My late father-in-law was a waist gunner on a B-24 Liberator. I think the only person he talked to about the war was his wife. She told me that when he first got home he did have some bad dreams but those went away with time. The only thing he ever said to me was, "Thank God you never have to see what a 20 mm cannon from a Bf 109 can do to a man." He flew out of Africa and later Italy. He returned from the War, got married, adopted a brother and sister (my wife), fathered a daughter,built a house with his brothers, became a lay preacher, and retired from General Electric. He was a kind and generous man that truly loved people. We miss him.😢

You are correct with your comparisons. And I'm glad you are not afraid to make them. Even though this show doesn't stand up to the first two, the pilots went through hell. There were no braver men than those fighting in the air. All the men who have fought in war have a bravery that those of us who haven't will never know. Respect to all who have fought.

Flak uses the shrapnel from the explosion to damage planes, so you don't have to have a direct hit to take down a plane.

Retired USAF vet here. You have to consider a few things as you watch these episodes. The missions they're flying usually done at an altitude of 20 to 25000 ft or 6 to 7000 meters. The temp around those altitudes can be as low as -60° f or -51 ° c. Also, consider that they're flying in an unpressurzed aircraft, so they have to be on oxygen the whole time. When you see the explosions around the aircraft, it was referred to as "Flak," which was an abbreviation for the German term "Fliegerabwehrkanone." Each of those explosions is throwing out hundreds of razor-sharp pieces of shrapnel. If you watch close enough, you'll see little holes appearing all over the place. I was lucky enough to have met a gentleman who was a waist gunner on a B24 and he told me that at least with the German fighters, you could at least shoot back at them, but with the flak you just had to take it and hope for the best. Remember that while artillery fire isn't fun for anyone that at least if you're on the ground and you can find some cover, there's a fair chance of surviving. There were no foxholes for those guys in the bombers. Also, to give you some perspective when you hear the word "squadron," think company from BOB. A Group is about the equivalent of a battalion like what Winter's eventually commanded. The Group would be combined into a formation called a wing, which would be like a Regiment in the infantry.

Pilots were known for showing calm- though the strain of constant flying could break them- even someone like the "Red Baron" had his limits. Something you might want to watch off camera to get a good feeling for all of this is the classic 1949 movie, "Twelve O'Clock High", which was often used by corporations to teach leadership. It stars Gregory Peck as a general that has to relieve, and take over command of the 918th Bomb Group from his friend, as the constant losses have broke him, but then Peck starts to suffer from that same pressure.

Hey Elie good to see you doing these brilliant WW2 mini series Band Of Brothers, The Pacific and Master Of The Air. Having seen all of these the best I think the best of them is an often overlooked mini series Generation War from 2013, it's about about a group of friends from Berlin, three guys and two girls, one of the guys is Jewish. Two of the men, both brothers get sent to the Eastern Front, the realism in the show is amazing, a brilliant story with three gripping episodes. It would be an easy one for you to do as it is only three episodes long, but absolutely brilliant. Regards Masters Of The Air, I thought is started very slow, but did pick up greatly in the later episodes. Hey Elie BTW sad to see you still haven't considered doing the brilliant X-Files it scored high in you poll just behind The Wire, would be great to see you do it.

Just to touch on your comment on the actors' portrayals being different than Band of Brothers and the Pacific, the actors had the people they were playing either on set or a phone call away. Damien Lewis would speak with Dick Winters, Frank John Hughes had Frank Guarnere and so on. With Masters because it was made recently, all the pilots portrayed have passed away(that survived the war) so the actors didn't have the liberty of speaking to the men the same way the previous series' had. It definitely suffers because of that but the show is still good.

You mention that because Crosby does the narration that you know he will survive. Did you not pretty quickly figure out who most of the speakers where in Band of Brothers? I had figured out 4 of them by the 3rd episode, I had figures out Buck, Winters, Guarnere and Lipton. And as the show progressed Malarki and Shifty, out of all the various real people who were interviewed. Thus, I knew far more people who made it then what we ever got in this show (though in fairness besides Crosby, I did know just from history two of the cast, one who is here in these episodes and one later did in fact survive).

ELIE, I don't know if I agree with you because you got to understand that these pilots and crews, yes they had a good bit of downtime and they had their drinks and their warm beds and their female companionship, but then they had to get up and do it all over again!!! And they had to go into the mouth of the beast 25 TIMES!!!! So you got to ask yourself, what do you think would be more physically, and mentally, and emotionally straining, being in constant battle with very few moments of rest in between or only going into battle for hours at a time but it is some of the most intense battle that you will ever experience!!!???? I got to be honest with you, I don't know if I could make it to 25 missions!! I think out of all three shows that we've watched I would rather be in the Band of Brothers and go through what THEY did rather than these OTHER two areas being the Pacific theater or bombing the European theater!! These guys (Army Air Force) were mentally, probably the toughest of all the military combatants in World War II. ❤❤❤

On your question of do they feel that they are in war. Of course they do. It's just different. They are home each night (unless killed or shot down). There is no long range flights. It's just an afternoons trip. Then your back at base. You have food, entertainment, local people nearby (meaning female company). Now as the loses mount (which we aren't there yet). It gets harder and more stressful. Eventually getting to the point of a mission every day (it's not even close to that at this point). With Band of Brothers outside of a couple early returns to Britain then spent the bulk of the time on ground constantly on the move. No comforts, nothing. Now they had long stretches without combat. But never did they get to a place of real comfort and safety. And the ability to have days where you just aren't doing anything. In the Pacific you also have down time, but you aren't usually safe and secure and you don't have comforts. Now with all that eventually they will become a group that has one of the highest death rates in the US forces of World War II. And going from terror in the skies to calm on ground, eventually starts to really mess people up. And it becomes a really difficult struggle for people to get back into the plane.

The series really takes off (if you'll pardon the pun) in episode 3. That's when it starts getting good.

The production built several full sized B-17s to show on the tarmac taxi-ing or stationnary with actors walking around them. These were exact replicas of B-17f-s. The problelm is that Boeing continued to change and perfect the Flying Fortress over the period of the war and the later scenes should have had B-17G-s in them to be period accurate. The cost of building six forts would have been prohibitive. The FX guys were forced to match B17 Fs in all the aeral fx. The series took some criticism for having innacurate airships in some of the later episodes because of that.

That snow globe doesn't freeze. It's not water inside it. Alcohol?

I personally think this is an outstanding show, definitely compared to shows that have come out in the last 2 years that i've seen. Think people are nitpicking a little too much and are extremely bias in the judgement because of the other 2 shows. Don't think you can compare this soo much to band of brothers because it's completely different. However I can understand a lot of people like a band of brothers more because that was an phenomenal show

The issue with “Masters of the Air” is the direction of the first three episodes. The director went for bombastic, but it instead it is romanticized nonsense. Also, Austin Butler is completely miscast and his character has no growth. The story actually does not begin until Ep.4, and especially Ep.5. That is the point where it starts feeling like the characters are at war, and the psychological effects that it causes. My main criticism was that the producers bet on the wrong lead characters, and who should have been the central character. Once you watch more episodes, you will understand what I am referring to. PS: the second episode is definitely stronger than the first.

The show may not convey the reality of the situation that these men were in. More pilots died trying to land. Airplanes were not the guaranteed high tech vehicles that they are today. These aircraft were extremely primitive. Extremely dangerous fire traps literally full of bombs, ammunition and oxygen bottles with no radar, requiring a trained professional navigator. A primitive radio equipment requiring its very own radio operator. Operating that aircraft as a team is an achievement in itself. But it was just one more example of combat in WW2. BOB and the Pacific, infantry. Fury, tank combat. Das Boot U-571, Greyhound, naval submarine warfare. All extremely dangerous.

Comments about the SVX? Question how much tv do you watch. Because these effects while not perfect are very good (one episode upcoming not withstanding). If your expecting high end film quality FX well your barking up the wrong tree. The Amount of FX they have to do for some of these episodes is exceptionally high, and trying to match atmospheric, and Ariel conditions with things that are real make is harder then doing fantasy or science fiction FX because you don't have single real world object to say that doesn't look right.

There are some wonky decisions that the producers made in Masters Of The Air. Top one is to only make 9 episodes instead of 10. Also each episode is a few minutes shorter than those of The Pacific or Band Of Brothers. The lesser running time probably really hurt the show. Some of the sub-plots feel truncated or under-developped. Some of the supporting characters seem under-written.