The Black Scorpions: Serving with the 64th Fighter Squadron in World War II

Gregory Lynch recounts his service as a U.S. Army Air Corps general in the Mediterranean during World War II. Discharged in December 1941 for being over age in grade, Lynch was recalled to active duty following Pearl Harbor. Within a month, he joined the Air Corps as part of a secret project to provide air support to General Montgomery and the Eighth Army. He became one of the nucleus officers commanding the 64th Fighter Squadron, 57th Fighter Group, and served for thirty-three months across North Africa and Italy. The 57th Fighter Group arrived in Egypt in time for the Battle of El Alamein. Flying pink-winged P-40s, the squadron—nicknamed the Black Scorpions—pursued the Afrika Corps across North Africa, culminating in the Palm Sunday massacre where they helped shoot down seventy-four planes in a single engagement. During the Italian campaign, the squadron transitioned to P-47s and shifted to bombing operations, disrupting German and Italian forces up the peninsula. Lynch maintained an unauthorized diary throughout the war and collected intelligence reports, newspaper clippings, photographs, and letters. After the war, he reminisced with fellow soldiers and eventually documented the Black Scorpions' history in this account.