During World War II, Tuskegee Airmen, along with their instructors and ground support personnel, trained for combat at Walterboro Army Airfield. Because of their heroic action in combat, Germans who feared and respected them called them Schwartz Vogelmenschen, or "Black Bird Men." White American bomber crews reverently referred to them as the "Red Tailed Angels" for their tail assemblies and for their reputation for not losing any aircraft to enemy fighters while providing fighter coverage for missions over strategic targets in Europe.