Masters Of The Air

THE SOUTH HAMPSHIRE HISTORICAL AVIATION SOCIETY

A NINE PART MINI SERIES

Review by SHHAS member Malcolm Lee

Following the TV mini series Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010), Masters of the Air is the third, much anticipated in the trilogy of WW2 dramas produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Based of the book Masters of the air by Donald L Miller, and the memoir A Wing and a Prayer by Harry H Crosby, who also narrates the story (portrayed by Antony Boyle).

The narrative follows the crews of the 100th Bomb Group, US 8th Airforce, from the time of their arrival at Station 139, RAF Thorpe Abbotts Norfolk, in spring 1943 until VE Day, May 1945. The 100th BG flew 300 missions, and suffered tremendous casualties, losing 177 aircraft missing in action, and became known as “The Bloody Hundredth”. Although this was not to be the highest losses of an USAAF Group.

The main characters are all based on individuals from the 100th, including Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven portrayed Austin Butler, and Maj. John "Bucky" Egan (Callum Turner), who were to become best friends during flight training back in the USA. Both Cleven and Egan would be shot down on seperate occasions, and eventually be reunited in the notorious Stalag Luft III. Lt. Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle), who became Group Navigator, even though he was to suffer from extreme air sickness, and Maj. Rob "Rosie" Rosenthal (Nate Mann). He completed 52 missions, was shot down twice, and after the war became assistant to the US Prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

Principal photography began in the UK, in 2021, but was delayed several times due to COVID 19 conditions. The production values are extremely high, as you would expect, with a control tower and two very authentic looking full size non flying replica Boeing B17s constructed and used for the airfield scenes filmed on location at former RAF Abingdon. There were no real aircraft used for any of the flying scenes, these all being created by CGI, as is normal these days. The CGI is my main criticism of the series, as the CG “models” may look authentic, but they have still not managed to capture the flight dynamics of real aircraft, and the combat scenes look far too crowded and ‘busy’. Of course most of us have, thankfully, not experienced war and aerial combat, but when watching documentary film footage, this is the impression I get.

Being an American production and story the narrative was naturally biased towards the US efforts in the air war, with only a passing reference or two of Bomber Commands no less important contribution to the final outcome. Although based on historical events, with such dramas, there are inevitably both technical and historic inaccuracies, understandable for dramatic reasons in the majority of cases.

Towards the end of the hostilities the Group took part in Chowhound, the humanitarian missions to drop food supplies to the starving civilian population of the Netherlands.

At the end of the final episode, included in the credits is a brief description of what the main characters went on to further achieve, when the war finally finished.

As with the first two chapters of the trilogy, Masters of the Air does mostly portray well the human story of courage, stress, horror, tragedy, dedication, humour of a war fought in the freezing cold conditions at over 25,000 feet altitude.

First streamed on Apple TV+ subscription service in January 2024, the 9 part mini series is available on DVD as a 3 disc set. Also still available to stream, together with Band of Brothers and The Pacific. To accompany the series an interesting documentary, The Bloody Hundredth, narrated by Tom Hanks, was released when the series streamed, but unfortunately is not included in the DVD set, as an extra.

The series music, composed by Blake Neely, is also worthy of mention and is available on CD or to stream. The main title theme being particularly stirring, in my opinion.

As a footnote. The 100th BG lives on as the 100th Air Refuelling Wing based at RAF Mildenhall, and is the only modern day operational USAF group permitted to carry it’s wartime Square D identity code on the tail of it’s K-135 aircraft.