Masters of the Air: The True Story of the Legendary Pilots

During World War II, many pilots were trained by the United States. However, one group that was hit particularly hard was the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force. They were famously known as the "Bloody 100th" and were believed to be a cursed unit since they were often positioned in areas where the enemy could easily attack them. A sad story was told by one airman who was in tears when he confessed to his friend that he didn't think he was going to survive because he had been placed in the 100th Group.

The fearless actions of the team when faced with challenges have inspired a TV series called Masters of the Air, now available on Apple TV+. The show is focused on World War II and is the newest addition to the collection created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, who were behind HBO's Band of Brothers and The Pacific. The first two episodes are out today.

The TV series Masters of the Air draws from Donald L. Miller's book called Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany as well as Major Harry H. Crosby's memoir A Wing and a Prayer. Similar to how Easy Company was portrayed in Band of Brothers, the 100th's members had to rely on each other to make it through the war. They were frequently selected for hazardous assignments with minimal chance of survival compared to their peers. Nonetheless, the 100th's casualties reveal a distinctive angle on the war, which diverges from what is depicted through Easy Company's experiences on the ground.

The 100th were a group of pilots in the Eighth Air Force. They were led by two famous pilots named John "Bucky" Egan and Gale "Buck" Cleven. Egan and Cleven were admired by many, including Lieutenant Curtis Biddick, Sergeant William Quinn, and Captain Bernard DeMarco. Major Crosby once wrote that they were very talented and exciting pilots, just as Hollywood would imagine.

Their experience was an ideal match for the high-cost portrayal in Masters of the Air. However, it should be noted that the following content will reveal historical details past episode two of the series. If you're not acquainted with the true chronicle and hope to discover more about the 100th as the show advances, save this page to read once the last episode has aired.

Cleven, who was also known as Butler, and Egan, who went by Turner, were two of the most renowned pilots during the 100th's inception.

First Combat Mission: A Surreal Experience

The members of the 100th were not quite like the soldiers in Band of Brothers as they spent most of their time at an airbase in London, England after their initial training. At the base, officers and pilots would hang out at a bar named Silver Wings, where they would drink, gamble, fight and try to forget the horrors of war. The crew was not very well-disciplined, and they had different commanding officers in 1943. Their first mission over Bremen, Germany, was a distressing and eye-opening experience for them. Despite their planes being labeled as "flying fortresses", enemy fire could easily penetrate the aircraft's body, making every position within it susceptible to attack. As Miller wrote, the sky had no foxholes.

The group of 17 bombers came back from Bremen, Germany. They had experienced attacks from the German Luftwaffe and sadly lost three planes and 30 crew members. It was the first time Cleven had gone on a mission, while Egan had flown before with a different group. After the mission, Cleven asked Egan why he hadn't warned him about how tough it would be. Egan replied that he didn't know what to say.

In the Apple TV+ series, Crosby (Boyle) is partially inspired by his memoir. He was also responsible for leading the Eighth Air Force as a navigator.

Harry Crosby: A Tale Of Heroism

The story of Harry Crosby, partly inspired by his memoir, is presented in Masters of the Air. He joins the team as a navigator after a fellow navigator goes missing, but has a terrible case of airsickness on his first mission. Despite this, he becomes a Major with his precise navigational skills. In episode 2 of the series, the team successfully bombs a German U-Boat base in Trondheim, Norway, with Crosby's help. On their way back, they encounter bad weather and Crosby becomes nervous, taking a different route than planned and not reporting back to home base. However, this brave move ends up working in their favor as the silence prevented the German pilots from discovering their location. Although he initially feared punishment for disobeying orders, Crosby is ultimately hailed as a hero. The show briefly depicts Egan giving Crosby a pep talk before his promotion.

The Crosby mission is worth mentioning as it would make great TV, despite not being featured in Masters of the Air. The National World War II Museum in New Orleans reports that Crosby would frequently listen to Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3" while stationed at the London airbase. After bombing Tronheim, he was sent on another mission to his beloved composer's birthplace in Bonn, Germany. The same morning, Crosby played the piece for the base, but he had a change of heart after realizing that dropping the bombs would destroy Bonn. He shouted, "We can't bomb Bonn!" The planes then flew over the city without dropping a single bomb. The story is an example of how the 100th squadron struggled with their role in the war, knowing that they often inflicted damage on civilian areas. The men found it difficult to carry out the horrific actions required of them during the war.

Nate Mann's character, Robert "Robbie" Rosenthal, was a skilled pilot who played a crucial role in many challenging missions for the 100th squadron.

What Happened To The Other 100th?

After taking on two disastrous missions in Germany's Regensburg and Schweinfurt regions, the 100th squadron witnessed a significant drop in active members. "We initially believed our mission would be a success," recounted Joseph Armanini, a bombardier within the 100th unit. "However, once we began the mission, things took a turn for the worst. We endured intense fire from the enemy." As described by the American Veterans Center, nine out of the 22 planes that entered combat were taken down by enemy troops. Within a mere two months, the squadron faced another brutal obstacle during a raid over Münster.

The majority of the men who survived the 100th group spent the rest of their time in a POW camp called Stalag Luft III. The camp was different from the Nazi concentration camps as the officers were treated with honor because it was managed by German airmen. The captives were allowed to receive care packages from the Red Cross, which contained food, clothing, correspondences from their families, as well as baseball equipment. However, several pilots attempted to escape from imprisonment. A well-known incident, which entailed 76 airmen escaping through underground tunnels, was even shown in the movie, The Great Escape, created in 1963.

Those who made it back safely from the dangerous missions over Regensburg and Münster kept fighting as best they could. The 100th helped the soldiers on the ground during the Normandy invasion on D-Day, attacked communication centers during the Battle of the Bulge, and provided aid packages to towns that were destroyed by the war. One exceptional pilot, Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal (played by Nate Mann), flew a remarkable 53 missions for the 100th. Many other pilots, like Egan and Cleven, also lived to share their experiences. Despite the odds, co-producer Kirk Saduski shared with Smithsonian that "these men keep returning to their planes for the sake of their fellow pilots."