Tail End Charlie
Masters of the Air, Episode 0: The Wait
Text: Jan Zdiarský
The biggest premiere for this year, full of new kits of all scales, manufacturers and types of aircraft as well as other related items, awaits us in a different, yet closely related field within our modeling world – in film. On January 26th, Apple TV+ will launch the first two episodes of Masters of the Air. A series about the men of the 100th Bombardment Group of the 8th AF, as the series promotion says, ‘a brotherhood forged by courage, loss, and triumph’.
Of course, such a wait is accompanied by a lot of anticipation. After watching the first trailers and a sneak peek into the tightly guarded backstage, a lot of discussion has arisen stemming from the observed snippets of scenes regarding possible transgressions of the creators against historical accuracy, the laws of air combat and tactics, as well commentaries about the faithfulness to accuracy as a whole. And the fervor of these debates, above all, points to one thing – the level of interest in the series and its subject matter is great, and so is the level of anticipation.
Robert Rosenthal during his service in the 100th Bomb Group, 1943-45.
Robert Rosenthal with the article's author at the 100th BG Reunion in Pittsburgh, 2005.
Robert and Phillis Rosenthal with the article's author at the Museum of Air Battle over the Ore Mountains on September 11th, 1944, in Kovarska, Czech Republic, July 2005.
Despite the stellar combination of the original events, the book and the series, I have no doubt that after watching the first episodes, despite all the efforts of the creators, there will be a lot of know-it-alls, intolerant of possible omissions and necessary compromises, as well as their sighs over perceived ‘missed opportunities’ (something we know all too well from the world of plastic modeling). I myself assume that I will find some details in the series that the creators considered an acceptable compromise, but they will only slightly annoy me. But I don't think that these will cross the line out of the tolerable and into something else. All the more so because I now know that the filmmakers went farther in their pursuit of fidelity of detail than anyone before them in aerial combat cinematography has ever done. Of course, I know, for example, about the problematic involvement of the black Tuskegee airmen in the story of the men of the 8th Air Force. However, I want to wait with my judgments until I see how the filmmakers have actually integrated them into the main story.
Rosenthal crew with their B-17F-120-BO s/n 42-30758 "Rosie's Riveters," 418th BS, 100th Bomb Group.
The series, which was originally developed over more than ten years under the banner of HBO and will be launched on the Apple TV+ platform, comes from the same production team as its iconic predecessors "Band Of Brothers" and "The Pacific", i.e. the creative trio of Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman.
John Orloff's screenplay was based on the book of the same name by American historian Donald L. Miller from 2007. It reflects the real life stories of the men from the US 8th Air Force, especially the 100th Bomb Group (100th BG), known as ‘The Bloody Hundred’. This brings me to why that expectation touches me so deeply and I take it almost personally. For more than a quarter of a century, since 1997, my activities and my heart have been closely connected to the 100th BG. I have had the honor of knowing a number of the airmen who will now come to life again on television screens personally, even if as older gentlemen and veterans, and I have had great relationships with them and their families, even with those who left before I joined the 100th BG Association, later Foundation.
Meeting of the generations from the 100th BG Family – youngest volunteers of the Museum of Air Battle over the Ore Mountains Vít and Pavel Zdiarský, with the "Masters of the Air" author Don Miller in Thorpe Abbotts, the former base of the 100th BG, July 2002. On the right: Title of the first edition of "Masters of the Air," 2007.
At several of the last (I think three or four)100th BG reunions, we've been meeting various personalities from the Masters of the Air creative staff. Representatives of the production and creators informed us about the progress of preparations, filming, post-production... No different was the case at the last 100th BG reunion in Savannah, GA at the end of May and beginning of June, 2023, when, among other things, the anticipated completion date of early 2024 was already openly discussed. During these meetings, members of the 100th BG Foundation were assured of the diligence of the filmmakers' approach. The team of the series tried to follow up on the precise work of the author of the book template in such a way as not to embarrass the book or the actual history. The pursuit of historical and technical fidelity went to unusual lengths - not only in the construction of facilities at two former airfields in East England and the reconstruction of faithful replicas of the B-17, the equipment used, replicating the realities and post-production effects, but also in capturing the character of the individual personalities whose stories are recalled.
The people associated in one way or another with the ‘Hundred’ have a term that they use….the ‘100th BG Family’. This very close-knit family consists of four entities - primarily the veteran organization of the 100th BG Foundation itself, the unique 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum in Thorpe Abbotts, England, the Museum of Air Battle over the Ore Mountains on September 11th, 1944 in the Czech Republic and the 100th Air Refueling USAF Wing based at Mildenhall.
Our Czech museum, which is dedicated to one of the most tragic missions of the 100th BG, actually brings a sequel to Masters of the Air, about a year later, related to the period when the majority of Don Miller's book and thus the series takes place.
The master template book and series focus mainly on the early period of the 100th BG, in the second half of 1943 and early 1944. Here, we will encounter mainly the B-17 in its F version. However, the stories of some men go up to 1945, so olive green and natural metal B-17Gs will also appear in the series. Although the story focuses on the 100th BG, it is a tribute to all the airmen who took part in the terrible enterprise called the Bombing Offensive in Europe. By intertwining the fates of pilots from different areas of the air war over Europe, the series also touches on stories from POW camps and the sister unit 15th Air Force. One thing the series probably cannot convey from the book are the chapters on the creation of the 8th Air Force and, above all, on the development of the idea of a strategic bombing offensive as an effective way of conducting a defensive war, from the time of Italian Giulio Douhet and American Billy Mitchell. Not only because these parts need to convey the understanding of the ‘son of a bitch dirty work’ that the boys from the 8th Air Force had to do, but also because the series can't possibly transfer everything from the book to the screen, I highly recommend reading Don Miller's book.
Many of the unit's legends come to life in the ‘Masters of the Air’ stories, and the creators of the series have maintained their real names, underscoring the desire for maximum faithfulness to accuracy. The choice of actors tried also be as faithful as possible. To this end, the author of the book, Don Miller, and later members of the series' creative team, spent long hours interviewing the family members of individual airmen, and where possible, the veterans themselves... and last but not least, the leadership of the 100th Bombardment Group Foundation and its historians as well.
The power of the legacy of the 100th BG has been preserved by the veterans themselves for years and today by its Foundation as well. The latter is made up of, in addition to the last surviving veterans, by direct descendants of the second, third and subsequent generations, and will thus be strengthened by the work on the front lines of attention and deep reverence. Names such as Robert Rosenthal, Buck Cleven, John Egan, Frank Murphy, Everett Blakely, John Brady, Harry Crosby, as well as ‘forgotten’ ground crewmen such as Ken Lemmons and many others, will enter the general public's consciousness. And with them, of course, the iconic ‘Square D’, the 100th BG identification marking that the unit’s B-17s carried on their rudders in missions over Germany and occupied Europe… and which was also prevalent on the wreckage of the B-17G flown by Lt. Trommer that was photographed sticking out of the roof of the school in Kovářská, which I went to four decades later as a pupil at the local elementary school. The mysticism of the place dug deep into me and caused me to pretend to be ‘there’ and write with seeming insight about figures like Rosie Rosenthal or Harry Crossby. No way, I'm not an insider, I've just been extremely lucky and honored in this direction that at the end of January the stories of the men of the Bloody Hundred will come to life, I will be able to look behind the faces of the actors and witness the moments spent with those about whom the stories will be told. And I'm just looking forward to it.
External Links to other Sources:
https://100thbg.com
https://100thbg.com/masters-of-the-air/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RWohylGm3c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-1JCRguZ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SDBjgIC93E
https://tv.apple.com/us/show/masters-of-the-air/umc.cmc.7bxcni0vwgll9kmicq738k5q2
https://www.facebook.com/groups/873968469854049
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Air
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_L._Miller