Supports Recent Controversial Claim By Historians

Warren Ludlum of Old Tappan, NJ told the Associated Press his B-24 was shot down during WWII while under the escort of P-51s piloted by the famed all-black, Tuskegee Airmen.

ANN reported last week claims by Tuskegee Airmen Inc. historian William F. Holton that the ambitious -- and largely undisputed -- claims by the group it had never lost a bomber it escorted during the war may have been overstated.

Citing records uncovered of accounts by bomber pilots, Holton said at least a couple of bombers were downed under Tuskegee Airmen escort. Holton was joined in his claims by Daniel Haulman of the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base in Montgomery.

The two historians claims were blasted by groups intent on keeping the unblemished record of the Tuskegee Airmen intact.

Ludlum, 83, expressed great respect for the Tuskegee Airmen. He said he an other bomber pilots during the war preferred escort by them because of their aggressiveness. He says he knows the Tuskegee Airmen were escorting him the day he was shot down because he ended up in the same prison camp as Starling B. Penn, one of their pilots shot down at the same time.

"I had no idea who was escorting me most of the time, but that day we were shot down I knew it was the Tuskegee Airmen because the black fellow and I ended up at the same camp," said Warren Ludlum, who was with the 15th Air Force, 765th Squadron, 461st Bombardment Group, flying out of a base in Italy.

Holton confirmed at least part of Ludlum's story; Penn was a member of the Tuskegee Airmen who was shot down about the time Ludlum was.

Ludlum was the co-pilot on a B-24 whose mission on July 25, 1944 was to bomb the Herman Goering Tank Works, Linz, Austria. His aircraft broke apart under enemy fire adn began spiraling earthward from 20,000 feet. Somehow the aircraft leveled off briefly allowing Ludlum to bail out.

Ludlum says he remembers other B-24s in his group getting shot down that day.

A website commemorating Ludlum's old bomb group lists the day of the tank works mission as July 26, 1944, but Holton says Ludlum's account of his experience helps confirm his research.

Holton told the Associated Press, "I stand behind everything I said."

FMI: www.tuskegeeairmen.org