Editing Tuskegee Airmen (section)

====Controversy over escort record====
[[File:Tuskegee Airmen 332nd Fighter Group pilots ppmsca13245u.jpg|thumb|upright|Men of the 332nd Fighter Group attend a briefing in [[Italy]] 1945]]
For decades, the Tuskegee Airmen were popularly believed to have never lost a bomber under escort. This belief derived most directly to an article, "332nd Flies Its 200th Mission Without Loss", published by the ''[[Chicago Defender]]'' on 24 March 1945. Citing information supplied by the 15th Air Force,<ref name="USAtoday_1">{{Cite web |date=1 April 2007 |title=Report: Tuskegee Airmen lost 25 bombers |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-01-tuskegee-airmen_N.htm |access-date=2022-12-23 |website=USA Today |archive-date=23 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223051048/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-01-tuskegee-airmen_N.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{sfn|Moye|2010|p=122}} the article said that no bomber escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen had ever been lost to enemy fire.<ref name=WApost_01042007>Johnson, Bob. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600849.html "Ex-Pilot Confirms Bomber Loss, Flier Shot down in 1944 was Escorted by Tuskegee Airmen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206112413/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121600849.html |date=6 December 2016 }}, p. A18, WashingtonPost.com, 17 December 2006; retrieved 20 March 2010.</ref>

This statement was repeated for many years, and not publicly challenged, partly because the mission reports were classified for a number of years after the war. In 2004, William Holton, who was serving as the historian of the Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, conducted research into wartime action reports.{{r|WApost_01042007}} Alan Gropman, a professor at the [[National Defense University (Washington, D.C.)|National Defense University]], disputed the initial refutations of the no-loss myth and said he researched more than 200 Tuskegee Airmen mission reports and found no bombers were lost to enemy fighters.{{r|WApost_01042007}}

Daniel Haulman of the [[Air Force Historical Research Agency]] (AFHRA) reassessed the history of the unit in 2006 and early 2007. He documented 25 bombers shot down by enemy fighter aircraft while being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen, citing after-mission reports filed by the bomber units and Tuskegee fighter groups, records of missing air crew, and witness testimony.{{r|USAtoday_1}}

[[File:Tuskegee airmen 2.jpg|thumb|left|Several Tuskegee Airmen at Ramitelli, Italy, March 1945]]
Haulman wrote a subsequent article, "The Tuskegee Airmen and the Never Lost a Bomber Myth", published in the ''[[Alabama Review]]'' and by [[NewSouth Books]] as an e-book, and included in a more comprehensive study regarding misconceptions about the Tuskegee Airmen released by AFHRA in July 2013. The article documented 27 bombers shot down by enemy aircraft while those bombers were being escorted by the 332nd Fighter Group. This total included 15 B-17s of the [[483rd Bombardment Group]] shot down during a particularly savage air battle with an estimated 300 German fighters on 18 July 1944, that also resulted in nine kill credits and the award of five Distinguished Flying Crosses to members of the 332nd.{{sfn|Haulman|2016|p=29}}

Of the 179 bomber escort missions the 332nd Fighter Group flew for the Fifteenth Air Force, the group encountered enemy aircraft on 35 of those missions and lost bombers to enemy aircraft on only seven, and the total number of bombers lost was 27. By comparison, the average number of bombers lost by the other P-51 fighter groups of the Fifteenth Air Force during the same period was 46.{{sfn|Haulman|2013|}}

In 2022, Dr. Haulman published a comprehensive study that established that the record of the 322d differed substantially from that of the three other P-51 [[group (military aviation unit)|groups]] assigned to Fifteenth Air Force in terms of bombers lost.  The group was noticeably better at protecting bombers they escorted, even if not perfect.  While the 332nd only lost 27 escorted [[heavy bomber]]s while flying 179 escort missions,<ref group=N>Statistics for the 332nd Group include escort missions flown with P-47s.</ref> the [[31st Fighter Group]] lost 49 in 184 missions, the [[325th Operations Group|325th]] lost 68 in 192 escort missions, while the [[52nd Operations Group|52nd]] lost 88 in 193 missions. Moreover, the 332nd flew more missions than any of the other three groups on which they lost no escorted bombers.  Combining these numbers with the numbers of enemy aircraft destroyed by each of these groups suggests that the 332nd stuck closer to protect the bombers they escorted, while the other groups were willing to pursue enemy fighters away from the bombers.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.afhistory.org/air-space-power-history/|last1=Haulman|first1=Daniel L.|title=Measuring Up: A Comparison of the Mustang Fighter Escort Groups of the Fifteenth Air Force June 1944 – April 1945|year=2022|volume=69|issue=4|periodical=Air & Space Power History|publisher=Air Force Historical Foundation|access-date=December 22, 2022|archive-date=8 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208004506/https://www.afhistory.org/air-space-power-history/|url-status=live}} (web access limited to members)</ref>

[[File:"Pilots of a U.S. Army Air Forces fighter squadron, credited with shooting down 8 of the 28 German planes destroyed in d - NARA - 535763.jpg|thumb|Tuskegee Airmen gathered at a U.S. base after a mission in the [[Mediterranean Theater of Operations|Mediterranean theater]]]]
The historical record shows several examples of the fighter group's losses. A mission report states that on 26 July 1944: "1 B-24 seen spiraling out of formation in T/A [target area] after attack by E/A [enemy aircraft]. No chutes seen to open." The Distinguished Flying Cross citation awarded to Colonel Benjamin O. Davis for the mission on 9 June 1944, noted that he "so skillfully disposed his squadrons that in spite of the large number of enemy fighters, the bomber formation suffered only a few losses."<ref>Banerji, Shilpa. [http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6872.shtml "Historians Question Record of Tuskegee Airmen"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080720031259/http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6872.shtml |date=20 July 2008}}, Diverse education, 19 June 2008; retrieved 20 March 2010.</ref>

[[William H. Holloman]] was reported by the ''Times'' as saying his review of records confirmed bombers had been lost. Holloman was a member of Tuskegee Airmen Inc., a group of surviving Tuskegee pilots and their supporters, who also taught Black Studies at the [[University of Washington]] and chaired the Airmen's history committee.{{r|WApost_01042007}} According to the 28 March 2007 Air Force report, some bombers under 332nd Fighter Group escort protection were even shot down on the day the ''Chicago Defender'' article was published.{{r|USAtoday_1}} The mission reports, however, do credit the group for not losing a bomber on an escort mission for a six-month period between September 1944 and March 1945, albeit when Luftwaffe contacts were far fewer than earlier.{{sfn|Haulman|2016|p=55}}