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.
