To bomber crews of the Fifteenth Air Force-who owed them a particular debt-the men of the four squadrons of the 332nd Fighter Group, the 99th, 100th, 301st and the 302nd, were the Red Tail Angels. Flying P-51 Mustangs with tails painted vermillion, they had by the end of the war won for themselves the distinction of not only having damaged or destroyed 400 enemy aircraft, but of never having lost one of the bombers they escorted on missions over Europe-a rare achievement.

Recognition of their abilities had come slowly. The pilots were all black, graduates of the Army Air Forces Flying Training Program at Tuskegee, Alabama. The Air Corps only reluctantly admitted the first black flying cadets in 1941 and-like other black servicemen-they remained segregated throughout the War.

The first all-black unit to go overseas was the 99th Squadron, which arrived at Fordjouna, North Africa, in May of 1943. It was led by an iron-willed West Point graduate, Lietenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr., who had been the first black officer to earn pilot's wings. "There was constantly before us the challenge," he wrote, "to refute the widely accepted belief that Blacks could not learn to fly airplanes or participate successfully in combat operations."

Davis drove his men relentlessly, and the payoff came on July 2, when Lieutenant Charles Hall, in one of the P-40 Warhawks the squadron was then flying, scored the unit's first kill by shooting down a German FW 190 over Sicily during a bomber escort mission. The following month, Davis was ordered to return to the States to take command of three more all-black squadrons-then completing their training at Slefridge Field, Michigan-and to bring them back to the Mediterranean, where he formed the 332nd Group, incorporating his old command, the 99th Squadron.

In the final months of the war, the 332nd was based at Ramitelli, Italy. On the 24th of March, Davis, with 72 of his planes, escorted a formation of the Fifteenth Air Force's bombers on a 1,600 mile round-trip attack on Berlin. The 332nd was supposed to turn back short of the target after being relieved by another fighter group. But when they arrived over the city's outskirts, no other fighters appeared. Davis ordered his men to press on.

Minutes later, the formation was set upon by jet-powered Messerschmitt 262 fighters and a vicious dogfight ensued: The 332nd, its Mustangs now dangerously low on fuel, fought off the attackers, shooting down three of the German jets and losing two of their own planes, including that of the commander of the 301st Squadron, Captain Armour G. McDaniels (picture). For its valiant action that day, the group was awarded a Distinguished Unit Citation.

This article and the graphic were taken from a volume, circa 1982 within a Time-Life Books Inc. series tracing the adventure and science of aviation, ISBN 0-8094-3341-9.