Masters of the Air
 

For those of you into WWII history -which a lot of us Boomers grew up hearing from our parents- the new Apple series "Masters of the Air" produced by the same folks that brought the Band of Brothers, The Pacific is a really good one. It is based on real people in the 100th Bomber Wing. For any generation, including us Boomers, that think life is tough- just watch what these 20 year olds went through in this one or either series, or Saving Private Ryan-and then say your life is tough! It is followed by a documentary with Spielberg and Tom Hanks about this bomber wing called "Bloody 100th"-because of all the men they lost.

Hats off to the Greatest Generation and what they did to allow freedom in the world and stop genocides by the Germans and Japanese.

We all owe a tremendous debt. not just to all of the people who served in the 100th bomber wing but to ALL WWII vets as well as the folks who served in Korea, Nam, and conflicts since then. X2 on Masters of the Air being a great series! Thank you to all who have served!

"We all owe a tremendous debt. not just to all of the people who served in the 100th bomber wing but to ALL WWII vets as well as the folks who served in Korea, Nam, and conflicts since then. X2 on Masters of the Air being a great series! Thank you to all who have served! "

Agreed!

My dad flew C-47s out of England taking supplies to the troops and even towing gliders across the channel. Also did a short stint as a glider pilot. Once those gliders ditched the troops were pretty much on their own and the pilot had to find his way back to a rendezvous point for a return trip across the channel. Don't know how any of them survived and many didn't; the landings were as dangerous as the enemy. We do indeed owe a debt that can never be repaid.

Dying to see this...damn apple and their walled garden

It was a good series. I need to watch again. I would have liked to see more attention to ground crew efforts as they seem like mechanical magicians to me, especially when they turned planes around in 24 hours or less. i thought BOB was better, then I thought, no.. my memory was no good, so then I went back and watched 2 episodes. The d-day episode and the one following that. Nope my memory was good. Those were exceptional. I'm getting ready to do my second Stephen Ambrose tour in the fall. Starting in Sicily and following the advance through Italy and ending in Rome. In 2017 I had the chance to do the Band of Brothers trip with Stephen Ambrose tours. Our guide had made the trip with several of the veterans on Easy on prior trips, so he had first hand information. By 2017, most of the guys had passed, but when he spoke to them, he was often brought to tears. At every American cemetery that held Easy company members, we placed flowers at the grave sites. We had the fortune to have a fellow on the tour who was of WW2 age with us, and even at the age of 91, he was a rock. He didn't get to go overseas till after the war was over as part of the occupying force in Japan. When we went to Bastogne, he called up his brother who had fought there. That was neat to hear them speak. We stopped at a German cemetery in the Netherlands. It was in poor condition, but I get that because no one wants to honor the dead of the oppressor. I read more than a few grave stones. Most were under the age of 25. If you hadn't heard about it, every American grave in the Netherlands has been adopted. It is a badge of honor among the Dutch and we were told that in divorce proceedings, they fight over who keeps it. The curators over the years have gathered information on the deceased including pictures. One day per year in the spring, they display all the artifacts at the grave site, and school children take a field trip to see how war affects lives. We weren't there for that, but i do remember a teacher from England with his class on a field trip there. It seems like WW2 was last year. I guess that with their long history of existence, 80 years is very short.

An old friend of mine was a B-17 pilot in Eighth Air Force during WW2. Max ( my friend) was shot down on his seventh mission ( Magdeburg). He managed to get his entire crew out before bailing out himself. Max spent the next eighteen months in a Luft stalag in Germany before being liberated. He never did forgive the Germans for how he and his fellow POWs were treated. Max could go on for hours about turnip soup and sawdust bread.

That is probably the one at Ysselsteyn, the only official German war cemetery in the Netherlands. It's managed by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge. It contains approx 32000 graves including Dutch and foreign SS members and war criminals.


That sounds like you've been to Margraten war cemetery. It is managed by the American Battle Monuments Commission however all the graves have been adopted and are taken care of by locals. Often these are passed down to the next generation in a family.


There's approx 8300 graves there and 1700 names of missing captured on a memorial wall. They're currently at 5300 people of whom they've found a photo.
More info here: https://www.degezichtenvanmargraten.nl/index.php/en-us/


That was a mandatory activity when I was in (lower under 12 years old) school. We also visited a transit camp from where people were sent on to the concentration camps.
I am not sure if they still do this today though, some of it is a bit much for kids but on the other side to this day I still remember seeing some images being displayed there. Those images were of what happened to people after they ended up the concentration (or death camps). I will never forget that I think, so those trips served a purpose.

Yes I grew with the stories. My dad quit school tried to join they said he had a bad heart. My uncle drove the redball express,another uncle drove the Burma road.My dentist went in on the first wave at Normandy made it to Berlin. My father in law combat engineer,Torch,Anzio,Southern France,Battle of the Bulge where he received a Purple Heart. He came face to face with a Tiger Tank. He said it sat there then backed up. Of all the combatants There ages and how they adapted to the war just just amazing. The stress they brought home I could never imagine. Millions of personal stories I imagine. I think about them. I also think how as a nation did we produce so much ,and deliver these war supplies?

One of my great-uncles flew a B17 and it was shot down and crashed about half an hour by car from where I now live. He survived but was captured.

Here's that story (https://www.214squadron.org.uk/Crews...ress.htm#SR382)
It also contains a link to Harry Whattons war diary. It details life in a Stalag-luft prison in case you are interesting in reading about that, your friend would have gone through a similar ordeal I'd imagine.

Of something like ~350,000 Americans killed in WWII, ~55,000 of them were in the 8th/9th air force.

I haven't seen the series. Hopefully it is totally transparent about what those men did in WWII.

Being an old pilot myself, I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they did. Imagine briefing your crew for a mission, and ending with, "I hope to successfully accomplish this mission. If not, thank you for all of your efforts." The attrition rate was so high, they never knew if they would be back after each mission.

I too salute them for their courage and dedication to the mission. God Bless them all ... :usa2:

Ogre

I would like to see this series, at some point I'll get a month of Apple TV and watch it. My father was a fighter pilot in WW II, flew P51s out of Italy with the 31st Fighter Group. He was significantly injured in a runway crash and spent 2-1/2 years in a V.A. Hospital in the states. That's where he met my mother, who was a nurse.

425,000 combat related deaths for U.S. forces in WW2. It total goes up every time another MIA is confirmed as a KIA. At one point, the USAAF had the highest probability of being KIA of any U.S. force in WW2.