Amph Masters of the Air: Band of Brothers "sequel" series on Apple TV+

I hadn't watched BoB in years; really when it had initially aired on HBO over twenty years ago. Both Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are behind this new series, Masters of the Air, which of course refers to the US Air Force in World War II. It will be on Apple TV+, so I'd likely have to wait until it's made available on DVD to watch it. @Sarge I'm sure this is right up your alley!

 

@Ahsoka's Tano , thanks, I hadn't heard of that one. I may have to try AppleTV and check it out.

Here's hoping it's more like the original documentary Memphis Belle, and nothing like the Hollywood movie version, or Red Tails.



When I went to the USAF museum in Dayton Ohio last month, I saw the real Memphis Belle on display. Not a movie prop, not a replica, not another B-17 painted as Memphis Belle, but the real genuine historical artifact. Seeing it gave me goosebumps.

 

Band of Brothers is one of the best shows ever made.

The Pacific, however, was a miserable trudge.

I pray this new show is more like the first.

But sadly, if they are going to try to capture the entirety of the war in the air, it seems likely the series will be more of an anthology of smaller stories, than a cohesive narrative.

I can understand that. But I much prefer that kind of detail in documentary form, rather than dramatization.

P.S. @Sarge Come on now, Memphis Belle is a flawed gem of Hollywood yesteryear. Bunch of Brat Pack pretty boys off to play war...it's as much a time capsule of the era of it's making as it is of the era it's depicting...maybe more so. The effects were stunning for the time and the soundtrack is an absolute treasure.

 

Did you only watch The Pacific the once when it first aired?

Because I had and felt the same..but then when I watched it again this year (after nearly annual viewings of BOB) I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked The Pacific.

I've been looking forward to Masters of the Air for nearly 10 years since it was originally announced! Can't wait.

 

I only watched it fully through when it came out. Over the years I would see parts here and there. Nothing has ever really pulled me back to it.

Not surprisingly, you don't see it nearly as often (hardly at all) in rerun as you do Band of Brothers, which tells me the same first impression was left on more then just us.

It was technically impressive, which I had no doubt of with Sir Stevie's name involved...but the characters lacked depth and felt more like carefully curated tropes then anything relatable. I just think the scope was too ambitious and they lost the heart along the way.

I would not be adverse to revisiting, but I am not seeking it out at this stage. Perhaps someday.

 

See I thought the characters had a lot more depth and I could follow them better a second time. Of course it's not as good as BOB but nothing is.

 

Phenomenal documentary that one on the Memphis Belle.

 

First trailer is up:

 

I know it's only wishful thinking, but it would be nice if they acknowledged the WASPs, WAAFs, and other women who were an integral part in the aviation during WW2. If they're only going to be shown as the wives, girlfriends, and mothers of the male pilots, that's just a disservice to what they helped to accomplish.

 

Yeah I have to admit that Memphis Belle is a guilty pleasure of mine, even though a lot of it is a composite of what did happen to them over the course of their missions (they did have a mission where they went down a couple of thousand feet suddenly) and more importantly, what did happen in combat missions with the B-17's. But it is not historically very accurate, especially if memory serves right, Morgan was sick and didn't even fly the last mission of the Memphis Belle. There was also no celebration planned beforehand, but they did go on a war bomb city tour. And came out when I was 12 years old and was one of the many reasons I took a liking to history early on in life. It also meant a lot to my great uncle, who, even though he was in the Pacific theater still flew combat missions before flying a transport plane stateside as the war concluded a bit afterward as he wound up staying in the military for a few years. And he liked to brag he had a girl in several different cities while flying the transport plane, but that is a topic for a different day.

And I actually like The Pacific, but I freely admit it pales in comparison to Band of Brothers, which mentioned earlier, is one of the best TV shows ever made. My expectation or really hope is this lands somewhere between those two shows.

 

What I'm hearing about this show is that it's about the 100th Bomb Group in England, so they might have a few WAAFs, but WASPs only served stateside. Women were occasionally instructor pilots back then, so it's possible that they trained some of the main characters. WASPs may have delivered a B-17 from the factory to a stateside training field and might meet the characters there. Aside from that, I don't see much opportunity to write them into this story, assuming they're going for historical accuracy.

 

Ok but if not in this story, then when? The war ended close to 80 years ago, and aside from books about their stories (both fiction and non-fiction), the women that served in Air Forces during WWII have always seemed to be given the snub on any major media venues. I've read plenty of novels that could easily be adapted into a major motion picture that would give their stories the attention they deserve.

 

Yikes...that trailer did not help me.

It looks much like every other hollywood envisioning of WWII in past decade or so.

It could be the trailer editor...I will hope that is the case.

But right now...eesh.

 

About the only series I know of is Big Finish's ATA Girl, which had two short series, covering four stories each.

 

@Guidman If it follows the book, it will, though it's been a while since I read it (over ten years), as it was really detailed and included stories from the crews, including even mechanics. I read some of the complaints about it, and though I admit it won't be as good as Band of Brothers for a number of reasons (while Masters in the Air is based on real people, including the main characters of Major Cleven and Major Egan), it is more of a look at what the Bloody 100th went thru as a group compare to Band of Brothers was about a very specific group of soldiers (Easy Company) and was really seen thru the eyes of Major Winters even though obviously there were episodes that were narrated by others like Carwood Lipton. I do think it's been pretty accurate so far, including on how gungho they are and, yes, including how they acted with the Brits and vice versa. I am curious how they will handle the following:

Spoiler

1. As the summer and the fall of 1943, the soldiers became more disillusioned as the patriotism they showed early on began to waver under the heavy losses they took, hence why they were called the Bloody 100th or, as great uncle would tell us, they were honestly a cursed unit (not the only one obviously to use that term as they even used it after awhile).
2. If and how they will portray Black Week, which was when they finally decided to scuttle deep bombing runs without fighter escort as afterward they only did shorter bombing missions with fighter escort as the brass had to finally admit daylight precision bombing was not working without fighter escort.
3. Will Doolittle be in it as it was he, along with the P-51 Mustang, that really changed the battle over Europe in the skies and really the projection of the war as once the allies gain total air dominance, Ike felt like they could start getting the wheels in motion for D-Day but even late as the fall of 1943, that didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon that is until the P-51 Mustang and Doolittle showed up.

So overall, I like it so far and while I agree that isn't as good as Band of Brothers (and won't be) I am not seeing any of the hate it is getting in a few sections at least not yet including on being inaccurate.

 

It’s great. In some respects, I’m enjoying it even a bit more than BoB, which is the gold standard. There’s a tightness to it that I appreciate, and isn’t always the case in a Spielberg-involved joint. But we’re only two episodes in, so we’ll see.

So far, though, it’s a really admirable effort. Done with authenticity and subtlety, and most importantly, empathy. But without any of the performative schmaltz that empathetic portrayals sometimes engage in. In short, it’s got the ring of truth about it.

 

First of all let me say I loved Band Of Brothers and The Pacific! And going in I read mostly positive reviews to be fair most of the positive reviews were from British reviews like Empire Magazine for instance. I think the visuals and Ariel footage and planes is excellent and I love seeing the comradery! Also really good acting and script writing! But one thing that is missing that was in the last two HBO mini series is the love stories. My grandfather was in the 740th Tank Batallion US ARMY Daredevil Tankers not only did they follow the troops after Normandy but they fought in the Battle of the Bulge in feet of snow they liberated Belgium and liberated the concentration camps. My grandpa saw the inside of the concentration camps and had PTSD From it the rest of his life.

My grandfather was a barber in the town in Belgium and the people of the town didn't want them to leave. When I moved to Florida 8 years ago 9 years in June I found my grandfathers love letters he had a girlfriend in Belgium so this was common in war soldiers had girlfriends and mistresses in Europe and over seas...

 

@Leoluca Randisi Yep, or in the case of my great uncle, who flew a transport plane stateside for a while before he was in the Pacific theater at the tail end of the war, and we found at towards the end of his life, he was seeing two different women in two different cities. They were clueless, and so were we, until, like you, my aunt found love letters from each of them when cleaning out his house. As you said, a lot of them had girlfriends and mistresses overseas (or, in the case of my great-uncle, in different cities), as even Ike did. That is how Franco Harris is half-Italian, as his mom fell in love with his dad while he was stationed in Italy and got married/immigrated to the US. And yeah, I had a relative who fought in the Battle of the Bulge as well. I didn't want to talk about it, and considering what happened, I never blamed them. He did like to tell us the story, though, about how he drove a Gutenberg Bible from Germany to France at the end of the war after he was promoted due to stopping an SS secret attack as a couple of them were dressed up as US soldiers and were trying to get on the makeshift base and they were about to let them thru as they were speaking English without an accent but my great uncle for some reason thought they were suspicious so he asked them a question about the Yankees. The Germans totally botched it, so they had them arrested, and my great uncle was given a promotion that led to him being tasked to drive a jeep from Germany back to France with the Gutenberg Bible by himself. As he said, war was hell, but that was one moment he actually enjoyed.

 

My grandfather told me the same thing about the Yankees or Dodgers code to get in the door to make sure they were Americans! My grandfather especially when he got Alzheimer's constantly told me war stories and I would watch him when my grandmother and dad went shopping he also was diabetic and had quadruple bypass surgery on his heart and amputated foot. The Alzheimer's got worse after the surgery. My grandfather didn't meet my grandmother and get married till after the war so he wasn't cheating. Funny story my grandmother was Italian my grandfather was Sicilian my grandmothers family were racist towards my grandfather and his family because they were Sicilian. My grandfather died in 2004 when he was 81

 

Patiently awaiting @Sarge watching the show...

So far I'm really liking it

 

But...there are love stories in the show. Both loves left back home, and flings with girls in Britain. In both of the only two episodes that have been released.

 

First of all I know we only saw 2 episodes so far but I read tons of articles that said unlike BoB and The Pacific the love stories are non existent and family friendly where as on HBO it was rated R Love stories I'm sure the media saw most if not all of the episodes I'm missing the love stories,

This is really cool he seems to think its authentic except being surprised at the horrors of the mission he thought training prepared you for it. And he didnt agree with the part about going to bars and women. But like I said my grandfather was in the 740th Tank Batallion Daredevil Tankers US ARMY WWII i know a little different but My grandfather said ARMY rations were horrible but any chance to drink alcohol they did and like I said soldiers had girlfriends and mistresses my grandfather had a girlfriend in Belgium.not all soldiers of course may be he was married and more conservative didn't drink.

 

Those are great stories and I'm always glad when people know them and can share them about their family members.

Small world sometimes. My grandma's brother was in the 2nd Armored Division, 67th Regiment, for the US and was involved with the Battle of the Bulge as well. He died on January 3, 1945 (same day as my birthday in 1989) - in Belgium. His tank was hit with an explosive. He was marked as MIA for a while before confirmed KIA based on other witnesses. He supposedly has a name marker in the Tablets of the Missing section at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Neuville-en-Condroz, Neupré. I hope that someday I'll be able to go see it in person.

We have all the letters that he sent home starting with boot camp (as well as all the ones family sent him while in camp, as he sent them home before he was deployed) as well as all the letters he sent from overseas. A few years ago I organized the letters, as well as all of the official Army correspondence received. There's eight 4-inch binders of them. And I made a shadow box for my dad with one of the Purple Hearts (this one from being wounded in Holland; our cousin has the other) as well as a copy of the letter about him being wounded, the letter with the purple heart, replica patches of his division and regiment, and some shell casings he sent home.

 

I also love hearing stories from people there stories that are passed down from generation to generation. There is a Monument for the 740th Armored Tank Batallion they were the Tank Busters Daredevil Tankers legendary the monument is In Belgium because they liberated the town in Belgium they still to this day love them for saving them when I went with my grandfather to his ARMY reunion in Baton Rouge Louisiana there were tons of family of the people from the town in Belgium to honor them!

Two interesting stories one time my Grandfathers Batallion captured a bunch of German soldiers so they made the prisoners line up give them whatever they had my grandfather's commanding officers made them give it all back but my grandfather still made out with A Nazi flag Nazi medals on the uniforms and Nazi leather gloves my grandfather hid them in his duffel bag. My dad in the 1950s used to wear the leather gloves in the snow and now all this war memorabilia from the Nazis is in a box in my bedroom closet.

This other time my Grandfather made friends with a German prisoner of war my grandfather gave him a gift and the German soldier carved a wooden box and gave it to my grandfather my dad still has it and keeps important papers in it.

If it weren't for all our grandparents grandfather's America and Europe would probably be like that Amazon show The Man In The High Castle they saved the world