Masters of the air

[River Rat]

Been watching masters of the air on apple TV. They lost more air crews lives than the Marine Corps in WW2 from what I read about it. It's really eye opening in the last episode I watched on a bombing missing that went wrong they lost so many aircraft one crew member bailed out before his parachute opened, he bounced off the wing of another B-17 and I bet that really happened to some. It makes you want to thank the greatest generation for what they did. Wish my dad was still around. A few clips of it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VQYaLl1R3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozBv04-lY0

[DocHollidayDDS]

Haven’t started watching yet, but looking forward to it.

My grandfather was a waist gunner on a B-26 shot down over occupied France, and the Resistance had to smuggle him back to England. I truly wish I’d heard more of his stories about his experiences before he passed, but like so many of his generation, he just didn’t talk about the war very much.

[River Rat]

My Dad was a ball turret gunner and flight engineer on US Navy Avenger torpedo planes I got some stories but not all of them just wished I bugged him more about it. Got his medals shadow box. The bad thing about WW2 vets is most of the military records went up in a fire just wished I had copies of the paperwork for the medals.

[gwells]

i was watching that scene and wondering how many times were they following a fighter and shooting in from the waist/turrets and hit other B17s with friendly fire? it's so chaotic.

[raf42]

Will watch for sure.

My Dad was on a mine sweeper for part of his Navy tour during WWII. They got ship wrecked in the Aleutian Islands and had to burn barrels of fuel just to stave off frostbite until they were rescued. Unreal.

He also was in Nagasaki harbor to clean up mines after the war ended. He told me, for fun, when they got a mine on the surface they would all pull out their 45's and shoot at it until it blew up. Sounds like a blast (no pun intended).

The greatest generation for sure.

[Captdave]

Haven’t started watching it yet but definitely at the top of my list.
My dad was a radioman in the navy air corp. My step dad was a navigator in the army air force and my grandfather flew B27’s (I think).


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[DocHollidayDDS]

My step dad was a navigator in the army air force and my grandfather flew B27’s (I think).

Could’ve been B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26 or B-29 in WWII, the XB-27 was never made operational.

[Captdave]

My step dad was a navigator in the army air force and my grandfather flew B27’s (I think).

Could’ve been B-17, B-24, B-25, B-26 or B-29 in WWII, the XB-27 was never made operational.

Thanks for the info. Wish I remembered which it was.


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[River Rat]

Will watch for sure.

My Dad was on a mine sweeper for part of his Navy tour during WWII. They got ship wrecked in the Aleutian Islands and had to burn barrels of fuel just to stave off frostbite until they were rescued. Unreal.

He also was in Nagasaki harbor to clean up mines after the war ended. He told me, for fun, when they got a mine on the surface they would all pull out their 45's and shoot at it until it blew up. Sounds like a blast (no pun intended).

The greatest generation for sure.

My dad started in PBY’s and later in the war went to avenger’s. His PBY squadron was also in the Aleutians his PBY squadron switched to another type of aircraft he did not like that since the new aircraft did not float so if you crashed in the water you would end up in the water after the aircraft sank and freeze to death.

[abuemily]

My uncle was a navigator on a B-26, shot down and killed in 1943 over France. 21 years old. What these guys went through is truly unbelievable.


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[DocHollidayDDS]

Watched the first two episodes tonight, good stuff.

But I figured it would be solid since it’s exec produced by the same folks who brought us Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

[Henryj]

Watched the first two episodes tonight, good stuff.

But I figured it would be solid since it’s exec produced by the same folks who brought us Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Be nice to see them put that kind of effort into the submarine service in WW2.

[Wario406]

Watched the first two episodes tonight, good stuff.

But I figured it would be solid since it’s exec produced by the same folks who brought us Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Be nice to see them put that kind of effort into the submarine service in WW2.

I’m with you!

I knew a couple of WWII submariners and those guys also had balls the size of pickle jars.

[River Rat]

Talking about the Navy. Greyhound is a hell of a good movie Tom Hanks did on a US Navy WW2 destroyer going after German U-Boats trying to sink ships in a convoy. Think Tom Hanks is making Greyhound 2 movie. The best WW2 sub movie I ever saw was Das Boot both sides had balls of steel in WW2. Really hard to believe if you lived on the east coast near the ocean in the early part of WW2 you could see naval battles from land were U-Boats just sank anything in site until the US Navy got there shit together and the U-boats became the hunted.

[DocHollidayDDS]

Photo of my grandfather and his crew standing in front of a B-26 during their training:



His wings and Air Medal (awarded for 25 combat missions flown)

[snootydog]

A little off topic from Masters of the air but as submarine's have been mentioned, here is a German WW1 sub U-118 that had surrendered and was being towed to France when the tow line snapped and it washed ashore on Hastings beach, a bit further along the coast from where I live. Bit different from finding a bit of driftwood on your beach.

[River Rat]

Last week's episode had something about the red tails, about Alexander Hamilton who got shot down over France and became a POW. I met him once the real one, he was a specker at a VFW dinner my boss invited me to. When he got shot down think it might have been around D-Day their mission in P-51 mustangs was to destroy German radar station along the coast of France. He was an interesting speaker sorry to hear he passed away at the age of a !00.

[andy tims]

It's a great series.

[Wario406]

Finished it last night. I feel like they rushed the ending, but as others have stated - I think it was a very good series.

[demer03]

Last week's episode had something about the red tails, about Alexander Hamilton who got shot down over France and became a POW. I met him once the real one, he was a specker at a VFW dinner my boss invited me to. When he got shot down think it might have been around D-Day their mission in P-51 mustangs was to destroy German radar station along the coast of France. He was an interesting speaker sorry to hear he passed away at the age of a !00.

The two red tails featured spoke at my wife’s school when she was with Muskegon Heights HS several years ago. The kids actually shut up and listened.

[gwells]

i'm still annoyed AF that if the redskins changed their name, they had to go with the lame-ass "commanders" instead of red tails or redwolves. would have loved red tails.

[DocHollidayDDS]

Finished it last night. I feel like they rushed the ending, but as others have stated - I think it was a very good series.

Also finished it over the weekend. Very well done, but definitely could've used a couple more episodes. Couldn't believe they didn't cover any of the firebombing raids that essentially leveled cities like Dresden and Hamburg.