Posted on 04/01/2007 11:40:19 AM PDT by EveningStar
At least 25 bombers being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen over Europe during World War II were shot down by enemy aircraft, according to a new Air Force report.
The report contradicts the legend that the famed black aviators never lost a plane to fire from enemy aircraft...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
BTW, they flew state of the art P-51 Mustangs, so some "white" people in the air force must not have been flaming racists or they would have stuck the black pilots in old P-40s or even worse Sopwith Camel bi-planes.
War Department officially established ETOUSA, on June 8, 1942, however, US troops were already deploying to Europe in Feb 1942.
Johnnie Holmes really gets around.
"And the falsehood was given new life by NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in his bestseller, "The Greatest Generation."
One of the 50 or so veterans profiled in that work is Johnnie Holmes. In a nine-page profile, Brokaw never mentions that Hoilmes appeared in the notorious "Liberators."
Instead, Brokaw ignored Holmes' participation in one of the biggest Holocaust distortions of the last decade, writing only that while Holmes' unit "was not involved" in the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau, it was "in the area," and "some confusion" about the facts "lingers to this day."
"they would have stuck the black pilots in old P-40s "
Mustangs weren't available ETO until Oct or Nov of 1943. I'm not sure when the 88th got them, but probably very soon after that if not at the same time.
"War Department officially established ETOUSA, on June 8, 1942, however, US troops were already deploying to Europe in Feb 1942."
Yeah, in the UK.
From June until the Sicilian campaign it was all planning.
If they did their jobs, they are hero's,.....period! There were many white pilots that rode the war out in Switzerland. Everybody that flew with my dad were volunteers. Nobody wanted people that didn't want to be there.
I had the pleasure of attending the Tuskeegee Airmen national convention 3 years in a row. I met some great American heroes, and heard some amazing stories.
These guys deserve all the praise in the world.
These guys deserve all the praise in the world.
I (until he retired eighteen years ago) worked for a Tuskegee retired colonel. He is a wonderful man. He hasn't dropped into the office for about six years, so I hope he is OK, but by definition he's old, however.
Yeah, lots of them are dying off.
They used to hold their conventions with the Organization of Black Airline Pilots and I would go recruit there for my airline, what a great bunch of guys, I went to a convention in Memphis, San Antonio and Atlanta.
Are you comparing these airmen to seamen? ;)
Of course bombers were lost. The "Airmen" weren't magicians. Frankly the whole thing seems a little overboard to me. They have been getting "late" honors for years now. Can we finally be done with them? They were not the only heroes of WWII.
Probably transvestites who were all atheists.
I hate this kind of crap running down American fighting men and women.
Sounds like with that second sentence you may be the one creating myths.
In my "Technology and the Culture of War" class, sometime around the Vietnam lectures, I read the students a piece on the failure rates of condoms (15%, in that study). I tell them to file it away.
When we get to SDI/Star Wars, and the criticisms that SDI "isn't 100% effective," I have them turn back to the failure rates of condoms! "Now, who is for getting rid of condoms because they are not 100% effective?"
No takers.
Unfortunately, I don't think that any fighter group would have made a difference early in the air war. The problem with fighter escort was the range. The Tuskegee pilots came into the fight at about the same time as the P51D with the longer range and better engines was brought into the theatre. Until the escorts had the same range as the bombers there was no way to protect the bombers all the way to the target and back.
I had the pleasure of shaking General Davis Jr's hand at a dinner; he was gracious and a powerful presence.
Isn't it amazing that this only comes to light only after they receive a Congressional Gold Medal for their service to the country?
It took over 60 years to disprove the claim.
The 'old' P-40 was a damned good aircraft, FreeAtlanta, when used properly with both the Japs in the China/Burma/India Theater and the Nazis in North Africa finding the Tomahawk, Kittyhawk & Warhawk had a nasty sting and meaner disposition. Don't show ignorance by wrongly faulting an airplane you evidently know nothing about...
And if I recall correctly, some Tuskegee Airmen did fly 'Redtail" P-40s in North Africa and the A-36 Apache/Invader Dive Bombing version of the P-51 Mustang in North Africa and the Italian Campaign.
Info on Curtiss P-40 Here.
Info on North American A-36 Here.
Right.
ping
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