DETROIT, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Two U.S. historians are disputing the claim that the Tuskegee Airmen black fighter pilots never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft fire during World War II.
Daniel Haulman, the historian for the first group of U.S. black fighter pilots, and William Holton, of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, says records show at least a few of the bombers were shot down by German planes during the escort flights, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Holton's research was first reported Sunday by the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.
Alan Gropman, who teaches at the National Defense University in Washington, told the Advertiser that while more research is needed, the Tuskegee Airmen still had had a "minuscule" number of losses compared to the "white pilots who also escorted bombers."