Masters of the Air
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Action is character, the adage goes.
Its sometimes attributed to screenwriting guru Syd Field, who probably got it from F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Ive watched this episode four times (!)
The plan is for the three task forces to cross the English Channel en masse and then split up.
One task force the one our boys are in will attack a Messerschmitt fighter factory in Regensburg.
The 100ths contribution to the attack comprises three squadrons totaling 21 forts.
The second and third task forces waited for the skies over East Anglia to clear before taking off.
He hesitates before speaking that phrase because hes just invented it.
This means extra time for already anxious crews to grow more so.
), and you come to a fork in the road.
One path goes to hell, the other to Valhalla.
In front of each path is a goblin, one a truth teller and the other a liar.
What question can you ask the two goblins to determine your proper course?
Wed had no indication Bucky was a reader before this!
I wasnt going to miss this one is all Bucky gives up.
The order comes down from LeMay.
The first task group isnt waiting for the other two.
Were sending them straight into hell alone, Harding laments.
They cant help but notice that the other two task forces are nowhere in sight.
Those Me-109s arrive right on schedule, damaging Bucks fort.
Two other forts from Bucks squadron are knocked out of the fight.
The document chewer spends a heartbreaking half-minute or so trying to free him before accepting that he cant.
Im sorry, Babyface, he says, jumping from the flaming airplane.
His tail gunner reports that the other ships from the 350th are already gone.
The plane hits the ground nose-first and explodes.
A noble end for Biddick and a wrap for Keoghan.
(Thats the right side.)
Bucks ship is falling apart, trailing fuel and airplane parts.
We are gonna sit here and take it!
The line is straight out of Millers nonfiction book.
The ball-turret gunner of Bucks ship confirms that the factory … is gone!
Theyve accomplished their mission, but reaching Africa in a disintegrating airplane is another question.
His tail gunner counts the parachutes coming out of another fort that has just called it.
When the bomber protests, Buck tells him, Were over water.
The Krauts wont get it.
We cut away before the kid makes his choice.
The sun is setting over Algeria as the surviving forts spot land.
The pilot who posed the riddle asks Crosby to confirm that this is their intended destination.
His fort lands safely, as does Buckys.
Bucks ship loses its last engine as he brings it in for a feathered i.e., unpowered landing.
Back on the ground in Teleghma, Algeria, theres a hint of the exorbitant cost of this mission.
A third consecutive episode closes with Bucky assuring Buck of their survival.
Lay also recommended him for the Medal of Honor.
Years later, Cleven remarked, I didnt get it, and I didnt deserve it.
