8. “The Black Birdmen”
The Tuskegee Airmen switched from P-40s to Bell P-39 Airacobras in March of 1944, then upgraded to P-47 Thunderbolts in June. In July, 1944, they were finally equipped with the airplane with which they became most associated: the P-51 Mustang. Operating out of Ramitelli Airfield in Campomarino on the Adriatic coast, the 332nd Fighter Group was tasked with escorting the Fifteenth Air Force’s heavy bombers.
From then until the war’s end, the Tuskegee airmen accompanied bombers on strategic raids. The black flyers flew cover on missions targeting oil refineries, marshaling yards, factories, and airfields. The missions took them to Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Germany, and Poland. The 332nd earned an impressive combat record while escorting the heavy bombers, whose aircrews referred to the black flyers as “Red Tails” or “Red Tail Angels” because of the distinctive red paint used on their airplanes’ tails. They earned another nickname from their opponents: “Schwarze Vogelmenschen“, or “Black Birdmen”.
