02/28/2024 – I highly recommend the nine part series: “Masters of the Air”, available on Apple TV and on a few streaming services. (90 day free trial offers included)
About the productiton:
We opted for the free 90 day trial on AppleTV app on my computer. It will be a quick cancel, without having to request a cancel on a “customer service” line. There are nine segments, four already out there , with a new one hour segment coming out each Friday. We much enjoyed the first two!
“The Greatest Generation”: From the first two episodes, Spielberg and Hanks appear to have stuck closely with history of the 100th bomber group, the “bloody hundredth”. They lost 28 of 35 initial crews in just the first 100 days or so of 1943. I read where a crewman had only a one in four chance of completing the required 25 or 30 missions, to be sent home. The stats improved later with the diminished German capability and the improved range of the American fighter support.
My wife’s father, who died in 1998 of cancer, was one of the lucky ones that was sent home after 25 missions as a tail-gunner. Her mother remarried coincidentally a navigator on a B-17 many years later; Jack was shot down over Germany in late 1943. He spent 18 months in a German POW camp. His amazing story was chronicled in full length in the Houston Chronicle in the early 90s. Jack was active in the POW organization. The story centered around how he ran into a son of a comrade, Manny that had served with him in the same squadron. Up until that point, they had not known of each others survival. The chronicle picked up the story of their joy-filled reunion from Manny’s son.
Here is a historical summary of the 100th:
Oh, and this too, a great article:
If you are willing to take a quick peak at an insecure website: Search on this article title: “Life and Death Aboard a B-17, 1944″. It’s on EyeWitnessHistory.com”
We won’t forget their sacrifice. It is good to challenge ourselves by following the amazing stories of hero mentors, including a prayer that we stand fast (Ephesians 6:13) as did those who went before us! I believe that God Almighty will answer those prayers!
Soli Deo Gloria! Always connected through prayer and by His grace!