#bloody hundredth bomb group

[major-mads]

Thorpe Abbotts Airbase

Places of Interest in Masters of the Air

Masterlist

The Thorpe Abbotts Airbase/Airfield is located just outside of the village of Thorpe Abbots in Norfolk, England. It was specifically built for the 100th Bomb Group when they came to join the war effort. Flyers with the 100th were set to start arriving in June of 1943, so the engineers and builders had to even out the ground, lay miles and miles of concrete, and build the intricate roads and buildings of the base very quickly.

Many locals did not support the building of the base because it encroached on their farmlands. While the British were happy the Americans were joining the fight, there were definite feelings of animosity towards the 'yanks' (as they call Americans), but most of those faded when the Brits met the airmen who occupied the base.

Donald Miller: Masters of the Air, pgs. 1-2

"Thorpe Abbotts, an American bomber base some ninety miles north of London and a short stroll from the Norfolk hamlet that gave it its name. Station # 139, as it was officially designated, with its 3,500 fliers and support personnel, was built on a nobleman's estate lands, and the crews flew to war over furrowed fields worked by Sir Rupert Mann's tenant farmers, who lived nearby in crumbling stone cottages heated by open hearths. Thorpe Abbotts is in East Anglia, a history-haunted region of ancient farms, curving rivers, and low flat marshland. It stretches northward from the spires of Cambridge, to the high-sitting cathedral town of Norwich, and eastward to Great Yarmouth, an industrial port on the black waters of the North Sea. With its drainage ditches, wooden windmills, and sweeping fens, this low-lying slice of England brings to mind nearby Holland, just across the water. It is a haunch of land that sticks out into the sea, pointed, in the war years, like a raised hatchet at the enemy. And its drained fields made good airbases from which to strike deep into the German Reich. A century or so behind London in its pace and personality, it had been transformed by the war into one of the great battlefronts of the world, a war front unlike any other in history (Miller, 2007, pgs. 1-2)."

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[thatsrightice]

AYOOOOI

ONLY $18??

Instant buy 👏👏

[mrs-liebgott]

Ya'll bitches who watched Masters of The Air?? Our boys Cleven and Crosby went WILD in academics.

Buck:

"After the Second World War, Cleven stayed in the US Air Force serving in Korea, Vietnam and with a spell at the Pentagon. He retired in 1964 with the rank of Colonel. While in the service Cleven had earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a doctorate in physics and following retirement initially worked in IT for Hughes Aircraft. Later he took over the management of Webber College in Florida which at the time had only fifty students and a poor reputation. He was able to turn it around and it later became a university specializing in business studies. " - Gale Winston Cleven | American Air Museum IM SORRY A FUCKING DOCTORATE IN PHYSICS???? COLONEL. DR. GALE WINSTON "BUCK" CLEVEN???? Croz:

"On returning to the US, Crosby resumed his studies, completing his M.A. in 1947 and his PhD in 1953. He taught English composition, writing several books on the subject. He also carried out work for the US Air Force Academy and the Pakistan Air Force Academy. In 1993, Harper Collins published his memoir of his wartime experiences, titled A Wing and a Prayer." - Harry Herbert Crosby | American Air Museum

"Returning to school, Crosby graduated from the University of Iowa in 1947 with his master's degree, and then earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1953, where Wallace Stegner supervised his dissertation. Harry taught English composition and American literature at the University of Iowa, and was the Writing Supervisor of the Rhetoric Program (1950–1958).[2]

In 1958, Crosby moved with his wife and four children to Newton, Massachusetts, for a faculty position at the College of Basic Studies (CBS) at Boston University. He retired from Boston University in 1984, after chairing the Department of Rhetoric at CBS and authoring or co-authoring with CBS colleagues six textbooks on college writing:[2]

College Writing – The Rhetorical Imperative; Harper & Row, 1968 Just Rhetoric, Crosby/Esty; Harper & Row 1972 The Shape of Thought: An Analytical Anthology, Bond/Crosby; Harper & Row, 1978 Building College Spelling Skills, Crosby/Emery; Little Brown; 1981 Better Spelling in 30 Minutes a Day, Crosby/Emery; Harper Collins 1994 Skill Builders – A Spelling Workout, Crosby/Emery; Harper Collins, 1997

During his early retirement, Crosby served as Director of the Writing Center at Harvard University." - Harry Herbert Crosby - Wikipedia CROZ GRADUATED FROM FUCKING STANFORD, A PHD TOO!!! in conclusion, these boys are academic weapons P.S. Croz's Autobiography in case any of ya'll were interested: Amazon.com: A Wing and a Prayer: The "Bloody 100th" Bomb Group of the US Eighth Air Force in Action Over Europe in World War II: 9781504067331: Crosby, Harry H.: Books and a list of libraries it's in across the world: A wing and a prayer : the "Bloody 100th" Bomb Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force in action over Europe in World War II | WorldCat.org

Mostly USA but as of (5/29/24 or 29/5/24) there are

457 in USA 8 in Canada 1 In Ireland (Dublin) 35 in UK

if you chose yes^ feel free to dm me/send an ask with facts or stories you find and i'll try my best to post them!! (you can send pictures with too!! my discord is badger_iii)

[spinteresting]

If you haven't checked out the 100th Bomb Group Foundation Website, I would highly recommend it. There's so much information there!

A great find: 100th Bomb Group Crew Diaries

[mads-nixon]

100th Bomb Group Info

I was doing some research and found the AMAZING 100th Bombardment Group Foundation website which has a database where you can look up airmen, planes, crews, missions, and just about anything having to do with the 100th. It's really an awesome resource!

You can access the database here!!

[b17project]

"Alice From Dallas" - The Short Story

If you have watched Masters of the Air, you've certainly had heard about the B-17F-30-VE "Alice From Dallas" during the infamous Regensburg Mission (Episode 3).

On August 17, 1943, a combined force of some 376 bombers took off from its bases in England to strike Regensburg and Schweinfurt, with the aim of paralyzing German production of combat aircraft and ball bearings. The B-17 “Alice From Dallas” was part of the force of 146 B-17s tasked with bombing the Me-109 factories in Regensburg. Usually flown by 1st LT. William D. Desanders, the plane was named after his wife he married in 1942 Alice Jones. For the Regensburg mission, Desanders was on leave, and the aircraft was flown by The 100th Bomb Group occupied the low squadron at the rear of the formation that day. A very vulnerable place because it offers less defensive firepower than the rest of the combat boxes. "Alice From Dallas" was leading the second low element.

After an attack by German fighters, “Alice From Dallas” was seriously hit on the left wing by sudden and precise fire of German Flak around 10:30 a.m., above Belgian territory. Both wings ignited, and 8 of the 10 crew members had time to abandon the aircraft a few moments before it transformed into a ball of fire and crashed shortly after in Belgium, near the town of Langerloo. Two crew members were killed, while among the survivors who managed to abandon the aircraft, 4 were captured (including one in Bordeaux 8 months later) and 4 managed to escape and return to England.

The Schweinfurt-Regensburg raid marks a turning point in the doctrine of precision daylight bombing that the Americans prided themselves on. The considerable losses that day - almost 25% of the initial fleet, or 60 B-17s which were shot down or rendered unusable and around a hundred damaged - showed even its greatest defenders that the daytime raids over the Germany without fighter escorts are a bloody result. Beyond the successive improvements of the B-17 that came online, it was the introduction of the P-51 Mustang in December 1943 that would constitute a key factor in the Allies achieving air superiority in 1944, and therefore the continuation of major daytime bombing campaigns.

Some sources :

https://100thbg.com/aircraft/?aircraft_id=10055

https://100thbg.com/personnel/?personnel_id=906

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/archive/aircraft/42-5867

https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/18018572/roy-frank-claytor

https://b17flyingfortress.de/en/b17/42-5867-alice-from-dallas/

[randomrichards]

THE BLOODY HUNDREDTH:

Soldiers tell their tales

Being the 100th bomb group

Fighting the Nazis

[love-studying58]

happy Masters of the Air release week. In honour of the series due to release on the 26th, I wanted to list a few faces we’ll be seeing throughout the series. I want to particularly note the crewmen of the 100th in hopes this makes sense to viewers who either a) didn’t have time to read any books based on the 100th bomb group, or b) want to read Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller during/after the tv show aires. My lovely friend on tumblr @kylaym was happy to message me on instagram regarding who’s who for most of the 100th bomb group posts. She gets that everyone in uniform looks the same; same haircut, moustaches, masks, everywhere, etc. She mentioned it is always better to remember a bunch of lads as groups and crews than as individuals!

Here we gooo..

Colonel Neil “Chick” Harding

A West Point graduate and the school’s football coach prior to the war. Harding was a seasoned aviator who truly emulated much of the 100th’s attitude. He exhibited an appreciation for his crew’s mental and emotional well-being.

Major John C. “Bucky” Egan and Major Gale “Buck” Cleven

Two of the squadron commanders, Majors John “Bucky” Egan of the 418th Bomb Squadron and Gale “Buck” Cleven of the 350th, had piloting skills which matched their personalities. (Found top row 3rd and 4th members from left to right).

Captain John D. Brady

He served as a pilot in the 418th bomb squadron and was shot down during the mission to Munster on October 10th, 1943. (Shown here on the far left). He flew overseas in A/C #42-30071 “Skipper” as 1st Lt. Pilot. 2nd Lt’s being Lt. John L. Hoerr [Co-Pilot] and Lt. Harry Crosby [Group Navigator and Captain].

M/Sgt. Kenneth A. Lemmons

He served on the 351st Bomb Squadron and was one of the first crew chiefs assigned to the 100th Bomb Group. After being a part of the U.S. Air Force's ground crew, he was subsequently promoted to the position of flight chief. (Shown above in the front).

Harry H. Crosby

Harry served as a navigator in the 418th Bomb Squadron and later became Group Navigator for the Hundredth, however, his struggle with airsickness often hindered his ability to navigate. (Found above beside Brady on the right). Harry Crosby replaced Lt. Payne on the crew of Douglass.

Payne is found above on the right, beside Harry Crosby.

Lt. Howard B. “Hambone” Hamilton

He was a bombardier mostly known for flying with Brady’s crew.

On the October 10th Munster mission, crew #32 was led by Major John C. Egan as Co-Pilot. Near the initial point “Mlle Zig Zig” was hit by Flak, resulting in the following:

- Sgt Clanton passing away

- wounding Howard Hamilton and Roland Gangwer. (Both ended up spending a long time in the hospital).

- the surviving crew members bailed out but were taken prisoner.

Hamilton is seen above on the far left. Beside him on the left is Lt. James Douglass and Captain Frank Murphy.

Captain James Douglass

Served as a bombardier in the 418th Bomb Squadron with the Everett Blakely crew. (Seen above in the first picture beside Blakely).

Major Everett E. Blakely

Was a career officer of the United States Air Force. He was a highly decorated pilot of the B-17 bomber with the Bloody Hundredth Bombardment Group of the 8th Air Force. He is most commonly known for his crew’s plane “Just a Snappin”. On a mission to Bremen on October 8th, 1943, his plane was severely damaged by flak and enemy fighters. He later became the Group Training Officer (Shown above on the right and next to Major John Egan in the second picture above).

Blakely’s Crew:

Major John Kidd- Command Pilot

1st Lt. Everett Blakely- Pilot

2nd Lt. Charles Via- Formation Officer in the tail (SWA on the mission during Black Week)

1st Lt. Harry Crosby - Navigator

2nd Lt. James Douglass - Bombadier

T/Sgt. Edmund Forkner - Radio operator

S/Sgt. William McClelland - Ball Turret Gunner (WIA on the Black Week mission)

S/Sgt. Edward Yevich - Waist Gunner (WIA on the Black Week mission)

S/Sgt. Lyle Nord - Waist Gunner

S/Sgt. Lester Saunders - Tail Gunner (KIA on the Black Week mission)

Lt Roy Claytor

Roy Claytor was part of the 350th Squadron. Above, he may be flying as a command pilot in this mission or practice with the Claytor Crew.

He is seen above on the left, beside Cleven.

Major Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal

Rosie joins the unit in late 1943. He becomes one of the 100th's most reliable pilots.

Rosenthal's Crew:

[Shown left to right; top row than bottom row]

Sgt. Loren Darling - Waist Gunner

Sgt. Michael V. Boccuzzi - Radio Operator/Gunner

Sgt. John H. Shaffer - Waist Gunner

Sgt. Clarence C. Hall - Top turret gunner/engineer

Sgt. William J. DeBlasio - Tail Gunner

Sgt. Ray H. Robinson - Ball Turret Gunner

Lt. Ronald C. Bailey - Navigator

Lt. Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal - Pilot

Lt. Clifford J. Milburn - Bombardier

Lt. Winifred 'Pappy' Lewis - Copilot

Lt. Curtis Biddick

Lieutenant Curtis Biddick was known as a ‘hard luck’ pilot but was recognised as exceptionally expert and courageous. ‘Every time he went out something seemed to happen,’ said one of his buddies. On one raid he brought his plane back with 1,700 shell and bullet holes in it and two wounded men aboard.

He clashes due to his English colleagues embarking on night-time raids.

Richard Snyder

Biddick's co-pilot and was part of the 418th Bombardment Squadron.

Okay.... So I truly hope this helps going into Masters of the Air tomorrow. I can't wait to see all the bomber boys spread their wings and fly. This tv series is going to be an absolute wreck (in the best way possible). Thank you to everyone who enjoys my posts. Love y'all.

[latibvles]

something to write about.

we are back with another one of these!! yay!! this week's prompt is recuperation — and so we're tackling willie and some post-bremen dilemmas, featuring John Brady no this isn't just an excuse for me to write them who said that? anyways im fond of them and this and I hope you are too :) me? posting at a reasonable time? unheard of.

It was almost offputting, how a phrase could change meaning in a little over 72 hours. Nothing to write home about becomes nothing you can write home about. Willie always struggled with writing letters, and Viv often teased her about how she’s the only person in the Hundredth who could struggle with making piloting sound exciting. Of course, Willie didn’t want it to sound exciting, even if she could manage that. She didn’t need Otto getting any wise ideas to end up on the fast track for enlistment. But now, there was nothing she could write home about.

Thirty people, gone, just like that. It was hard to be optimistic when there were no chutes to give some scrap of hope — and Willie hated watching June wipe Carrie’s blood from her hands almost as much as she hated watching Carrie get carried away on a stretcher, her collarbone a bloody mess haphazardly subdued with the sulfa powder and rag June held to it until she had to drop their bombs in the channel. They only knew how upset she was about the whole thing after she kicked her footlocker like it’d personally wronged her after interrogation.

If this is what it feels like being the last man standing, Willie hates it most of all.

That was three days ago, and now most of Mouse Hole’s flak holes were all patched up, and Willie’s certain that if she hopped into it right now, there would be no blood on that bombsight, no remnant of the fact that Bremen, in plain terms, had been a failure.

But that was nothing she could write home about, now was it?

She couldn’t tell home about the dead or about the hole torn through a nineteen-year-old girl. She couldn’t tell them about the flak or watching three planes go down or the engine fire. She couldn’t tell them that ten women she’d considered friends were gone, just like that — no funeral, no fanfare. She just had to live with it, like they all did, even if she still couldn’t make sense of what she’d seen and much less make sense of the fact that she’d have to witness it again.

“Willie?”

The sound of her own name catches her offguard — she wants to kick herself for the reflexive jolt her body makes at being caught offguard. But she turns her head and there’s John Brady, looking apologetic for startling her.

And that fact really makes her want to kick herself.

“Hey,” she breathes out, then inwardly cringes at her own lackluster response. Real smooth, Willie.

“Hi,” That makes it better. He walks closer still, nods, and Willie looks over the details of his face quickly. Furrowed brows and a bit of a tight lip — he’d given them that same look when they came out of interrogation. 418th. The first group grounded, huh. “What’re you doing out here?”

“Could ask you the same thing.” She counters, brows raising. This, however, makes him nod, the frown cracking a little bit. Good enough.

“I asked you first.” Willie clicks her tongue in mock surrender, then gestures to Mouse Hole — the Mickey Mouse decal grinning down at the two of them like a flak-happy lunatic — then gives him a half-shrug.

“Came to check on my house,” she explains, a statement that chips away at the rest of that tight-lipped frown and makes him smile a little bit. Much better. “Thought I’d catch Swanson out here or something. Wanted to ask a couple questions but now I guess I’m just having a staring contest with Mickey Mouse.” His brows shoot up towards his hairline and he chuckles.

“Oh yeah? Who’s winning?”

“Me, obviously. I don’t lose,” He makes a noise that she’s pretty sure, or rather, hopes, is a laugh — based on how the corners of his eyes crinkle a little, how he ducks his head down for a moment to rub the nape of his neck with a quiet muttering of ‘of course.’ Then he shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket, tilts his head up to also, presumably, try his luck against the flak-happy mouse. He’s pretty bad at it though, because he glances at her again out of the corner of his eye.

“Where’s Viv?” Viv and Willie. Willie and Viv. Wherever one goes the other trails. Willie reaches up to rub at her earlobe a bit.

“Fifteen minutes behind me, probably. Or keeping the rest of them out of trouble,” Because that’s how it’s probably gonna be — she’s gonna make sure no girl walks home alone in the dark and I’m gonna sit and grumble until we make piss-poor jokes about it, just like we did over smaller things in Utah, Iowa, and Nebraska, too. “She’ll end up at the club one way or another.”

Brady nods, giving little more than an understanding ‘Ah’ and there’s a moment there where they lapse into something of a familiar quiet.

This, funnily enough, is the most normal she’s felt in days. She couldn’t really shake that restlessness that settled in after interrogation — a loud, harping feeling that she should be doing something. Which is at least half the reason that she came out here to begin with — to do something, maybe find something worth writing about on the hard-stands. I could tell them about Sandy Swanson and her crew of mechanics, or…

She looks Brady up and down for a moment. There was something assuring in knowing he didn’t seem off-put by her silence, that he was fine with sitting in it instead of prying words out of her that she couldn’t give. But words always came easier to her when she was comfortable anyway. And when it came to comfortable…

“You played well, last night,” Willie shoves her hands into her pockets. You always do. He raises a brow, his smile turning lopsided and boyish in a way Willie thinks she likes more than she reasonably so.

“You think so?”

“Well I’m no expert on the subject, but yeah,” Willie nods, affirming her own statement. “I do.”

There’s a look shared between them, and Willie feels that shyness starts to overtake her as it so often does when it comes to him. There’s the urge there, to say more: to show how much attention she pays to him when he picks up his instrument. There’s also the acute awareness that anything she says she’ll have to live with after saying it, and so she bites the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something too bold.

It doesn’t change the fact that he’d quickly earned a soft spot with her, whether he meant to or not. Maybe that was something she could write about.

…Not the soft spot— the band. The music. She hadn’t really talked about that part much, beyond that there is a band, and there is music; jazz most nights, meant to provide them with some means of relaxation day in and out. There are words the more she thinks on it, waiting to be phrased in the right way to statiate the needs of both her worrying mother and her too-curious little brother. If there’s a few sentences in there about an unnamed saxophonist being, in her eyes, maybe a little bit better than the rest — then it’s a good thing she censors her own mail.

She reaches up to pat the body of her fort twice, takes a couple steps back and gives him a once over.

“I’m gonna head over now, I think. So I don’t make the missus wait on me,” there’s a snort there that’s so uncharacteristically Brady, and yet somehow he makes it work.

“Right, okay. I’ll walk you.”

“Think I can’t handle myself, Brady?” He clicks his tongue, turning as she walks past to keep step with her. He mutters something under his breath that she doesn’t quite catch, then continues to look at her as they walk.

“You caught me. I’m trying to keep you from dancing on tables.”

“Damn, there goes my weekend plans.”

Laughing is a shared sound, his deep chuckle overlapping with her breathy one, and she likes the combination. They lapse into that quiet again, the comfortable kind that feels normal when everything else doesn’t. Willie says nothing of the fact that their shoulders bump every now and again — if this is as much of a reprieve as she’s getting, then she’s more than happy. She’s never been a greedy type, but she could start to be if it meant there would be more of this. She steals a momentary glance at him, before committing wholly to it with a clearing of her throat as they get closer to the long rows of huts that line the path to the Officer’s Club.

“You never answered my question,” Willie points out, and Brady responds with little more than another ‘hm?’ “I asked what you were doing out there, you never answered.”

Brady’s brows raise to his hairline and he nods slowly before looking away from her, tongue poking out to run over his lips for what feels like a full minute before he looks back at her with that boyish smile of his again. There’s that brief, fleeting thought that recuperation looks less like the shine of brassy instruments and more like the warm, welcoming glint in those gray-blue eyes of his. If nothing else, he’s serving as a pretty great reminder that she is not, in fact, the last man standing.

“Heard there was a mouse running around by the hard stands, wanted to make sure she wasn’t scurrying into any of the forts and trying to take off,” The smile on his face gets a little wider with every word. Willie can’t help it — she laughs a little louder than before, shaking her head, half-disbelieving and yet surprised all the same that she couldn’t come to that conclusion on her own.

“Seriously? Did Viv put you up to that?” She asks, not upset at all, but Viv had a tendency to worry so Willie wouldn’t be especially surprised if she had.

It’s the barely there shake of his head, ‘no’ that almost knocks the wind from her lungs, and even if she doesn’t write this part down: Willie knows her mind will return to this fact often. And she won’t be able to hide her smile when it does.

[lestweforget5]

Sunward I've Climbed

AO3 Link

Summary: A Tale of Friendship and, eventually, Love in the Skies over War-Torn Europe

When the United States began integrating women into military units before and, especially, after Pearl Harbor--and not just confining them to important but still auxiliary units--it was decided that heavy bomber squadrons were a good place to relegate some of these pioneering women. There was an early, misguided belief that American heavy bombers were 'invincible,' though this would quickly be proven wrong, especially for the 100th Bomb Group, which would come to be known as the "Bloody Hundredth."

Mildred Brady, better known to her friends as "Millie," was one of ten women assigned to the 100th and its 35 original crews when it flew from America to England in June 1943. Serving at Thorpe Abbots from the beginning until Black Week, she would survive nineteen missions before being shot down. From combating prejudice as she did her duty as a gunner and engineer to fighting to survive as a POW, she would find strength in friendship and a level of tenacity she did not know she possessed.

Rating: Teen (chs. 1-17); Mature (chs. 18-25)

The Sunward Verse

Quiet Amidst the Darkness

Summary: In which a sudden downpour leads to a quiet moment between Brady and Millie in the final weeks before Münster, a discussion about the future, and stolen kisses. September 1943.

Rating: Teen AO3 Link: Here

Sorrow Like Unto My Sorrow

Summary: In which Kenny--and Maggie--grapple with the fact that Millie will not be returning from Münster. October 10, 1943.

Rating: Teen AO3 Link: Here

Brothers Lost and Found

Summary: In which in a kinder world Millie, Curt, and Dickie are reunited after Regensburg, but sometimes it just takes longer or shorter. AU.

Rating: Teen AO3 Link: Here

Ghost in the Flesh

Summary: In which an afternoon discussion with Hoerr reveals to Millie a horrifying tale from their jump over Münster three months before. Late January 1944.

Rating: Teen AO3 Link: Here

The Lost, Found

Summary: In which, on a cold and gray afternoon, a miracle happens and John Brady finds one of his missing crew returned to him, but his engineer (and best girl) who parted from him in the cockpit of M’ll Zig Zig in the skies near Munster is not the same woman whom he meets in Barracks 8 three months later. January 1944.

Rating: Mature AO3 Link: Here

Thanks to @basilone for the screencap.

[major-mads]

Introducing Ruth Morgan...

From Charlotte, North Carolina, Ruth Morgan was a junior high English teacher when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. As months went by and more and more of her friends and colleagues joined the Nurse's Corps, Ruth felt like she could be doing more for her country. So, in May of 1942, she became one of the 70,000 American women to join the war effort and become nurses. Following her basic medical training, she was selected to become part of the new Flight Nurse program at the AAC School of Air Evacuation at Bowman Field, Kentucky, even though she was unsure of her ability. At Bowman Field in December of ‘42, she meets Hope Armstrong, a confident, smart, and strong-willed medical student from Missouri who quickly takes her under her wing, showing her the ins and outs of nursing. The duo finishes their flight nurse training and become part of the 806th MAETS, a section of the 9th Army Air Corps stationed at Berkshire, England. They soon flew in C-47s across Europe, evacuating Allied casualties to hospitals in Britain. It is here that their lives will change forever when they are forced to land at a small village in East Anglia called Thorpe Abbotts.

You can find more information about Hope Armstrong here on the wonderful @footprintsinthesxnd's page! We're so excited to share our girls with y'all!! <3

Message or comment if you want to be added to the tag list!

[thatsrightice]

Ignoring budget, I would have loved to see some sort of montage where they’re going over the last however many missions they’ve been on but in rapid succession. They can be ones they’ve shown already or ones that they skipped, but I would have loved to see some more darker content like in episodes 3 and 5. Something along the lines of:

“August 17. Regensburg. 21 up. 9 lost.”

*smash cut to a montage of planes going down and exploding and men screaming*

“October 8. Bremen. 32 up. 7.5 lost”

*smash cut*

“October 10. Munster. 13 up, 12 lost”

*smash cut*

(Insert another mission here)

*smash cut*

And each should only last like maybe 10 seconds(?), but I want them to be fast and heavy and something that just hurts to watch. Maybe compare their losses to some of the losses of other bomb groups, idk?

I just feel like it would be a good reminder as to why they have the nickname of the bloody hundredth in the first place.

[tomorrowedblog]

First look at Masters of the Air

A new trailer has been released for Masters of the Air, which is set to release January 26, 2024.

Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen, and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of Hitler’s Third Reich, is at the heart of “Masters of the Air.” Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.

[pinturas-sgm-aviacion]

1944 09 11 Heaven Can Wait - Nicolas Trudgian

B-17 Fortresses of the “Bloody Hundredth”- the Eighth Air Force’s 100th Bomb Group – return to Thorpe Abbotts following a raid on enemy oil refineries, September 11, 1944. Nicolas Trudgian’s moving tribute to the Bloody Hundredth shows the imaginatively named B-17, Heaven Can Wait, on final approach to Thorpe Abbotts after the intense battle on September 11, 1944.

Skillfully piloted by Harry Hempy, the seriously damaged B-17G has struggled 500 miles home on two engines to make it back to England. They lost their tail gunner that fateful day. Below the descending bomber stream, an agricultural traction engine peacefully plows the wheat stubble in preparation for next year’s vital crop, the farm workers oblivious to the unimaginable traumas so recently experienced by the crews of the returning B-17 Fortresses.

[mads-nixon]

100th Bomber Boys: Major Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal: Pt. 1

Ahead of the show's release, I bought Donald Miller's book and am reading it! Here is a little bit about Major Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal (played by Nate Mann) from the prologue of Masters of the Air (pg. 13-14)!

Lt. Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal had not trained with the Hundredth's original crews. He and his crew had been assigned to the group that August from a replacement pool in England, to fill in for men lost on the Regens-burg raid. "When I arrived, the group was not well organized," Rosenthal recalled. "They were a rowdy outfit, filled with characters. Chick Harding was a wonderful guy, but he didn't enforce tight discipline on the ground orin the air." Rosenthal didn't fly a mission for thirty days. "No one came around to check me out and approve me for combat duty. Finally, my squadron commander, John Egan, had me fly a practice formation. I flew to the right of his plane. I had done a lot of formation flying in training and I was frustrated; I desperately wanted to get into the war. I put the wing of my plane right up against Egan's, and wherever he went, I went. When we landed, Egan told me he wanted me to be his wing man." Rosenthal had gone to Brooklyn College, not far from his Flatbush home. An outstanding athlete, he had been captain of the football and baseball teams, and later was inducted into the college's athletic hall of fame. After graduating summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School, he went to work for a leading Manhattan law firm. He was just getting started in his new job when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The next morning he joined the Army Air Corps. He was twenty-six years old, with broad shoulders, sharply cut features, and dark curly hair. A big-city boy who loved hot jazz, he walked, incongruously, with the shambling gait of a farmer, his toes turned inward and there wasn't an ounce of New York cynicism in him. He was shy and easily embarrassed, but he burned with determination. "I had read Mein Kampf in college and had seen the newsreels of the big Nazi rallies in Nuremberg, with Hitler riding in an open car and the crowds cheering wildly. It was the faces in the crowd that struck me, the looks of adoration. It wasn't just Hitler. The entire nation had gone mad; it had to be stopped. "I'm a Jew, but it wasn't just that. Hitler was a menace to decent people everywhere. I was also tremendously proud of the English. They stood alone against the Nazis during the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. I read the papers avidly for war news and listened to Edward R. Murrow's live radio broadcasts of the bombing of London. I couldn't wait to get over there. "When I finally arrived, I thought I was at the center of the world, the place where the democracies were gathering to defeat the Nazis. I was right where I wanted to be." Rosie Rosenthal didn't share these thoughts with his crewmates, simple guys who distrusted what they called deep thinking. They never learned what was inside him, what made him fly and fight with blazing resolve. Later in the war, when he became one of the most decorated and famous fliers in the Eighth, word spread around Thorpe Abbotts that his family was in a German concentration camp. But when someone asked him directly, he said "that was a lot of hooey." His family-mother, sister, brother-in-law, and niece (his father had recently died) were all back in Brooklyn. "I have no personal reasons. Everything I've done or hope to do is strictly because I hate persecution... A human being has to look out for other human beings or else there's no civilization."

Rosie was part of the 'Bloody 100th' Bombardment Group of the 13th Combat Wing, of the 'Mighty Eighth' Air Force with John 'Bucky' Egan and Gale 'Buck' Cleven (played by Callum Turner and Austin Butler) His plane was called Rosie's Riveters, and him and his crew were an integral part of the bombardment group.

On October 8th, 1943, the 100th went on a bombing run to Bremen, Germany, and Buck Cleven was shot down. Two days later, Egan and the rest of the 100th went on a supposedly "easy" mission to Münster, accompanied by P-47 Thunderbolts almost all the way to the target. Rosenthal and his crew were not flying their beloved Rosie's Riveters due to damage from their two previous missions in Bremen and Marienburg. Instead, they flew Royal Flush.

Rosie's crew was worried about flying a brand new plane, and became incredibly nervous. Bringing them together under one of the wings, he calmed the boys down and lifted their spirits. This mission proved disastrous, and Royal Flush was the only one in the 100th to make it back to Thorpe Abbotts (the 100th's air-base in East Anglia).

Needless to say, I love Rosie already!! I've read up to chapter 6, and I feel like my brain is going to explode with all the information I've taken in :3

lmk if y'all want more posts like this one or would like to be tagged in them!!

[b17project]

A B-17F is under attack from 6' o'clock by a twin engine German fighter, somewhere above Germany in late 1943. Legend of the original picture states that this aircraft is from the "Bloody Hundredth" 100th Bomb Group. Anyone has additional info on this picture?