The 2nd episode of Masters of the Air continues telling the story of the 100th BG through Harry Crosby's narration. We get to see more about how he earned his position as group navigator. We also see how Egan is assigned command of a squadron.
This episode also details the 100th's mission to Trondheim Norway, and shows more about the basis of strategy for the 8th Air Force more generally. It also shows the rowdiness for which the 100th was pretty famous at this point- which Crosby in his book makes a point to criticize. It will be interesting to see how that part of the story develops.
The 100th at this time was known for being pretty sloppy, both in the air and on the ground. There were a few reasons it tended to suffer high losses in the air, and sloppy formation flying was one of those. For strategic bombers of the time, formation flying was extremely important because it allowed the fields of fire of each bomber a better chance of overlapping and covering each other. Stragglers were always easy targets for German fighters, and we can see that in both of the first two episodes here.
A couple of details I like- the formation is attacked by JU-88s at one point. JU-88s were a German 'do everything' aircraft. They were 2-engined planes originally designed as bombers, which were fairly successful in both level and dive bombing. At this point in the war, they were also pressed into a role of heavy fighters, for which they were not well-suited. Crosby mentiones firing at them at least once in his book. So, their appearance here is legit, even if some viewers will question how a bomber is being used as a fighter. Such was the necessity of the time for the Germans.
Another detail I really liked was how one of the children who the ground crew befriends is portrayed with a hook prosthesis for a hand. Lots of english kids from the cities were moved out to the countryside for their protection from the blitz, and it would not be unusual for a small child to have lost a hand in a bombing like this.
The detail that slipped, and which is easy to notice, is that early on Crosby describes the role of the crew chiefs. This is fine, but he calls one of the crew chiefs a corporal, when the man in question is wearing the stripes of a master sergeant, with three stripes and three rockers, as opposed to the 2 stripes of a corporal.
This is a surprising error for the production team, and an easy one to have noticed and fixed either in the costuming or the script.
This episode also details the 100th's mission to Trondheim Norway, and shows more about the basis of strategy for the 8th Air Force more generally. It also shows the rowdiness for which the 100th was pretty famous at this point- which Crosby in his book makes a point to criticize. It will be interesting to see how that part of the story develops.
The 100th at this time was known for being pretty sloppy, both in the air and on the ground. There were a few reasons it tended to suffer high losses in the air, and sloppy formation flying was one of those. For strategic bombers of the time, formation flying was extremely important because it allowed the fields of fire of each bomber a better chance of overlapping and covering each other. Stragglers were always easy targets for German fighters, and we can see that in both of the first two episodes here.
A couple of details I like- the formation is attacked by JU-88s at one point. JU-88s were a German 'do everything' aircraft. They were 2-engined planes originally designed as bombers, which were fairly successful in both level and dive bombing. At this point in the war, they were also pressed into a role of heavy fighters, for which they were not well-suited. Crosby mentiones firing at them at least once in his book. So, their appearance here is legit, even if some viewers will question how a bomber is being used as a fighter. Such was the necessity of the time for the Germans.
Another detail I really liked was how one of the children who the ground crew befriends is portrayed with a hook prosthesis for a hand. Lots of english kids from the cities were moved out to the countryside for their protection from the blitz, and it would not be unusual for a small child to have lost a hand in a bombing like this.
The detail that slipped, and which is easy to notice, is that early on Crosby describes the role of the crew chiefs. This is fine, but he calls one of the crew chiefs a corporal, when the man in question is wearing the stripes of a master sergeant, with three stripes and three rockers, as opposed to the 2 stripes of a corporal.
This is a surprising error for the production team, and an easy one to have noticed and fixed either in the costuming or the script.