World War II · Series · 2024
Masters of the Air
The airmen of the 100th Bomb Group, the 'Bloody Hundredth', fly B-17s from an English airfield into the deadliest daylight raids over Germany, and those shot down face prison camps until the end of the war.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 7 places.
Stop 1: RAF Thorpe Abbotts
Key location
The group settles into its muddy Norfolk airfield, where empty bunks after each mission become the measure of the war.
Stop 2: Regensburg
On a deep raid against a Messerschmitt factory, the group fights its way to the target and flies on to North Africa instead of turning home.
Stop 3: Bremen
Over Bremen the group loses one of its most admired commanders when his bomber goes down.
Stop 4: Münster
Sent against the city centre on a Sunday, the group is torn apart by fighters in one of its darkest days.
Stop 5: Stalag Luft III, Sagan
Captured airmen are reunited behind the wire of the Luftwaffe's showcase camp for Allied officers.
Stop 6: Berlin
Now escorted by long-range Mustangs, the survivors fly against the German capital itself.
Stop 7: Stalag VII-A, Moosburg
After a winter march across Germany, the prisoners wait in an overcrowded Bavarian camp for the war to reach them.
What really happened
Based on Donald L. Miller's book, the series follows the 100th Bomb Group from its arrival at Thorpe Abbotts in June 1943. Unescorted B-17 formations suffered terrible losses that year: 60 bombers were lost on the Regensburg and Schweinfurt raids of 17 August, and at Münster on 10 October only one of the group's bombers returned. More than 26,000 men of the Eighth Air Force were killed during the war.
Majors Gale Cleven and John Egan, navigator Harry Crosby and pilot Robert Rosenthal were real men, and many of the missions are depicted with care. The series condenses the group's history, and the escape of the shot-down airmen through occupied Europe and their life at Stalag Luft III and Moosburg are dramatised from memoirs rather than shown in full.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Masters of the Air
- Created by
- John Shiban, John Orloff
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, German
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Released
- 2024
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Air war
- Combat
- Prisoners of war
- True story
