Masters of the Air (Page 2): Thanks for your story about your mentor. His generation truly was the Greatest Generation. And you are right about the series. It is very well done and...

FrumCA

rwoodvira wrote:

If you have not had a chance to see the series captioned on HBO it might be worth a look. Like Band of Brothers and The Pacific before it, it shows what the B-17 airmen faced bombing Germany and Nazi targets in World War II. Many may not know that those crews had the highest casualty rates during the war flying through enemy fighters and flack from below. The show has its light moments, but the combat scenes are brutal.

The show is special to me for a reason. Many years ago I started at a major insurance brokerage and part of the team was a gentleman named Bill. Bill became, whether he knew or not, one of my mentors - he taught me how to take care of clients and always put their needs first. When I became an account executive I was asked how my retention rate was so high. Bill had taught me to treat the client's money like it was my own.

Bill was a gunner in those B-17's and flew a number of missions until his plane was shot down over Germany. His plane after bombing a location had to fly back and take photos of the results. Their plane was hit and he bailed out landing outside of town; all the others landed in the town and locals hung them. He was captured, interviewed by the SS who beat him so bad that the German doctors had to place a plate in his head. He told a lot of stories about being in the camps - he actually said that some of Hogan's Heroes wasn't that far off - the German guards were either old or young kids. He was eventually freed by the American Army.

One of his best stories came years later; he had to return to the UK to meet with Lloyd's. An overzealous British custom agent about his same age was tearing through Bill's luggage. Bill deadpanned: "Your people weren't that interested in what I had in my bag in '43." The agent looked up refolded everything and apologized.

I moved on in my career and Bill retired and we lost touch. I tried to find him years later to thank him again for his wisdom; I'm sure he's gone by now - he was around my Dad's age who was born in 1916. It may seem trite to refer to my Dad and him as part of the Greatest Generation, but they were.

The show shows the sacrifice of those men who faced death every day. We should all thank the Good Lord for them coming before us.

If you have not had a chance to see the series cap... (show quote)

Thanks for your story about your mentor. His generation truly was the Greatest Generation. And you are right about the series. It is very well done and seemingly an accurate representation of the way things were in the war over Germany.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

We have lost the country they left for us.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Good show. I don't think my dad or my wife's dad could have watched it because it would have brought back too many memories. When I was in the Boy Scouts in the 60's most of our leaders were WWll vets of all services. The Army, Marines and Navy all had stories to tell around the campfires. But the Fly Boys rarely talked about the War. My Dad flew B17s and after his required missions was sent back to the states to train on the B29s as did my wife'd dad. He did not talk about the war. His worst memory was that he lost 4 of his crew after the war was over. They were killed in a jeep roll-over coming back from a night on the town. One of the better points of the show is that they give credit to the crew chiefs and ground personnel. They are the guys that kept the planes in the air. The photos in Dad's scrap book tell the stories.Shot up planes, plooms of smoke from crashed planes. I flew B52s and we had it good compared to those WWll vets.

On the way to Germany
On the way to Germany...

Notice the bullet hole in the wing by the "H"

HRoss Loc: Longmont, CO

I loved your story. My Dad was a waist gunner on a B24 in the Pacific. He flew 45 mission and like so many of that generation, he didn't speak too much about it. He would shy away from folks who called him a hero. He would say the guys on the ground were the real heroes. His one comment was that he attributes his survival to their pilot. He was an ex-fighter pilot who flew the Bomber like a fighter. My Dad would say he didn't know how the wings didn't snap off from some of his maneuvers. Those guys earned the monicker: The Greatest Generation!

Brad49 Loc: Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA

You can't. Get Apple TV (it's not real expensive) then quit Apple TV when the series is over.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

You don’t need Apple TV both the band brothers and the Pacific is on Netflix

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

FYI the 1950's TV series 12 O'Clock High is on Prime. It is all about flying B-17s into Germany on different raids. 3 seasons are show with ~ 20 episodes each season. It's got it all, Night time and daylight bombing, flack, German fighters, weather, and lot of character interaction. Was a great series. Liked the first two seasons best with Robert Lansing as wing commander.

OldCADuser Loc: Irvine, CA

Yes, we're watching the series, and it's pretty good. The first episode was a bit intense but it settled-down a bit in the second.

Note that I've actually flown in a B-17 several years ago when the Collings Foundation and their 'Wings of Freedom Tour' visited Southern California (this was in 2004). It cost $400 (which was considered a 'donation' so it was tax-deductible) for a 25-minute flight and you could choose either the B-17 or a B-24 (I picked the B-17, probably because I really liked the 1949 movie '12 O'clock High' with Gregory Peck).

Note that while I've never met anyone who served in a B-17, one of my bosses at work (back in the 70's) had been a ball-turret gunner on a B-24 in the Pacific during the war. He told some interesting stories. Note that my wife's father was a C-47 pilot in Europe, dropping supplies to the French partisans and flying gasoline and ammo to Patton's army as it headed toward Germany.

Dannj

I have a hard time watching the series. I’m one of the lucky vets whose war time experience was uneventful but it wasn’t so lucky for my older relatives in WWII and Korea, my peers in Vietnam or those currently in harms way. For me, and for many others, watching “Masters…” invokes a “but for the grace of God” feeling. As accurate as “Masters…” and its predecessors attempt to be, it’s impossible to replicate what these men and women experienced during their service and, for many, the rest of their lives.

Bushpilot Loc: Minnesota

The 1949 Movie "Twelve O'Clock High" is a great movie from the book of the same name written by Beirne Lay Jr. and Sy Bartlett. Beirne Lay Jr. was a pilot with the 8th Air Force and was shot down over France in 1944 and evaded capture by the Germans. This movie is generally regarded as the best flying movie to show what these men went through in WWII.
I've read the book and watched each episode of "Masters Of The Air" at least twice and I'm blown away by the cinematography. Since flight crews are not always together during training, plus crews didn't always fly in the same aircraft together all the time it's difficult to show consistent personal relationships during flight, I wouldn't expect the same as represented in "Band of Brothers" or "The Pacific. I thnk this is a magnificent series and highly recommend it.

JBuckley

The men and women (of the military), have always been my heroes.
Just the thought of climbing into the front seat or belly of a bomber or fighter jet,
would make me want to reconsider, [my own sanity], for wanting to go up against
an enemy force.

The brotherhood of the men that fly in to battle, does not change the greatness of
any of our military forces.

Pray for those that have the courage to go into battle for our Nation.

Dannj

JBuckley wrote:

The men and women (of the military), have always been my heroes.
Just the thought of climbing into the front seat or belly of a bomber or fighter jet,
would make me want to reconsider, [my own sanity], for wanting to go up against
an enemy force.

The brotherhood of the men that fly in to battle, does not change the greatness of
any of our military forces.

Pray for those that have the courage to go into battle for our Nation.

👍