Tuskegee Airmen Reach New Heights | Dogfights (S2, E13)

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NARRATOR: They were told they were racially inferior. They were told they lack the intelligence to handle modern fighter aircraft. They were not supposed to succeed. But in the face of bigotry and ignorance, the Tuskegee Airmen prevailed. With skill and bravery, this all-black fighter squadron shattered racist stereotypes. And their exploits became the stuff of legend. Now, you're in the cockpit as red-tailed Mustangs take on swarms of Nazi fighters. Experience the battle. Dissect the tactics. Relive the dogfights of the Tuskegee Airmen. [THEME MUSIC] July 18th, 1944, 66 red-tailed Mustangs of the 332nd fighter group, the Tuskegee Airmen, soar over the Po River Valley in northern Italy. Their mission, escort B-17 flying fortresses on their way to bomb an air base in Memmingen, Austria. Flying with 302 squadron is Captain Wendell Pruitt and his wingman Lieutenant Lee Archer. Pruitt was my man. That's it. If he had gone to hell, I would've followed him. NARRATOR: Pruitt and Archer are known as the Gruesome Twosome. Pruitt, a gifted and supremely confident fighter pilot. Archer, a loyal wingman with great skill and determination of his own. We used to fly above the bombers and sort of weave over them, because we were a little faster than them. And we're a little higher, less resistance. NARRATOR: Suddenly, someone calls out enemy aircraft at 3 o'clock low. Heading for the bombers, a single flight of four Me 109s. The Gruesome Twosome are sent into action. Archer follows Pruitt through a wide swooping turn. The purpose of me being a wingman, I always thought, was to keep Pruitt's back end from getting trouble. NARRATOR: Pruitt singles out one of the Me 109s. The German spots the danger and breaks. The Mustangs turn in pursuit, straining against the pull of G. Archer fights to stay in trail of his lead through the wild maneuvers. LEE ARCHER: Pruitt would follow him in a turn. And then, when he straightened out, he'd make a little short burst. NARRATOR: Tracers streak past the 109. The German breaks. The Gruesome Twosome stick with him. But soon, Archer senses that something is wrong. LEE ARCHER: The other aircraft straightened out three times, and Pruitt didn't fire. And so I pulled up next to him and, I said, you know, what's going on? NARRATOR: Pruitt signals that his guns are jammed. He motions for Archer to take the lead. Archer throttles up and closes on the enemy. The 109 jinks and dives, but to no avail. LEE ARCHER (VOICEOVER): I made the burst and hit him. Then, the second burst hit in his right wing, and he bailed out. NARRATOR: It is Lee Archer's first victory. I circled them, until he landed. And he was then able to shoot. And I came down over him. I wiggled my wings first and then pulled up into the slow roll, before I turned off. It was all about how I thought about aerial combat in those times. NARRATOR: But back with the rest of the 332nd, the fight is still raging. As many as 30 more Me 109s are attacking the bombers from all directions. Lieutenant Clarence "Lucky" Lester here's his flight lead call over the radio. Bandits, 3 o'clock high. So at that point, the flight leader calls punch takes. That means drop your tanks. Let's head after the enemy. NARRATOR: Lucky and the rest of his life bank right on an intercept course. But then, Lucky spots an even better target, a flight of 109s slightly below him. JOEL BROWN: That training kicks in and reflexes take over. And you're an animal. And you're out for the kill. You're on the hunt. You're gonna get it done. NARRATOR: The Germans have not yet spotted him. At 200 feet, he unleashes a torrent of machine gun fire. The airplane starts to smoke and it explodes. Pieces are flying all over. Debris' coming at him. He's dodging the debris. NARRATOR: Lucky bobs and weaves through the flaming wreckage. Miraculously, his aircraft is unscathed. Off to his right, probably just with a swivel of the head, left and right, he notices another 109. He peels over to the right, gets behind this second 109 and he gives him the works. NARRATOR: The 109 shudders and smokes. Lucky deftly rolls over the top of the doomed German. He watches as the pilot throws back the canopy and leaps away. Lester has downed two aircraft. But the fight has carried him far away from the bombers. Skimming the peaks of the Italian Alps, he spots a 109 at 2 o'clock low. JOEL BROWN: Altitude is a key with fighter pilots. They call it being on the perch. Like a bird on a perch, you see something down below, you dive on it. Therefore, with Lester being on the perch, he had the advantage. He could get in on that Messerschmitt before the Messerschmitt knew what was happening. NARRATOR: Lucky rolls into a high speed diving attack. His Merlin engine screams as the Mustang accelerates past 350 miles per hour. His finger closes around the trigger. A volley of tracers arc across the nose of the 109. The German breaks hard, rolling inverted, in an attempt to evade the American. But the move is ill advised. He's far too low. Lucky Lester watches in stunned amazement as the 109 slams into a hillside. Lester soars over the wreckage, exhilarated by the intense dogfight. Alone, he's accounted for three enemy aircraft. The rest of the 332nd down 9 more for a total of 12, their most successful day of air combat to date. It is a milestone for the Tuskegee Airmen, a fighter group whose battle against the German Luftwaffe is only half the story. Deemed by the War Department as inferior to whites and unable to handle the intricacies of modern weaponry, black soldiers were relegated to support roles. Flying fighter planes was out of the question. It was thought, over the objections of "Hap" Arnold, who was in charge of the Air Core at that time, that blacks didn't have the ability to do complicated things, the leadership, et cetera. We knew that was wrong. NARRATOR: Under pressure from the black press, the NAACP, and even his own wife, President Roosevelt relented in 1939 and ordered the civilian pilot training program to be open to black students who wish to become civilian pilots. In December of 1940, the War Department followed suit and appropriated $1 million to build a suitable base to train black airmen at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. They called the effort to train these men an experiment. The men bonded immediately, imbued with a sense of common purpose and racial pride. Although the army didn't believe in our capability, they didn't change the training standards and that was a plus for us, that we were able to meet the standards and perform successfully. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: And World War II gave us a chance to go into combat units and do a first class job, so that the larger population would realize how silly and stupid segregation was. NARRATOR: In April of 1943, the first full squadron of African-American fighter pilots, the 99th fighter squadron, received orders for deployment to the Mediterranean theater of operations. By June of 1944, the 99th had joined three other all-black fighter squadrons. Together, they comprise the 332nd fighter group, known to history as the Tuskegee Airmen. August 24th, 1944. American B-24 and B-17 bombers of the 5th bomb wing approach their target, Pardubice Airfield in Czechoslovakia. Escorting them are 52 red-tailed Mustangs of the 332nd second fighter group, the Tuskegee Airmen. Among them is Lieutenant Charles McGee, flying a P-51c, C nicknamed Kitten, after his wife. McGee leads a flight of four. CHARLES MCGEE: We were out to the side and slightly above the bombers. Our squadron was, on that day, operating as [INAUDIBLE],, weaving back and forth sufficient to be able to look around at all angles, not just flying a straight-- straight line. NARRATOR: McGee will soon square off against a battle-hardened foe. Over a German airfield set ablaze by American bombs, McGee will find himself in the fight of his life, a fierce encounter against a tenacious enemy that will test his combat prowess as never before. August 24th, 1944, Lieutenant Charles McGee of the 332nd fighter group, the Tuskegee Airmen flies escort for American heavy bombers. Their target is a German airfield in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia. McGee and the rest of the 332nd have battled hatred and ignorance for the privilege of flying combat. Each mission is a chance to prove their worth to a bigoted military hierarchy. As Pardubice comes into view on the horizon, McGee searches for the enemy. Attacking a-- a aerodrome like that was a great way to scare up some enemy opposition. And that's what happened. NARRATOR: McGee's squadron commander calls out two Fw 190s at 4 o'clock high. My flight was dispatched to go after them. They were actually attempting to dive into the bomber stream. NARRATOR: McGee and his flight turned to engage the 190s. They're about to go toe to toe with Nazi Germany's most advanced single engine fighter. The Focke-Wulf 190 is a tough and agile opponent, heavily armed with two 13-millimeter machine guns and four 20-millimeter cannons. McGee flies an early model P-51 Mustang, the P-51c. Even though it lacks the refinements of later Mustang models, it is still a formidable fighter aircraft, with a top speed of 440 miles per hour and armament consisting of four 50-caliber machine guns mounted in the wings. McGee's P-51c is faster and more maneuverable. But the Fw 190 is more rugged and has better armament. The 190s keys are here. McGee and his men are here. McGee's best option is a slicing right turn that will position him directly on his opponent's tail. CHARLES MCGEE: I took off after the plane to try to get a position to fire on him. And the plane continued in-- in a dive. NARRATOR: The Mustangs close with the enemy. But as soon as the 190s spot the danger, they split up. McGee takes his wingman, Roger Romine, with him after one of the fleeing Germans. The desperate German pilot fights for his life, rolling, diving, jinking, anything to shake the Mustang. The enemy aircraft went for the deck, as fast as it could, and started engaging in a series of evasive maneuvers, trying to get Charles into a scissors battle, going back and forth and trying to shake him that way. They were doing a little turning, we call it jinking around, to get us either to overrun them or lose us. I was able to control speed enough to stay, but trying to close to a firing range. Because you're just wasting ammunition you try to fire too soon. NARRATOR: McGee exploits the P-51's speed advantage and closes on his enemy. But the dogfight is getting dangerously close to Pardubice. The German pilot goes towards the airfield and led McGee across the airfield, which was, by this point, burning from the bombing raid. And again, the idea was for the German pilot not to engage McGee in some-- some air to air combat, but to drag him across an area where the German flak could open fire and perhaps take out the American fighter off his tail. I can remember over there aerodrome, I could see one of the hangers on fire and some planes on the field. flak bursts all around him. The anti-aircraft gunners are zeroing in. McGee will soon be forced to break off. But suddenly, the German makes a critical mistake. He made the fatal turn, going around to the right, which appeared to me might have been trying to escape through some of the smoke and so on that was coming from the field. But it was that wrong turn, because I happened to be right in the right position at that time to-- to effectively fire on him. NARRATOR: McGee opens fire. His 450 cals make quick work of the German. The 190 shudders sickeningly, then rolls. The wounded Focke-Wulf hits the ground in a brilliant explosion. CHARLES MCGEE: That was my first victory. And of course, right then, your adrenaline is pumping pretty well. And like you say, you know there's fire from-- from the ground. And so the idea was to not fly straight past, but keep moving, but flying away at low altitude to get away from the-- the guns that were around the airport. NARRATOR: Romine, who had been separated from McGee through the chase, rejoins his flight lead. The victorious Mustang pilots return to their position in the bomber stream. The 332nd continued flying escort for bombers through the rest of the summer of 1944. Their reputation for disciplined and effective fighter escort grew. "The Stars and Stripes," which was a military newspaper that came out every day, would talk about our missions. And they would talk about the all-Negro 332nd fighter group and how they had protected the bombers and how we were doing such a great job in protecting the bombers. NARRATOR: The 332nd flew mission after mission, protecting bombers of the 15th Air Force as they struck railroad bridges in northern Italy and oil refineries in Romania. They were sent all over Eastern Europe to strafe airfields and marshaling yards. But German Air activity had decreased. And sightings were rare. The Tuskegee Airmen went the entire month of September without scoring a victory. But in October '44, the Luftwaffe returned in force. On the 12th, the Gruesome Twosome of Wendell Pruitt and Lee Archer will be back in action. In the midst of a sprawling dogfight, Archer will make history. He will become the first and only Tuskegee Airmen to make Ace. October 12th, 1944, a squadron of red-tailed P-51 Mustangs of the 332nd fighter group soar over Lake Balaton in southern Hungary. After completing an escort mission, they're returning to base in Italy. Among them is Captain Wendell Pruitt and his wingman Lieutenant Lee Archer, the Gruesome Twosome, as they are known. As they reach the southern tip of the lake, tiny specks appear on the horizon, a swarm of German Me 109s. LEE ARCHER: There was more German airplanes in the air than I've ever seen before. Kind of made a little side decision, well, this might be it. NARRATOR: Pruitt, Archer, and the rest of the Red Tails don't flinch. We didn't run or anything like that. We said, OK they're up here. There's as many of them as there is of us. So we'll take them on. NARRATOR: Throttles firewalled, machine guns armed, the Tuskegee Airmen ripped through the German formation. The skies above Lake Balaton explode with the roar of piston engines and the staccato burst of machine guns and cannon. With the battle raging all around them, Pruitt and Archer select a target. They'll make a head-on pass with a German 109 just off their nose. The Gruesome Twosome streak past the enemy. Archer drops in trail of Pruitt, as they roll left in pursuit. He'd pull ahead. And I'd pull right behind him and try to stay on him. He was a heck of a pilot. And just staying there, some time, was a full time job. Pruitt's tight turn takes the German by surprise. The P-51's 450 cals open up. The pilot leaps from the smoking plane. But just as they pull away from their first victory, another 109 roars in from 3 o'clock high. He pulled in to take a side shot at Pruitt. And Pruitt slowed down. I guess he chopped throttle or something. I know I did. NARRATOR: Pruitt's quick reaction saves him from certain death. Reducing his speed causes the 109 to overshoot to the side. With careful maneuvering, he can flush the 109 out in front of him. Archer lets his lead do the work. Pruitt manages to force the 109 out. But suddenly, another German bursts into the fight. Then, the other one came in to get on Pruitt's tail, not realizing that my only job at that time was to protect Pruitt's tail. So it's the Me 109. There's Pruitt shooting at him. There's an Me 109 shooting at Pruitt. Then, there's me shooting at him. NARRATOR: Archer expertly leaves his mark and fires. The 109 tumbles, smoke belching from the wounded plane. Seconds later, Pruitt fires a long burst into his 109. Another victory for the Gruesome Twosome. But they're not done yet. They dive back into the furball. He made a screaming turn back to where all the other aircraft was. And I really wasn't sure that was a great idea at the time. NARRATOR: Pruitt instantly spots a target amidst the chaos. Another 109 is positioned just off his nose. As we got into the other airplanes, another one picked him up. And he-- he made a head-on pass on them, with me peppering behind him. NARRATOR: Pruitt and Archer roar past the German, guns blazing. Archer follows Pruitt through another crushing left turn. I guess I was lagging a little bit. Then, another one came right in behind him. Again, we have the same thing. They're very experienced flying together. So the odds are pretty good that Pruitt had figured out a way to present those German fighters to his wingman as targets. They were suckers. They didn't see the second airplane a thousand yards behind, armed to the teeth. NARRATOR: Again, Archer's 50 cals spark to life. When I first started firing, he realized that someone was behind him. And then, he broke kind of right and left but. He didn't break and make a big turn. NARRATOR: But the German's evasive tactic is futile. Archer speeds past the wreckage. He's now one victory away from making Ace, with plenty of targets to choose from. At that time, there was so many airplanes in the air that I say, somehow, I lost Wendell O. Pruitt. But it's not true. I saw an aircraft that I could take on who was coming my way. NARRATOR: Archer is here. The 109 is here. Archer can easily initiate a head-on pass by banking to the right. In an instant, the adversaries merge. They break into each other and begin circling. Whoever pulls tighter will win the contest. The 109 inches closer to firing position. The German's heavy cannon is poised to unleash lethal retribution on Lee Archer. The American has seconds to react. October 12th, 1944. Tuskegee Airmen pilot Lee Archer is in a grueling turning fight with a German Me 109 and slowly losing the advantage. But suddenly, he spots a second 109. I look out to the right. And I see this guy all by himself, a pigeon. And he was flying straight and level. NARRATOR: Archer breaks instinctively. Since then, a lot of people say, well, when you turned on the second aircraft, what about the guy behind you? I forgot all about him. I think that's how I got my left wing hit. And it must've been a cannon shot, because it had a hole in the wing, huge, under the bottom. NARRATOR: Archer latches onto his target. The German counters by pitching over into a steep dive. He's headed for the safety of an air base. But the maneuver fails. The determined Mustang pilot will not be denied his fifth victory. Lee Archer opens the throttle and pulls away. He's bested the German. But he's broken formation with his flight lead, Wendell Pruitt, strictly forbidden for a wingman. I guess the only thing that was on my mind, how do I explain to Pruitt how this happened? Now, alone and low on ammo, he heads back to base. Archer's three victories on October 12th bring his war total to 5. It is an historic achievement made by a skilled and aggressive fighter pilot. The Tuskegee Airmen now have an Ace. The 332nd fighter group continued in their escort role through the fall of 1944 and winter of 1945. By the beginning of March, the 332nd had accrued a total of 74 air to air victories. But as the war dragged on, a new threat appeared in the skies above Germany, a foe that threatened to tip the balance of power in the air, the Me 262 Jet Fighter. A generational leap in aircraft technology, the Me 262's 100-mile per hour speed advantage over the Mustang and its heavy armament made it a lethal threat to American bombers. But in one of the war's great ironies, the Tuskegee Airmen, once maligned as unfit to comprehend modern technology, will draw blood against the seemingly invulnerable Me 262. March 24th, 1945. The drone of aircraft engines echoes through the skies of central Germany. A bomber train of 200 B-17 Flying Fortresses descend on Germany, targeting a tank assembly plant in Berlin. Mustangs of the 332nd fighter group fly escort. Just outside Berlin, the Red Tails are scheduled to be relieved by another unit, the 31st fighter group. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: Turned out that they got caught in the weather. We were told, keep on to target. We had enough fuel, barely, to get back. NARRATOR: The 332nd stays with the bombers. But as they near the target, the Americans spot the distinct contrails of twin-engined Me 262s. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: All of a sudden, we begin to hear bogeys, bogeys. And that's where we began to see streaks up in the air. We were flying about 24. About 26, these streaks coming out. Said, oh, jets. So in my case, I said, be alert, be alert, be alert. I'm taking over. NARRATOR: The 262s won't risk a frontal assault. They'll break up in small groups and attack along the length of the bomber train. A flight of four streaks in, lobbing cannon shells at long range before any of the Mustangs can engage. As the Germans break away, one 262 gets careless. He flies right in front of P-51 pilot Lieutenant Earl Lane. Lane reacts instinctively, breaking away to pursue the enemy jet. In this situation, lane fired a tremendous long range deflection shot. He's got range and he's got deflection, two factors that really conspire to throw off a lot of pilots' aims. NARRATOR: At a range of 2,000 feet, he opens fire. Rounds slam into the enemy jet, wounding the pilot. The German pilot pulls his clipped warbird skyward and launches himself from the canopy. One down. But there are more 262s attacking the American [INAUDIBLE]. One of the German jets makes a high speed pass. But as he pulls out of his run, he flies over the cockpit of Mustang pilot Charles Brantley. Brantley's able to latch onto him and open fire from a much closer range than Lane was. And again, sport kills in the Me 262, despite its speed, the airplane was relatively easy to bring down, if you get hit with 650s. And that's what happened. NARRATOR: Further back in the bomber stream, the Me 262 attack reaches a fever pitch. Like a pack of wolves, the German jets stalk their prey from a distance, before they pounce. Lieutenant Roscoe Brown, flying lead in a flight of four, cranes his neck, searching for any threat to his sector of the bomber train. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: I was headed in a left-hand turn. All of a sudden, I saw these jets coming up from 7 o'clock and 5 o'clock, coming up. NARRATOR: The 262s close on the bombers at over 400 miles per hour. Roscoe Brown and his men are all that stand in their way. Without a moment's hesitation, Brown calls drop tanks and turns to engage, flying headlong into the fight. March 24th, 1945. The Tuskegee Airmen have drawn first blood against World War II's most advanced fighter, the German Me 262. Now, Roscoe brown has sighted another flight of 262s, threatening the bomber stream he's charged to protect. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: When you have to decide what you're gonna do and where you're gonna do it, you're going to fighter pilot. It's all reaction. I knew it was a jet. I knew it was fast. I knew what I had to do. I said, let's go. You know? You don't internalize it. No-- no analysis there. NARRATOR: Brown and his flight are here. The Germans are here. I developed a little thing where I would pull up, give it full power, pull it way up, stick back, right rudder, and then flip it. Boom. Go down. And I have almost a stalling point. So when I flip and push it down, the speed increases. And then, I would pull it back up. NARRATOR: The move is a modified Split S that gives Brown an extra boost of speed, while putting him on an intercept course with the 262s. When I came out of the Split S, I could see him. He was coming up. And this is within fractions of a second. NARRATOR: Roscoe Brown seizes the opportunity. The German jet flames, shedding debris before the pilot bails out. It's a confirmed victory, the third Me 262 down that day. But it wasn't over then. Because I had made these radical moves and had gotten this guy, I had lost my wingman. My wingman was chasing somebody else. When I'm up over Berlin, 25,000 feet, and I'm looking around for somebody to join, I see this P-51 51 silhouette, at about 12 o'clock. I said, look-- I didn't have radio contact. Didn't know who he was. I said, look, let me join in. NARRATOR: Roscoe Brown moves in closer to what he believes to be a friendly P-51. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: So when I started making a circle, I saw that the P-51 had a German cross on it. We knew the Germans had captains for P-51s and were infiltrating some of the formations to try to get closer. And so I said, well, let me go get him. NARRATOR: Brown goes on the attack. But the German takes evasive action. Brown pulls the stick in tight, straining to pull lead on his enemy. So I started pulling tight, tight, tight. I'm gaining on him. And then, I looked at my fuel gauge. My fuel gauge was a little bit below half. I said, well, I got two things to do. One, I can get this guy and get this victory and parachute and hope they don't kill me. Or else I can say bye bye and go home. So I said, look, I'll let him go. Firewalled it, headed back south. And I flew about 700 miles, by myself, over enemy territory. NARRATOR: Roscoe Brown returns to base victorious. The day's tally is three confirmed Me 262 victories, three probables, and two damaged. CHRIS BUCHOLTZ: It's one of the outstanding feats for any group during a war against the Me 262. The Mustang was a great aircraft. But it shouldn't have been shooting down Me 262s at this rate. NARRATOR: In addition to this stunning achievement, the Tuskegee Airmen later find out the Berlin mission was the longest escort of the war. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: We did show them, actually, we were very damn good in our escort. And later, we got the Presidential Unit Citation. The guys were really, really so happy. NARRATOR: By war's end, the 332nd had downed 108 enemy aircraft, received 744 Air Medals, 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 14 Bronze Stars, and 1 Silver Star. But despite the accolades for their efforts overseas, the Tuskegee airmen returned to a segregated America, indifferent to their achievements. I'm coming down the gangplank from a boat that brought me back to the States. And at the bottom of the st-- of the gangplank is a sign that said "Colored troops to the right. White troops to the left." Separated again. And at that time, I said, well, you know, this is a pity. NARRATOR: But the war efforts of the Tuskegee Airmen would not be forgotten. Our experience dispelled the myths and biases that had been part of Army policy on our capability and how we would be used. So it brought about a change. NARRATOR: In 1948, by order of President Harry Truman, the Armed Forces of the United States were integrated. The war record of the Tuskegee Airmen in the skies of Europe had shaken the foundations of entrenched American racism. This small, but resolute group of African-American men, refined by hardship, danger, and adversity, had proven the fundamental injustice of a segregated military. ROSCOE C. BROWN JR: You got to know, inside, that racism is wrong. You got to know inside that you have the capacity, like anybody else. And when given the opportunity, you will overcome. We had accomplished something important once given the opportunity. And the importance that this shows that it's not happenstance of birth and color of skin that's important. That's really what Martin Luther King really gave our country, content of character.
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Channel: HISTORY
Views: 161,234
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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, dogfights, history dogfights, dogfights show, dogfights full episodes, dogfights clips
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Length: 44min 58sec (2698 seconds)
Published: Wed Feb 16 2022
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