Tuskegee Airmen in Italy, 1945

Tuskegee Airmen in Italy, 1945

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This photo, taken in March 1945 in Ramitelli, Italy (near Naples), shows an escape kit containing cyanide capsules being issued to a member of the 332nd Army Air Force Fighter Group, the "Tuskegee Airmen." In the event of capture by the Nazis in Yugoslavia, the airman was expected to take his own life. You can see the man on the right is armed with an M1911A1 .45 automatic in his shoulder holster, with a two-clip pouch on the strap.

The photographer was Toni Frissell who took hundreds of photos of the Tuskegee Airmen during that period, the only known photos of the group on duty in Europe.

The Tuskegee Airmen flew more than 700 missions and never lost a bomber to enemy aircraft. They earned more than 744 Air Medals and Clusters, more than 100 Flying Crosses, 14 Bronze Stars, 8 Purple Hearts, a Silver Star, and a Legion of Merit. The group was commanded by Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr, who later became the first three-star general in the Air Corps.

Today in WW II: 4 Jun 1939 German ship MS St. Louis denied permission to land in Florida with its 907 Jewish refugee passengers. Ship returns to Europe where passengers die in Nazi death camps.  More ↓
4 Jun 1940 Neuengamme concentration camp, near Hamburg, Germany becomes autonomous, no longer a sub-camp of Sachsenhausen.
4 Jun 1942 Reinhard Heydrich dies from wounds sustained from 27 May assassination attempt [Operation Anthropoid].
4 Jun 1944 Allies enter Rome the first Axis capital city to fall [4-5 Jun].
4 Jun 1944 German submarine U-505 captured, the first time a US Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
Visit the Olive-Drab.com World War II Timeline for day-by-day events 1939-1945! See also WW2 Books.