The Tuskegee Airmen in World War 2
America's armed forces were still segregated in World War 2. Like the Jim Crow laws that restricted the lives of Black people in the South, African Americans who served in the military were often restricted in the roles they could take on.
In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the expansion of the Air Corps that allowed new training programs at Black colleges. Soon after, the Tuskegee Institute, founded 60 years earlier by Booker T. Washington in Alabama, created a flight school for Black pilots.
Just under 1,000 men trained as pilots and earned their wings at the Tuskegee Army Air Field.
In 1941, the War Department and the Army Air Corps created the 99th Pursuit Squadron, America's first all-Black flying unit.
The 99th Squadron was deployed to North Africa in 1943. Their first combat mission was to attack the small but strategic volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea in preparation for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.
The first Black flying group, the 332nd Fighter Group, was deployed to Italy in early 1944.
Eventually, both groups would fly more than 1,500 missions over North Africa and Europe during the war. The units made ground attacks, patrolled coastlines, and flew 179 bomber escort missions.
The Tuskegee Airmen were initially equipped with P-40 Warhawks, but later switched to the airplane that they would become most identified with, the P-51 Mustang.
In January 1944, German fighter-bombers raided Anzio, but eleven Tuskegee Fighter Squadron's pilots shot down 13 enemy fighters.
After pilots of the 332nd Fighter Group painted the tails of their P-47s red, the nickname "Red Tails" was coined. The red markings that distinguished the Tuskegee Airmen included red bands on the noses as well.
The red tails were a welcome sight to the bomber crews that they protected. Bomber groups often specifically requested Redtail escorts when possible.
Flying escort for heavy bombers, they racked up an impressive combat record. The Luftwaffe awarded the Airmen the nickname, “Schwarze Vogelmenschen,” or “Black Birdmen.”
In over 1,500 missions during WW2, the Tuskegee Airmen were credited with 112 Luftwaffe aircraft shot down and the destruction of numerous fuel dumps, trucks and trains. Of the 992 pilots trained at Tuskegee, 68 were killed in action during the war.
Tuskegee Airmen were awarded several Silver Stars, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 8 Purple Hearts, 14 Bronze Stars, and 744 Air Medals.