Masters of the Air
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The unit would become known as the The Bloody Hundredth for the devastating losses it sustained throughout its deployment.
So prepare yourselves to watch many charming and charismatic actors be killed off over the course of nine episodes.
AsMajor Gale Buck Cleven, Austin Butler counts as at least three Americans for having played Elvis.
He playsLieutenant Curtis Biddick, who doesnt get much time in Millers book.
Bucky is dancing with a woman to whom Bucks steady girl, Marge, has only just introduced him.
Someones gotta taste a little combat and tell you what its really like up there, Bucky grins.
What Its Really Like Up There could be the mission statement for the show.
Are you wondering what to tell your guys?
the B-24 pilot asks Bucky once theyre safely back on the ground.
Theyll figure it out.
Most of us had never traveled far from home, let alone flown in an airplane, he says.
Winds are high as the group approaches its Greenland way station, and the landings are dicey.
The crews need the drinks they enjoy at Bluie Wests base bar afterward.
His brothers in the 100th are having a tougher time reaching their destination.
The crew discovers the error when the sky before them lights up with flak anti-aircraft fire.
At Thorpe Abbotts, the citizenry of East Anglia marvels at the site of B-17s touching down.
Its a reunion of Buck and Bucky.
When Buck says thats a problem for the air exec, Bucky says the guy should be fired.
He really does not want this job.
(Lemmons was a ground crew chief commanding 15 men tasked with keeping the Hundredths bombers airworthy.)
Air exec Bucky is relieved to find the crew unharmed.
There are two kinds of pilots, he tells Captain Brady.
Those whove had a wheels-up landing, and those who will.
The 100ths C.O.,Colonel Harold Huglin(Nikolai Kinski, son of Klaus!
), dresses down Bucky for not enforcing stricter discipline as air exec.
Bucky asks to be relieved of that job and made a squadron commander again.
Weve seen Starfleets captain James T. Kirk in this position once or twice.
Colonel Huglin briefs the 100th on their first mission: to attack the German submarine pens at Bremen.
These U-boats have been sinking dozens of Allied ships each month, preventing supplies and equipment from England.
The aircrews can expect 88-mm.
anti-aircraft guns to give a shot to shoot them down en route to Bremen.
After the briefing, a chaplain stops by the 100th quarters to remind them that hes available.
Most of them look terrified here, but Buck projects confidence.
Lets rack em up and knock em down is a bowling metaphor, I guess?
It sounds like the kind of thing you want the leader of your squadron to say.
As Bucks ship reaches 10,000 feet, he orders the crew to check in.
Their belly-turret gunner is secured in the hole, a plexiglass bubble protruding from the bottom of the airplane.
The B-17s have drifted dangerously close to one another.
The soup hasnt cleared at all by the time the anti-aircraft gunners open up.
The command pilot makes the call to scrub the mission.
As the flak clears, the crews realize that enemy fighters are inbound.
This sequence introduces another deadly menace chronicled in Millers book: frostbite.
A gunner makes the thoughtless mistake of removing his gloves to take a stab at clear a jam.
As he touches those metal cannons at 50 degrees below zero, his hands effectively turn to stone.
Colonel Huglin steps out of his ship, spits up more blood, and collapses.
The episode ends as it began, with Bucky and Buck in quiet conference.
Buck asks why his friend didnt warn him what he was about to experience.
I didnt know what to say, Bucky tells him.
Youve seen it now.
I dont know what I saw, Buck says.
