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On 16 January 1941, the Army Air Corps was open to
blacks after decades of segregation. Tuskegee, Alabama, was chosen for
flight school. This area of the country was noted for intolerance,
racial violence, and segregation. In the spring of 1941, Flight
Instructor C. Alfred Anderson took First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for
a flight around Tuskegee. Flight training began in June, 1941, with
the class 42-C-SE of 13 men. Only five graduated including
Captain Benjamin O. Davis junior, who became the commander of the
99th fighter squadron, and later of the 332rd fighter group.
The 100th fighter squadron soon followed and later the 301st and
302nd in mid-1942. Tuskegee Army Air Field was a hell-hole of
prejudice. The blacks squadrons were not sent to combat after
training, but stayed in the States and kept training. Because of
delays, the 99th had much more training than white units, with most
pilots having 250 hours in the P-40 fighter, when the 99th Fighter Squadron
arrived in North Africa on 9 June 1943. The first combat mission was
escorting A-20 Havoc Attack Bombers, when a mission to the island of
Pantelleria. On his 18th combat mission, Lieutenant Charles B. Hall
was the first 99th pilot to shoot down a German fighter on 2 July
1943 in his P-40L. The 99th moved first to Sicily and then to Italy,
where it was deployed for ground attack more than an escort
fighting. |
Transition to the P-51 Mustang fighter happened in June, 1944, and
Mustangs tails were painted red and thus were born the "Red Tails."
On 8 July 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group shot down 11 enemy aircraft.
Ground attack and escort missions were the work of the Red
Tails, for the rest of the war. The Germans call them Schwrtze
Volgelmenschen (black birdmen). Most white pilots were rotated home
after 50 missions, but the Tuskegee could not train enough black
pilots. Walter Palmer of the 100th Fighter Squadron was not rotated home
until after completing 158 missions in November 1944.|
Museum of Black WW II History © 2006
- 2010 |