Masters of the Air - USAF Mighty 8th in East Anglia

[Agent K]

Cringeworthy and crap is my view. Pure Hollywood and a million miles from 'real'

My respect for you, assuming you're WWII veteran B17 aircrew who's experienced 'real' to be able to make that statement?

[MikeH]

Cringeworthy and crap is my view. Pure Hollywood and a million miles from 'real'

My respect for you, assuming you're WWII veteran B17 aircrew who's experienced 'real' to be able to make that statement?

My money's on him having perfected time travel.

[stuie492]

Your always gonna get the moaners...that's not right...that's not accurate..blah blah blah ..I like the first 2 episodes.. very well done

[SpilsbyPete]

I liked it

Someone will pick holes in it,for the sake of it
It's not Iron Eagle 1,2,3 etc

[davedubya]

Does anyone know the story behind Colonel Hughlin? He's seen coughing up blood and then is replaced by Chick Harding. His records I've read online don't mention any illness, and he continued on to lengthy distinguished career.

[Ghastly Whisper]

Does anyone know the story behind Colonel Hughlin? He's seen coughing up blood and then is replaced by Chick Harding. His records I've read online don't mention any illness, and he continued on to lengthy distinguished career.

Just one small line in episode 2. Burst ulcer.

[davedubya]

Does anyone know the story behind Colonel Hughlin? He's seen coughing up blood and then is replaced by Chick Harding. His records I've read online don't mention any illness, and he continued on to lengthy distinguished career.

Just one small line in episode 2. Burst ulcer.

Ah. Must've completely missed the line. Thanks.

[markranger]

Epidsode 3 is really good,way better than the first 2z

[Chris in Tennessee]

I have been watching the miniseries “Masters of the Air”, just as many of you have, and have found it often moving, and , in almost equal measure, often found it disturbing to watch. In much the same way that the opening Omaha Beach sequence of “Saving Private Ryan’ was almost too intense and too horrific to watch, so too the aerial combat sequences in “Masters of the Air" often hammer home the brutal reality of what those young men went through. Those who have criticized the production values almost certainly have some valid points to make. Yet, for me, after 30+ years around military aviation and even more years avidly reading and watching histories of the era, the flying combat sequences seem terrifyingly real enough.

I suspect I'm somewhat more susceptible since the story of the 8th AF's war against the Reich is one I grew up with as a young fella growing up on USAF bases in the 50’s and early 60s, including three years in the UK at Lakenheath. Heck, the school I attended as a 10 year old kid there was just a collection of Quonset huts, much as depicted in "Masters of the Air." Between being in East Anglia and my Dad, and many of my friend’s Dads having served in WW2, the books I read in the base library about the bombing campaign didn’t seem to be exactly ancient history. As I grew older, the story morphed and grew more complex. The accounts went from triumphal “this is how we won” to more critical, “the raids were ineffective and not worth the cost” and ultimately darker with considerations of the enemy populace, “we committed a crime killing a half million civilians”.

I don’t see how the “Masters of the Air”, or any TV production, could possibly address, in any truly reflective way, the range of issues surrounding the Allied bombing campaign against the Reich. What it does seem to be trying for, and so far succeeding, is to tell the larger truth of the courage displayed by those crews pressing home their attacks even against disheartening losses. Here’s the thing…the 8th suffered more KIA’s, and I mean a lot more, during its operations against Germany than the entire United States Marine Corps did in the entire war. During the first year, when escort fighters couldn’t go all the way to the target with the bombers, only about 25% of the crews made it to the 25th mission and home. Those kids knew full well how badly the odds were stacked against them, and how most of them would fly until killed, wounded, or captured. Yet, despite all that, they kept climbing into those airplanes. That is truly heroic, or the word has no meaning.

[Canopus]

I am really enjoying the series, great storytelling and intense action scenes that to an armchair historian seems as authentic as we have ever seen. The attention to detail in terms of uniforms aircraft etc is very impressive so it is surprising that the CGI of flying scenes is so poor. The dynamics of aircraft models seem “wrong” as they don’t seem to fly in the sense of responding to aerodynamic forces, gravity etc. The angle of attack of take offs and landings look uncanny every landing is a three pointer?, Me109’s act like tie fighters from Star Wars and B-17s always produce contrails regardless of altitude?

Why when so much care has gone into other elements is the CGI so poor ?

[Ghastly Whisper]

Episode 5 is extremely sad.

[Vulture 01]

By coincidence, I'm reading the book on which the series is based. The book is about the whole of the USAAF bombing war, how generals were too set in a bomber mindset to consider the need for escort fighters. I've had my whole viewpoint of the 8th and 15th air forces changed whilst reading. The book is also called Masters of the air, written by Donald Miller. I got my copy for under £10 at waterstones. Earlier someone made a comment about Hollywood heroics in the series. All I can say is that several of those 'incidents' are quoted in the book, and should thus be considered true. The losses they took on several missions were horrendous: in fact the USAAF came very close to quitting and switching to night raids. I recommend the book, and would be interested to hear from those of you who have read it S i HAVE.

[DanBeeden]

Does anyone know what happened to the two full scale B-17 replicas they built for the hardstanding scenes? Excellent series in my opinion.