The Tuskegee Airmen and the “Never Lost a Bomber” Myth

31 Pages·2011·2.52 MB·English

The Tuskegee Airmen and the
“Never Lost a Bomber” Myth
DANIEL L. HAULMAN
F
OR SIXTY YEARS AFTER WORLD WAR II, the Tuskegee Airmen’s 332nd
Fighter Group was reputed to be the only American fighter escort
group to have “never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft.” Where did the
claim originate, and was it true?
On March 10, 1945, the respected and widely read Liberty magazine
published “Dark Angels of Doom,” an article by influential black jour-
nalist Roi Ottley about the 332nd Fighter Group in combat. Ottley
wrote that “in more than 100 combat missions in which the Red Tails
have given escort cover to their ‘Big Friends’—the long-range heavy
bombers—they haven’t lost a single ship to enemy fighters!” By then
the 332nd had flown more than 130 bomber escort missions, and had
lost bombers on only six of those missions.1 But the group did not fly
100 missions before losing a bomber. In fact, the group lost bombers
during its first few missions. Nevertheless, readers might have falsely
concluded that the group had flown more than 100 bomber escort
missions without losing a bomber, when in fact it had lost bombers
on at least six of more than 130 escort missions flown by March 10,
1945.
By March 1945, the 332nd had flown more than 200 missions for
the Fifteenth Air Force, including strafing attacks on ground targets
and fighter sweeps as well as bomber escort missions. On March 24,
Dr. Daniel L. Haulman is Chief, Organization History Division, at the Air Force Historical
Research Agency, where he has worked since 1982. He earned his bachelor’s degree from
the University of Southwestern Louisiana, his master’s degree from the University of New
Orleans, and his PhD in history from Auburn University. He has authored three books and
sixteen articles. He is married to Ellen Evans Haulman, who works on the staff of the Ala-
bama Commission on Higher Education, and they have a son named Evan, now a graduate
student at Samford University in Birmingham.
1 Roi Ottley, “Dark Angels of Doom,” Liberty, March 10, 1945, 13; daily narrative mission re-
ports of the 332nd Fighter Group, mission reports of the bombardment groups the 332nd
Fighter Group escorted, and missing aircrew reports (MACRs), all at the Air Force Histori-
cal Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base (hereafter cited as AFHRA).
JANUARY 2011 31
1945, the Chicago Defender, a prominent African American newspa-
per, published another article entitled “332d Flies Its 200th Mission
Without Loss.” Apparently the reporter had misinterpreted the Ottley
article, which had been published two weeks before, and expanded
it into a larger myth that the Tuskegee Airmen did not lose a bomber
after 200 bomber escort missions. In fact, the 332nd flew a total of
only 179 bomber escort missions out of a total of 311 missions for the
Fifteenth Air Force.2
The “never lost a bomber” claim already circulated before a War
Department press release dated June 21, 1945, announced that Col.
Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who had commanded the 332nd, was taking
command of the 477th Bombardment Group. Based on the preced-
ing newspaper article, the press release claimed that “on February
28, 1945, Colonel Davis’ group had completed 200 missions with the
15th Air Force and had served as escort to heavy bombers without
losing a single bomber to enemy fighters.”3 This was probably the
first time an official Air Force document repeated the “never lost a
bomber” claim.
Charles Francis wrote the first book about the Tuskegee Airmen in
1955. While he discussed the excellent combat record of the 332nd
Fighter Group and its squadrons, he did not repeat the “never lost
a bomber” claim.4 The statement eventually appeared in countless
other places, including books, magazines, newspaper articles, tele-
vision documentaries, and museum displays about the Tuskegee
Airmen. By the end of the twentieth century, many found it difficult
to think of the black pilots without also thinking they had “never lost
a bomber.”
Davis, who later rose to become the first African American general
in the United States Air Force, commanded the 332nd during most
2 “332d Flies Its 200th Mission Without Loss,” Chicago Defender, March 24, 1945; daily nar-
rative mission reports of the 332nd Fighter Group, June 1944 – April 1945, filed with the
monthly histories of the 332nd Fighter Group at AFHRA.
3 A copy of the press release is among the papers of Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr. at the Paul
E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility of the Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum.
4 Charles E. Francis, The Tuskegee Airmen: The Story of the Negro in the U.S. Air Force (Boston,
1955).
32 THE ALABAMA REVIEW
of the time it served in combat with the Fifteenth Air Force. His fa-
ther had been the first African American general in the United States
Army. As a lieutenant general, the younger Davis shared his experi-
ences with historian Alan Gropman in a 1990 oral history interview.
Gropman asked Davis specifically about the “never lost a bomber”
claim. Davis replied, “I do not say that, or if I do say it, it’s not an over-
enthusiastic statement. I question that privately between you and me.
But so many people have said it that a lot of people have come to
believe it.”5
Davis himself might have come to believe it. The very next year,
1991, the Smithsonian Institution published Davis’s autobiography
entitled Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American. In that book he noted: “in a
letter of commendation to me, Buck Taylor remarked that ours was
a fine military organization: among our accomplishments, we had
achieved the distinction of never losing a single bomber to enemy
fighters on an escort mission.” Davis himself, despite questioning the
statement the year before, endorsed the claim.6
In 1995 the cable television channel HBO broadcast a movie called
The Tuskegee Airmen that reached a national audience more effectively
than almost any other medium. The movie repeated the “never lost
a bomber” statement, reinforcing the common belief that the 332nd
was the only fighter group never to have lost a bomber under its es-
cort.7
Apparently no one seriously or publicly questioned the veracity of
the “never lost a bomber” statement in the twentieth century, pos-
sibly because the claim was so old, and possibly because it had been
repeated so often. In 1997 members of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc.,
which included many of the original Tuskegee Airmen veterans, chose
William Holton, an African American US Navy veteran of World War
II, to be the organization’s national historian. When a World War
II veteran told Holton he did not believe the “never lost a bomber”
5 Lt. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis Jr., interview by Alan Gropman, February 3, 1990, call number
K239.0512-1922, 141, AFHRA.
6 Benjamin O. Davis Jr., Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., American: An Autobiography (Washington, DC,
1991), 136–37.
7 “The Tuskegee Airmen,” The Internet Movie Database, accessed December 16, 2010,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114745.
JANUARY 2011 33
Benjamin O. Davis Sr. greeting Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
during an inspection. Image courtesy of the Tuskegee
Airmen Photographic Collection, Air Force Historical
Research Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base.
statement, Holton began research to prove it was true. What he found
instead was evidence among the daily mission reports of the 332nd
that bombers might have been shot down by enemy aircraft after all.
In 2004 Holton published a booklet to celebrate the sixtieth anniver-
sary of the group’s first heavy bomber escort missions in World War
II.8 His booklet contained copies of selected mission reports of the
332nd and boldly claimed that the “never lost a bomber” statement
was not true. Holton distributed copies of his booklet at the Tuskegee
8 Willliam Holton, conversation with author at the 2007 national convention of the Tuske-
gee Airmen Inc. in Grapevine, Texas; William F. Holton, “332d Fighter Group in World
War II: 60th Anniversary Commemoration” (published for the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., for
which he served then as national historian).
34 THE ALABAMA REVIEW
Airmen Inc. national convention in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2004, but
his revelation encountered emotional vocal opposition. Tuskegee
Airmen Inc. asked its Harry A. Sheppard Research Committee, led by
original Tuskegee Airman William Holloman, a retired US Air Force
lieutenant colonel, to serve as a historical research team to investi-
gate the issue.9 The Holloman committee explored the documents
in an attempt to prove or disprove Holton’s assertion that the “never
lost a bomber” statement was false.
In 2006 the author, a historian at the Air Force Historical Research
Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base, since the 1980s, wrote an article
about the aerial victory credits of the Tuskegee Airmen originally
called “109 Victories.” I was not aware of Holton’s previous research
and examined some of the same mission reports of the 332nd Fighter
Group, and I came to the same conclusion that the “never lost a
bomber” statement was false. I mentioned that discovery at the spring
2006 symposium of the Society for Military History at Kansas State
University.10
When I returned from the meeting, Joseph Caver, an archivist who
also works at the Air Force Historical Research Agency, informed me
of William Holton’s research and that Holton had already discovered
that the “never lost a bomber” claim was false. In fact, Caver had been
at the 2004 meeting of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. when Holton pre-
sented his original findings.11
In December 2006 a reporter named Alvin Benn interviewed me
about my research that suggested the famous “never lost a bomb-
er” statement was historically inaccurate. During the interview I
told Benn about Holton’s similar research, and he also interviewed
Holton. On December 10 he published an article in the Montgomery
Advertiser titled “Tuskegee Airmen’s Record Disputed.”12 Later in
9 William Holloman, Joseph Caver, and Ronald Brewington, conversations with author at
the 2004 national convention of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc., Omaha.
10 Daniel L. Haulman, “109 Victories: The Aerial Victory Credits of the Tuskegee Airmen”
(paper, 2006 meeting of the Society for Military History, Kansas State University).
11 Joseph Caver, conversation with author at AFHRA, spring 2006.
12 Alvin Benn, “Tuskegee Airmen’s Record Disputed,” Montgomery Advertiser, December 10,
2006.
JANUARY 2011 35
December several reporters interviewed both me and Holton about
our research and our questioning of the “never lost a bomber” claim
became widely known.
Many of the Tuskegee Airmen and their proponents misinterpret-
ed the challenge to the “never lost a bomber” myth as an attack on
the combat performance of the Tuskegee Airmen during World War
II, which was not at all the intention of either Holton or me. Other
Tuskegee Airmen and their supporters resented the implication that
the Tuskegee Airmen had been lying for sixty years, when in fact most
were not familiar with the wartime records of their organization, es-
pecially from the months before they went as individuals overseas,
and were not intentionally speaking dishonestly.
In early 2007 Lt. Col. Robert Tate, an officer at the Air University,
Maxwell Air Force Base, questioned me about my conclusion and sug-
gested further research. When I learned that members of the histori-
cal committee of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. were planning to come
to the Air Force Historical Research Agency to conduct their own re-
search into the “never lost a bomber” question and that I was to help
them with their research, I decided to take Colonel Tate’s advice and
look at more documents pertaining to the issue. These included the
mission reports and periodic histories of the bombardment groups
escorted by the 332nd Fighter Group, and the missing aircrew reports
(MACRs) of bomber crews that the escorted groups lost.
For each of the missions in question, I first determined which bom-
bardment groups the 332nd was assigned to escort, and the times and
places of the escort. Then I consulted the mission reports of the bom-
bardment groups found in the daily mission reports of the Fifteenth
Air Force. Next I examined the MACRs index, which show which
bombardment group lost aircraft on certain days. Finally I examined
each of the MACRs, which show which bombers were lost, how they
were lost, and where and when they were lost. By piecing together
the relevant documents, I was able to prove more conclusively that
sometimes bombers under the escort of the Tuskegee Airmen were
indeed shot down by enemy aircraft.
36 THE ALABAMA REVIEW
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. and unidentified Tuskegee Airman
in front of Davis’s fighter By Request. Image
courtesy of the Tuskegee Airmen Photographic
Collection, Air Force Historical Research Agency,
Maxwell Air Force Base.
Early in 2007 I met with three members of the Tuskegee Airmen
Inc., who visited the Air Force Historical Research Agency to conduct
research into the “never lost a bomber” question. They included re-
tired Lt. Col. William Holloman, the head of the Harry A. Sheppard
Research Committee, Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, and Lt. Col.
William Ellis. All three were original Tuskegee Airmen who flew with
the 332nd Fighter Group in Europe in combat during World War
II. After several days of research, especially into the records of the
July 12, 1944, mission, the team concluded that at least three and
possibly four bombers under Tuskegee Airmen escort that day were
shot down by enemy aircraft. The team and I also concluded that
one of the Tuskegee Airmen had shot down three enemy aircraft that
JANUARY 2011 37
Table 1: Fifteenth Air Force Organization as of October 1944
Wing Assigned Components
5th Bombardment (B-17s) 2nd, 97th, 99th, 301st, 463rd,
483rd Bombardment Groups
47th Bombardment (B-24s) 98th, 376th, 449th, 450th
Bombardment Groups
49th Bombardment (B-24s) 451st, 461st, 484th Bombardment
Groups
55th Bombardment (B-24s) 460th, 464th, 465th, 485th
Bombardment Groups
304th Bombardment (B-24s) 454th, 455th, 456th, 459th
Bombardment Groups
305th Fighter (Provisional) 1st, 14th, 82nd Fighter Groups
(P-38s)
306th Fighter (P-51s) 31st, 52nd, 325th, 332nd Fighter
Groups
day that were not counted among the Tuskegee Airmen’s aerial vic-
tory credits. I amended my “109 Victories” paper and called it “112
Victories.”
Between the summer of 1944 and the end of April 1945, the Fifteenth
Air Force had seven fighter groups available to escort twenty-one
bombardment groups (see Table 1). In other words, for each fighter
group there were three bombardment groups. In fact, on many of
the missions in the summer and fall of 1944, each fighter group was
typically assigned one bombardment wing to escort on a given day,
and each of those wings consisted of several bombardment groups.
For example, on July 12, 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group was the only
group assigned to escort the 49th Bombardment Wing, which con-
sisted of three bombardment groups. On certain days the 332nd was
assigned to escort more than one bombardment wing. There were
simply many more bombers on a day’s mission than there were fight-
ers to escort them, and the fighters sometimes were hard pressed to
cover them all, especially when large numbers of enemy fighters rose
38 THE ALABAMA REVIEW
to attack the bombers. It is understandable that sometimes a fighter
group, despite its best efforts, would be unable to prevent enemy air-
craft from reaching and shooting down some of the bombers.13
Following is my research into the “never lost a bomber” question.
It focuses on seven missions, one each for the following dates: June 9,
1944; June 13, 1944; July 12, 1944; July 18, 1944; July 20, 1944; August
24, 1944; and March 24, 1945. On each of those dates, enemy aircraft
shot down bombers under Tuskegee Airmen escort.
June 9, 1944
On June 9, 1944, the 301st and 302nd Fighter Squadrons of the
332nd Fighter Group escorted bombers of several bombardment
wings of the Fifteenth Air Force, including the 304th Bombardment
Wing, from Italy toward their target at Munich, Germany. The time
of the escort was between 8:30 a.m. and 9:25 a.m.14 The Fifteenth
Air Force lost seventeen bombers that day. Enemy aircraft shot down
only two of these during the period when the 332nd was escorting
them. Both belonged to the 304th Bombardment Wing’s 459th
Bombardment Group.15
For his heroism during the mission, Davis earned the Distinguished
Flying Cross. The Fifteenth Air Force award order noted that “Colonel
Davis so skillfully disposed his squadrons that in spite of the large
number of enemy fighters, the bomber formation suffered only a few
losses.” Members of the 332nd earned five aerial victory credits for
shooting down enemy aircraft that day.16 They earned those victories
by destroying enemy fighters that were attacking the bombers they
were escorting. While the Tuskegee Airmen were shooting down en-
emy fighters, however, some of those fighters were shooting down the
two American bombers (see Table 2). German fighter pilots claimed
13 Fifteenth Air Force daily mission folders, summer and fall 1944, call number 670.332,
AFHRA.
14 332nd Fighter Group narrative mission report no. 3, June 9, 1944, call number GP-332-HI,
AFHRA; Fifteenth Air Force mission folder, June 9, 1944, call number 670.332, AFHRA.
15 MACR index, AFHRA; MACRs 6317 and 6179, AFHRA; Fifteenth Air Force mission fold-
er, June 9, 1944, call number 670.332, AFHRA.
16 Fifteenth Air Force general order no. 2972, August 31, 1944, call number 670.193,
AFHRA; Fifteenth Air Force general order no. 1473, June 30, 1944, call number 670.193,
AFHRA.
JANUARY 2011 39
to have shot down several B-24s in the Munich area of southern
Germany (Bavaria) that fateful morning.17
Table 2: Bombers Lost to Enemy Aircraft while under 332nd
Fighter Group Escort, 304th Bombardment Wing, June 9, 1944,
Mission to Munich, Germany
Group Type and Time Location MACR
Serial Number
Number
459 B-24G 9:05 a.m. N 46° 40´, 6317
42-78219 E 12° 40´
459 B-24 H 9:07 a.m. N 46° 00´, 6179
42-52318 E 12° 40´
June 13, 1944
On June 13, 1944, the 332nd Fighter Group was assigned to provide
penetration escort to both the 5th and 49th Bombardment Wings on
a mission to the Munich area. They met the bombers at 7:55 a.m. and
stayed with them until 9:25 a.m. Enemy aircraft rose to challenge the
bombers in northern Italy. The group’s mission report for the day
noted “total of 11 E/A [enemy aircraft] seen but not encountered.
Total of 2 seen attacking bombers.”18
At 9:00 a.m. near Portogruaro, Italy, enemy fighters attacked a
B-24 of the 49th Bombardment Wing’s 484th Bombardment Group,
which had slowed and fallen out of formation, probably because of
mechanical trouble. An eyewitness named Robert E. Myers noted
that he heard the B-24 pilot, Lieutenant Remington, on the radio: “I
heard him calling for Pixey [sic] 1, saying he was jumped by enemy
fighters.” According to the Fifteenth Air Force mission report for that
17 “O.K.L. (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe) Fighter Claims, Chef fur Ausz. Und Dizsiplin,
Luftwaffen-Personalamt L.P. [A] V Films & Supplementary Claims from Lists: Reich, West,
& Sudfront, May–July 1944, Issue no. 1,” Tony Wood’s Combat Claims and Casualty Lists,
accessed January 5, 2011, http://don-caldwell.we.bs/claims/tonywood.htm.
18 332nd Fighter Group narrative mission report no. 5, June 13, 1944, call number GP-
332-HI, AFHRA; Fifteenth Air Force mission folder, June 13, 1944, call number 670.332,
AFHRA.