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The Most Heroic Airmen of World War II

Khalid Elhassan August 10, 2022 38 min

8. A Distinguished Combat Record That Proved the Doubters Wrong

A WWII poster, featuring a Tuskegee Airman. Wikimedia

In total, the all-black squadrons flew 1578 combat missions, including 179 bomber escort missions, and put up some pretty good statistics while they were at it. They lost bombers on only seven missions, for a total of 27 airplanes, compared to an average loss of 46 bombers for other Fifteenth Air Force P-51 fighter groups. They shot down 112 enemy airplanes, destroyed another 150 on the ground, and damaged 148 more. On ground attack runs, they destroyed 600 rail cars, plus 350 trucks and motor vehicles. At sea, they destroyed 40 boats and barges, plus a German torpedo boat.

Collectively, the Tuskegee Airmen earned three Distinguished Unit Citations (DUC). The first of them went to the 99^th Pursuit Squadron for its performance in the aerial assault on Pantelleria in June of 1943. The 99^th earned another DUC in May of 1944, for actions at Monte Cassino. The third Distinguished Unit Citation went to the 332^nd Fighter Group (including the 99^th Pursuit Squadron plus two other black squadrons, the 100^th and 301^st) for action over Berlin in March of 1945.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.