Pilot's account belies Tuskegee Airmen legend

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A bomber pilot in World War II says he was shot down while being escorted by the Tuskegee Airmen, an account that supports a recent report by two historians who say the black fighter group, contrary to legend, did lose at least a few bombers to fire from enemy aircraft.

Warren Ludlum, who lives in Old Tappan, N.J., told The Associated Press that his B-24 bomber was shot down by enemy planes over Linz, Austria, in July 1944, while he was being escorted by P-51 fighters piloted by the Tuskegee Airmen.

The 83-year-old Ludlum, in a telephone interview Thursday, made clear that he has great respect for the Tuskegee Airmen and liked being escorted by them because of their aggressiveness. He said he knew he was being escorted by the airmen on the day he was shot down because one of the fighter pilots, Starling B. Penn, was shot down at the same time and ended up in the same German prison camp as Ludlum.

Ludlum's story matches the research of William F. Holton, historian for Tuskegee Airmen Inc., who said recently that the legend of the all-black fighter pilots never losing a bomber to enemy fighters is incorrect, according to Air Force records.

"His information jibes with my preliminary look at the data I have here," Holton said.

The historian verified that Penn was a Tuskegee Airman, that he was shot down at about the same time as Ludlum and that they were apparently in the same German prison camp. Penn died in 1999.

Another historian, Daniel Haulman of the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery, also has concluded that at least a few bombers escorted by the red-tailed fighters trained at Tuskegee, Ala., were shot down by enemy planes. Their findings were first reported by the Montgomery Advertiser.

Ludlum's daughter, Maerose Ludlum, assisted her father during the interview with AP, frequently relaying questions, because he has trouble hearing on the telephone.

"He liked being escorted by Tuskegee Airmen because they were a black fighter group and were more aggressive and would stay with you longer," she said. Her father concurred with her statement.

She said she called the AP after reading a newspaper story about the historians' report. Some surviving members of the fighter group have said they were offended by the research and questioned the findings coming out more than 60 years after the end of World War II.