Name: Prometheus Design Werx 332D Fighter Group Morale Patch
Brand: wildwaterkit.com
SKU: PDW-40230002
Price: 5.83 USD
Availability: InStock

PDW 332D Fighter Group Morale Patch

The 332d Fighter Group was constituted on 4 July 1942, and activated on 13 October, predominantly manned with African-American personnel. Consisted of the 100th, 301st and 302d Fighter Squadrons at Tuskegee Army Air Field, Alabama. Flying escort for heavy bombers, the 332d earned an impressive combat record. The Allies called these airmen “Redtails” or “Redtail Angels,” because of the distinctive crimson paint applied on the vertical stabilizers of the unit’s aircraft.

OVERVIEW:

By April 1943, the 332d Fighter Group deployed to Twelfth Air Force in the Mediterranean theater. The group’s first combat assignment involved attacking enemy units on the strategic volcanic island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean Sea, to clear the sea lanes for the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943. The air assault on the island began on 30 May 1943. Soon after September 1943, three new fighter squadrons graduated from training at Tuskegee: the 100th, 301st and 302nd. The units then embarked for Africa and were combined to form the all-Black 332d Fighter Group.

During June 1944 these airmen switched to the distinctive North American P-51 Mustangs. The 99th Fighter Squadron, assigned to the group on 1 May 1944, joined them on 6 June at Ramitelli Airfield, in the small city of Campomarino, on the Adriatic coast. From Ramitelli, the 332d Fighter Group escorted Fifteenth Air Force heavy strategic bombing raids into Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Poland and Germany from May 1944 to April 1945. The bombers struck objectives such as oil refineries, factories, airfields, and marshaling yards in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece. They also made successful strafing attacks on airdromes, railroads, highways, bridges, river traffic, troop concentrations, radar facilities, power stations, and other targets. The 332d also flew escort missions in support of the repatriation of Americans from Romania (Operation Reunion) and Yugoslavia to Italy.