“Odd, I know of no other military that let troops take tanks, APCs, artillery pieces, their personal weapons, ammunition, etc with them “on leave.””
Never heard of the Flying Tigers”, eh?
Doesn’t make it right, but there is precedent.
Please identify the country that the Flying Tigers intended to occupy.
Actually, I have heard of the Flying Tigers.
But, as the link below relates, Chennault and the rest were contract members of the Nationalist Chinese Air Force. The Chinese Air Force also owned the aircraft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Tigers
A better example would be the fully armed “volunteer” forces deployed by Germany, Italy, and Russia to Spain during the Spanish Ciivil War. However, I doubt any of them were in “leave” status while there.