 languages which covered the diverse areas flown over from India into China). Some were mass produced by the Nationalist Chinese government while others were made by the British in India for themselves and the Americans. A very large number were produced in Washington by the War Department. The greatest variety in style and material however, were made by street vendors and small shops in India, Burma and China. Whether the blood chits were sewn and painted leather or the highly embroidered examples from China, they each carry a rescue message but serve also to distinguish the airman when worn on his jacket.

These chits are a unique, non regulation Folk Art, much like the Nose Art on the planes they flew and tolerated by the high command because of the morale function they provided. Nose Art and the wearing of blood chits on flight jackets was forbidden at the end of WWII.

The blood chit continued to be used in the Korean conflict, Viet Nam, the Gulf War and Bosnia. It is now an item in an airman’s survival kit, along with other escape and evasion aids such as maps, a compass, and currency. The most complete reference on the subject is Last Hope, The Blood Chit Story by R E Baldwin & Thomas Wm. McGarry; Schiffer Publishing Ltd, ©1997.