MONTGOMERY, Ala.

Two historians are disputing the claim that America’s first elite Black fighter pilots never lost a bomber to enemy fire during World War II.

Air Force records show that at least a few bombers escorted by the red-tailed fighters of the Tuskegee Airmen were shot down by enemy planes, according to William F. Holton, historian of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. and Dr. Daniel Haulman, a historian at the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

Haulman had presented his findings in a paper, “109 Victories: Aerial Victory Credits of the Tuskegee Airmen,” at the Society for Military History back in May at Kansas State University. “I talked about what they [the Tuskegee Airmen] did and not about what they did not do,” Haulman told Diverse.

Only recently did questions about the Tuskegee Airmen’s record become national news after The Montgomery Advertiser wrote about the historians’ findings. Haulman said the group’s combat mission reports show clearly that U.S. bombers were lost while being escorted by Tuskegee Airmen in Europe.

One mission report dated Aug. 31, 1944, praises group commander General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. by saying he “so skillfully disposed his squadrons that in spite of the large number of enemy fighters, the bomber formation suffered only a few losses.”

Another report on Sept. 12, 1944 says: “10 Me-109s attacked the rear of the bomber formation from below and left one B-17 burning, with 6 chutes seen to open.”

Holton told The Montgomery Advertiser that “well-meaning and highly placed speakers have beguiled audiences with the phrase ‘the Tuskegee Airmen flew 200 bomber escort missions without losing a single bomber to enemy aircraft gunfire.’”

A former Tuskegee airman, Carrol Woods of Montgomery, dismissed their findings immediately.

“I think this is outrageous,” Woods, 87, told the Advertiser. “They are trying to destroy our record. What’s the point now?”