Masters Of The Air: Part Eight - E08 - RECAP

I feel episode eight was almost full of nothing to be hones, first it moves back and forward in the time line because on episode seven they talk about the P-51 Fighter Yet although not much about their pilots now on episode eight they start to introduce their pilots this is why when Ltt. Alex was having a talk with Cpt. Erwin they mention how the P-40 could not hold Bombers altitude as escorts, I can see how many viewers might ask why are they talking about P-40s and escort bombers if they already did, plus they mix it with future scenes about the 100ths.

On the plus side the P-51 fighting scenes were awesome but too short in my opinion, cant say I was not satisfied with the episode but could have been better, I guess its always like this when things are coming to an end, in this case the end of WWII when the allies invade Europe.

Tuskegee, that's the name of this group of pilots, P-51 deadly, fast, accurate, with bases on Italy they were constantly attacking German on small size missions but very accurate on their targets and in a similar style of RAF striking at night. If they had only made this series a two season series could had more time to develop the P-51 side story but it is really about the 100th bomber squad and not about the Tuskegee, another series about them would be awesome too and perfectly complement Masters of The Air.

Ltt. Alex Jefferson seem to be the character of this side of the story, same as Buck and Bucky or Rosie are star pilots of B-17, Alex is the star pilot of the Tuskegee and the P-51. At the moment of this conversation they had 500 missions done but Alex wanted more, he was eager to go deep into Germany but at the moment the P-40 would not hold up either on altitude or range for such attacks but P-51 were closer to be a reality and this new fighter jets would change everything for the Tuskegee.

Episode eight demonstrate desperation on all sides, from the Germans and the Allies, at the camp Buck and Bucky are desperate to get out or for something to happen, or they make something happen. Others already try to escape and as expected they got executed when capture. At base Crosby had a 72 hours run without sleep working on routes and maps for a lot of missions, they were going hard and heavy on Europe expecting the big D day, invasion day.

I hope this part of the story is true because it ads real drama to it, Crosby collapse after his third day of going, he took coffee, pills, everything he could to stay awake until nothing work for him anymore, he was going mad, started to hear things, just going through maps, planning routes and then falls face first. Crosby stay three days in bed sleeping based on a scene where Rossie was making him company, Crosby miss D day and Rosie describe how glorious it was, clear sky, not a single Luftwaffe fighter in the air and hundreds of ships arriving to the coasts of Europe, if I'm not mistaken France.

On episode seven Bucky manage to build a radio out of scraps so they were keeping up with the news, this way knowing where were the allies and how soon the was was to end although that does not mean they were going to be liberated by the Germans, most likely they were going to be transfer on foot, it was not really a transfer from location but a death march, they made them march during the cold winter until they died and those who didn't die were executed, so they had to prepare to fight back when the moment was right.

Gives the impression that Tuskegee were suicidal for the most part although during this series that's exactly how any men who gets in the sky looks like, Bombers were usually sitting ducks for the Luftwaffe fighters waiting to be taken apart and that's not taking in considerations the Flaks. Fighters like the Tuskegee were send usually on very very hard to accomplish missions but they could not back down, that was not on their dna, on episode eight the Tuskegee were send on a mission almost without return, the P-51 felt short in range and they knew it, even with additional gas tanks that would not compensate too much because of the weight, they are send to destroy German's radars at the coast of France as their goal but knowing that they either go down because they ran out gas or because they were shoot down, for this the pilots were given fake papers so IF they land close to a town they could blend in, this idea was absurd, what I'm suppose to do with the uniform? besides back in the day I guess English was not so dominant language like it is today, would be hard to blend in landing on France.

I always mention how I have enjoy every single episode of this series but episode eight was my least favorite but still enjoy it, I wanted to see more of the P-51 that's all, most people will find the drama of this episode boring but it does leave with a big cliff hanger of whats going to happen today Friday 15 on episode 9, on the intro we see P-51 attacking a camp so is it the camp where they had all the pilots? also Rossie trying to get up probably after jumping ship and landing in the middle of battle field and last there is a scene were Bucky is walking almost freezing, the expectation to whats going to happen for those at the camp is what's driving the series right now, all the air battle scenes are part of the first half of this mini series making it a well balance series, not full action but not boring neither.