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To be a pilot in WWII
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- em2nought
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
"Four more years!" "Pause." LMAO
- Default
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
My father-in-law was a radio repairman in the 15th Air Force in Italy during the Second World War. He worked on b-24 Liberators and he also worked with MIT on down looking radars for bombers. The idea was they could bomb targets through the cloud cover. We still have some newspaper articles about that, but Dad said it didn't really work very well. Also, my great uncle Ernest was in the Philippines at the start of the war and spent the entire time as a prisoner of the Japanese.
Last edited by Default on Sat Feb 17, 2024 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Hrdina
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
Yeah, growing up I watched a lot of Black Sheep Squadron so had a particular love for the Corsair. I never really enjoyed flying it in simulators, though. I much prefer to fly the P-38 Lightning (aka "der Gabelschwanz Teufel") or P-47 Thunderbolt, sometimes even the P-39 Airacobra if I'm in a strange mood.
The difference between my birthday and the end of WW2 is less than the difference between Y2K and now.
So, growing up there were still a lot of WW2 movies available to watch, but strangely the model airplane I remember building most clearly was an F-15!
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- Holman
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I was born in late 1968, when WW2 was about as far back as 9/11 is today.
Much prefer my Nazis Nuremberged.
- Holman
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
My wife's uncle (her father's older brother) was chief ground engineer for one of the bombers in the Doolittle raid. He wasn't aircrew, but he was on the carrier Hornet from which they launched.Default wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 1:08 pm My father-in-law was a radio repairman in the 15th Air Force in Italy during the second world war he worked on b-24 liberators and he also worked with the people that were putting down looking radars on bombers so they could bomb through the clouds. We still have some newspaper articles about that, but Dad said it didn't really work very well. Also, my great uncle Ernest was in the Philippines at the start of the war and spent the entire time as a prisoner of the Japanese.
It's weird to remember that when my oldest son is spending this semester in Tokyo.
Much prefer my Nazis Nuremberged.
- Carpet_pissr
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
Yes. Absolutely loved it.
- Carpet_pissr
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I’m a huge airplane enthusiast, and a huge huge Band of Brothers (The Pacific not so much) fan.
I stopped watching Masters of the Air after the second episode because I thought the acting/actors/writing was horrible. And that show should be directly targeting me. But gah…I just could not handle blonde Elvis. Ugh.
It gets 87% on RT so one of the very rare times when I strongly disagree with RT (unless the show and characters and acting get noticeably better than what I saw).
It’s also on Apple TV+, not Amazon.
- Kurth
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
That’s sad to hear. I’ve been waiting to binge through Masters of the Air. Loved Band of Brothers and liked The Pacific well enough, but Masters of the Air is covering a theater and a subject of even more interest to me. My grandfather was a bombardier on a B-17 with the 8th Army Air Corp stationed in Framlingham, England. He flew 35 combat missions over Germany during the war, and I’ve always been fascinated with B-17s and the air war over Europe as a result.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 5:49 pmI’m a huge airplane enthusiast, and a huge huge Band of Brothers (The Pacific not so much) fan.
I stopped watching Masters of the Air after the second episode because I thought the acting/actors/writing was horrible. And that show should be directly targeting me. But gah…I just could not handle blonde Elvis. Ugh.
It gets 87% on RT so one of the very rare times when I strongly disagree with RT (unless the show and characters and acting get noticeably better than what I saw).
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- Brian
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
Spoiler alert but:
Spoiler:
I'm enjoying it and will likely pick up some more books about the air war in the European Theater to widen my limited knowledge. Likely my next read will be about the Ploesti Oil Fields raid.
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln
- Default
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
Here's the thing. The over the top accents? That's accurate for the time. One thing that endless TV and media has done, is water down the accents.
Yeah, it's jarring some times, but the show is accurate in almost everything, according to some of the WW2 historians I follow.
Yeah, it's jarring some times, but the show is accurate in almost everything, according to some of the WW2 historians I follow.
"pcp, lsd, thc, tgb...it's all good." ~ Kraken
- Carpet_pissr
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I suggest you try it anyway, it could just be a weird ‘me’ thing (and again, I’ll point to the RT score).Kurth wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 5:56 pmThat’s sad to hear. I’ve been waiting to binge through Masters of the Air. Loved Band of Brothers and liked The Pacific well enough, but Masters of the Air is covering a theater and a subject of even more interest to me. My grandfather was a bombardier on a B-17 with the 8th Army Air Corp stationed in Framlingham, England. He flew 35 combat missions over Germany during the war, and I’ve always been fascinated with B-17s and the air war over Europe as a result.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 5:49 pmI’m a huge airplane enthusiast, and a huge huge Band of Brothers (The Pacific not so much) fan.
I stopped watching Masters of the Air after the second episode because I thought the acting/actors/writing was horrible. And that show should be directly targeting me. But gah…I just could not handle blonde Elvis. Ugh.
It gets 87% on RT so one of the very rare times when I strongly disagree with RT (unless the show and characters and acting get noticeably better than what I saw).
Maybe a good thing, because I’ll probably pick up the book.
- Scuzz
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I thought I would be watching this but it is on one network we don’t have. I haven’t read the material this is based on but I have read Ambrose’s book covering the bomber crews.
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- Holman
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
Not to minimize the courage exhibited and the horrors faced by bomber crews, but the air war over Europe was the epitome of mechanized (and dehumanized) warfare.
A bomber was basically a delivery truck ordered to enter a threat zone, drop its load on a certain coordinate, and then return. Even under threat of Flak or fighters, they didn't deviate from their established course. Whether a particular ship in the flight group made it home was really up to the choices and luck of the enemy AA and interceptors, not the bomber crews themselves.
It's no wonder that so many bomber pilots felt themselves to be just cogs in much larger machine. (See Heller's Catch-22, where the only actual choices all happen on the ground.)
All that said, I think it must be much harder to make individual-character-driven drama (which was the heart of BoB and The Pacific and most other WW2 stories) out of the bomber campaigns.
Oh, and never forget this poem:
A bomber was basically a delivery truck ordered to enter a threat zone, drop its load on a certain coordinate, and then return. Even under threat of Flak or fighters, they didn't deviate from their established course. Whether a particular ship in the flight group made it home was really up to the choices and luck of the enemy AA and interceptors, not the bomber crews themselves.
It's no wonder that so many bomber pilots felt themselves to be just cogs in much larger machine. (See Heller's Catch-22, where the only actual choices all happen on the ground.)
All that said, I think it must be much harder to make individual-character-driven drama (which was the heart of BoB and The Pacific and most other WW2 stories) out of the bomber campaigns.
Oh, and never forget this poem:
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner"
By Randall Jarrell
From my mother’s sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Much prefer my Nazis Nuremberged.
- em2nought
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I thought Twelve O'clock High did a pretty good job.
"Four more years!" "Pause." LMAO
- Scuzz
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
We watched that maybe a year or so ago, for me it wasn’t the first time. It is kind of the template for bomber crew movies.
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- Carpet_pissr
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Re: To be a pilot in WWII
I’ve never paid for Apple TV+ because they have so many places and ways you can get very long trials (usually 3 months, sometimes more).
Best Buy is one place (you can literally put trials of any/every Apple ‘platform’ (Games, Music, etc) in your cart and check out for $0.00).
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