Masters of the Air

 The third instalment in the Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg produced world war 2 setting series, after Band of Brothers and The Pacific, we now follow the struggles of a group of B17 pilots.

 

 

From the outset of the bombing runs and it's hazards, until the moment they truly became the Masters of the Air near the end of the war.

 

In the spring of 1943, the 100th Bombardment Group deploys to England to join the war effort by doing bombing runs on the germans.  But as they do daytime runs compared to the british nighttime ones, they have to face stiffer resistance and the casualties quickly start mounting, including some of their friends.  Apart from majors Cleven and Egan, lieutenant Harry Crosby, who suffers from air sickness, is a top navigator and instrumental in completing a mission to bomb u-boat pens in Norway.

 

 

But not all of the plane crew that go down are killed, as Sergeant Quinn finds himself with the Belgian resistance who will smuggle him back to britain.  The other planes of the 100th arrive in Algeria after participating in Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, but they lose almost a fifth of their number in the raid, while over half suffers combat damage.  As new crews are brought in, with less experience, Cleven is shot down.  Crosby is promoted to lead navigator of the 100th after a disastrous mission where all but one B17 is taken down, major Egan parachuting into the german countryside.

 

He is taken prisoner and brought to the Stalag Luft III prisoner camp, where he meets Cleven again as well as other survivors from the 100th.  But soon the 100th is reinforced when squadrons of the mighty P51 Mustangs arrive, who are able to guard them all the way over germany and are better fighter planes then what the germans can throw against them.  General Doolittle is planning a mission in which the B17's are bait for the Luftwaffe, in order to have the superior P51's decimate their numbers.

 

Cleven and Egan witness a failed escape attempt by the british pow's, and decide that the americans need to bide their time and make the best of it for the moment.  Crosby, who has planned for three days straight the Normandy bombings for Operation Overlord, misses D-Day as he is sleeping, passed out from exhaustion.  In the prisoner camp, the soldiers need to prepare for a forced march as the Red Army is approaching, but at their new location Cleven and Egan try to escape, Cleven succeeding in this.  But their new prison is liberated and Egan freed.  They all reunite on basecamp, and as Germany surrenders they finally get to return home.

 

 

This was a very good series, and the majestic B17's aerial combats are downright impressive.  The series concludes with a montage of how the pilots and crew went on with their lives after the war,  some with tragic conclusions.  Definitly worth the watch!