This week Seth, Bill and Tommy discuss Masters of the Air Part 6. The guys get into the nuts and bolts of escape and evasion, the POW interrogations of John “Bucky” Egan and Allied prisoners, Flak Houses, and the emotional toll taken on the airmen of the 8th Air Force and others in the skies over Europe.
Image courtesy Apple TV
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When John Egan walks into camp and sees Crank and Murphy was touching. "John Egan! Your two o'clock!" pretty much pushed me over the edge. A lump-in-the-throat scene for me for sure.
I served in Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Regarding the crewman discussed in this episode that felt if he had gone on a particular raid, maybe his group wouldn't have suffered so many losses. I have long struggled with if we hadn't stopped when we did in Desert Storm, if we couldn't have prevented the loss all of those service members who wound up going back over in 2003 and subsequent years thereafter. It is a terribly guilty feeling to have come home knowing others did not.
My American father went to Oxford at that time. After the war, when we were kids, he would regale us with the misadventures of punting! When I visited Oxford as an adult in the middle of winter, it was so cold I wasn’t able to go punting. I was very disappointed!
My British mother joined the ATS – Auxiliary Territorial Service, which was the woman’s branch of the British army. There were different branches that women served in, such as the Navy. All women over a certain age either volunteered or or were conscripted into organizations, such as the agricultural Land Girls. As you must know, even Queen Elizabeth was in the army as an automobile mechanic.
You guys might want to look at the old TV series Combat. They deal extensively with PTSD
Ok, so I have paused the video right at the start to add this.
I watch the videos on your channel because they are brilliant in every way.
When you started these ones I kept watching but had not seen the show. I just returned home for a week and put the show on and I'm blown away by it! I would have missed it if not for your series about it.
Some clarification, my Grandfather served in the RAF during WW2 as ground crew in the UK. I never got to meet him and never really thought about what he would have seen and gone through.
He was Irish, worked for Guinness as a maintenance fitter in St. James Gate Brewery. Most may not be aware that Guinness employees were offered a deal if they served. In addition to the RAF standard pay, they also kept One third of their Guinness pay as well.
I have only one photo of my Grandfather, he is in his RAF uniform and looked perfect in it.
Thank you for bringing this show to me. Watching the first episode I was in awe…. it is like a Hollywood production, far beyond what I expected. The details are amazing and thankfully it hasn't fallen victim to the easily offended.
You both deserve recognition for all you do and if we ever meet, the beers are on me.
Wingate is a key character in Crosby's book
PS upper class Scots have mainly gone to school in England and have "English" accents – BUT because of their time as children in Scotland with Scots staff, they also can slip into Scots as well
Last point, Crosby published this book after his wife Jean had died
There was a nephew of bubbles Payne said that he was pleased with the depiction of his late uncles death and how they portrayed it, he was also pleased they had his correct service number on his footlocker and even showed bubbles’s real footlocker
Great stuff as usual guys
It is not understandable
People don't appreciate how awful those parachutes they used were – in terms of how hard a person could count on hitting the ground. Barely steerable, basically at the mercy of the wind and slammed down. I know this because I've used very similar parachutes for fun, one made in 1954. I've been skydiving since 1980.
Yes it was bad in Europe, it was far worst in Japan. Once the airmen bails out of the B-29, only 20% survived the war as POWs compared to the 70% in European conflict.
Thanks
My only major criticism of the show is the portrayal of British Officers . So far they have been nothing more than exposition spouting , one note , caricatures. I am Australian , I have no problem with people taking cheap shots at the British officer class, but this just comes across as lazy and tone deaf. Every other aspect of this series has been of the very highest quality , so I find this a bit disappointing.
Does not make it clear the prison camp was run by the Luftwaffe.Also had the created the technical Sargent rank by this point (knowing non-Comms were treated better than enlisted)
Also they are now showing commercials,quite a number so hopefully it is helping your bottom line…
The interrogation approach that you discuss is known as "we know all" approach. When I went through interrogation training in the U.S. Army in the early 1980s we were advised to read the biography of a German Luftwaffe interrogator. This interrogator had spent decades in South Africa before the war and spoke fluent English with a South African accent (as well as Afrikaans and Zulu). He would sometimes be imprisoned with Allied prisoners posing as an RAF flyer.
Not a concentration camp, which is merely the English translation of what the Germans called them, but death camp or extermination camp.
Another great review. You guys are definitely my go to after watching each episode. Looking forward to more and also other videos from your channel in regards to the pacific theater.
Another thing that I find irritating about the British vs American airmen trash talk is that it's always portrayed as the stuffy British aristocracy vs the American common man. I'm guessing the British air services were in no way majority upper class English. It's almost as if the writers are going out of their way to treat the British with disdain.