I'm enjoying it a little more with each episode so far. Pretty happy with it. I don't often enjoy aviation movies or TV. Well, I loved Black Sheep Squadron but I haven't seen it since acquiring the ability to know better. So its ranking has remained unaffected in the last four decades or so.
Me too. We were living in Los Angeles at the time the show was on the air. I'm not sure why, but one day I was able to meet one of the stars of the show - I think he operated the machine gun. He had stopped at the Army Reserve unit facility where my dad was stationed, in Van Nuys. I can still visualize the pic my dad took of the two of us, in front of the reserve facility. This was in the mid 60's, when I was probably five years old.
I'm all caught up. I think it's pretty good. I wish it had the interviews at the start like BoB, but it's clear why they don't. The CGI can be a little shaky sometimes but not in a way that hurts the story. I'll probably pick up the book. I was a little confused why they didn't have fighter escorts but the latest episode answered that - didn't have the fuel capacity.
It wasn't until later in the war when the P-51 became operational that they could fight deep into Germany and still make it home. The other fighters didn't have the range. The other thing is that Combat doctrine often changes based on who is in high command. Bomber guys were running the Army Air Force at the time and believed fighters were not needed. They even tried Bomber gunship escorts. It wasn't until the results were clear that they emphasized fighter escorts, but that meant ramping up fighter production.
I had the same concerns. They always had fighter escorts but due to their range the p38s and p47a had to turn around somewhere around Netherlands leaving them unprotected over Germany. Drop tanks and the introduction of p51d aka the flying fuel tank changed that.
Bombers in the ETO were significantly more hazardous than D day (unless you were in the maintenance crew). My dad was in the PTO flying in B24s. Even that was pretty bad. Bailing out was really not an option when most of the trip was over open ocean.
