Masters of the Air finally

[chopsaw]

I was asking my Son if his Apple TV was still active . I was going to have him re up his , but maybe I'll do like you . One thing for sure , I'm not missing this .

 

[radioguy]

Great thread. Fantastic way to honor the Greatest Generation. My dad was a navigator on B-29 stationed in the Philippines. His claim to fame was the Enola Gay flew from a air base on Tinian Island. He was flying POW supply drop missions out of Tinian. About 6 months before the A bomb drop they cordoned off the north side of the island. Declared it off limits. Tinian has 3 large airfields. He shipped out and was aboard a US bound ship when the dropped the bomb.
No GPS they had to know navigation and metrology. He should shoot a star or sun with the sextant, then calculate position. That would take a bit of time. He would put a dot on the map, their position 15 minutes ago. then use dead reckoning to approximate the current position. Amazing compared to the computer stuff today. They needed precise timing. I have his ships clock and his hack watch. He would set the ships clock to WWV its time loss was known (like 1.5 seconds a day). Here is a picture of that watch. It is in a spring suspension case.


RG

 

[Smokin Okie]

The entire Tinian island was a just a giant air field. That must have been some place in that day.

In the ETO, Navigators and Bombardiers became almost unneeded later in the war, they just relied upon the lead plane or planes. They kept Navigators on the B-17 crews but replaced Bombardiers with Toggliers, who released the bombs whenever lead plane released.

But in case the plane got separated from the formation, each crew kept a Navigator.

They also dropped to one Waist Gunner.

 

[Smokin Okie]

This B-17 pilot flew 25 missions in 1943 when it was roughest on the 8th AF. He had grueling missions, which he documented in a little notebook. His Daughter Frances puts them on X ( Twitter ) .

The WWII Combat Diary of Lt Kermit Wooldridge B-17 Pilot 1943

In this one , his Navigator brought him home to his base .

https://sites.google.com/view/wooldridge-diary-wwii-pilot/18-schweinfurt-germany-oct-14-1943

 

[Smokin Okie]

BTW, Fran is on Twitter, she and I have become friends and we talk often. She does a great job on Twitter honoring the men who flew these missions.

https://twitter.com/FrancesBekafigo

 

[Smokin Okie]

 

[Smokin Okie]

Looks like it first airs tonight at 8pm in these parts, your mileage may vary

 

[Smokin Okie]

Well, I'm not finding it.

I'll just wait till it shows up " on demand " , which is the way I prefer to watch TV these days, anyway.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Its on now.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

I was able sign up for 7 days + 3 months free from Best Buy. Just add it to your cart for free than check out. They will send you a link.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Bad review from USA Today . I was OK with Episode 1. Will watch Episode 2 this evening.

MSN

 

[Smokin Okie]

Just watched Episode 2.

Don't care what some guy with USA Today has to say, I'm hanging on every minute of this.

But then, I have more than a casual knowledge of the 8th AF in WW II, so for me this is nirvana.

 

[Smokin Okie]

This is the X account of a popular British WW II podcast

 

[Smokin Okie]

Same podcast, " We Have Ways " is doing 7 episodes on the 8th AF. First one today and its a good listen. James Holland is tremendously knowledgeable. His memory must be photographic.

I use Podbean , but its probably wherever you get podcasts.

https://www.podbean.com/media/share..._share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share

 

[JLeonard]

Been doing some reading (here and elsewhere) and I'm gonna wait til the season is done then binge watch it. It looks pretty darn good!

Jim

 

[Chasdev]

Just watched Episode 2.

Don't care what some guy with USA Today has to say, I'm hanging on every minute of this.

But then, I have more than a casual knowledge of the 8th AF in WW II, so for me this is nirvana.

Agree, even a bad WWII movie is a good movie, not that this is a bad one.
A few minor issues but unless you can view live combat footage, it's all made up more or less.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

I almost forgot about this. Watched the first episode. Wow! Pretty crazy. Really brings a sound system to life. Looking forward to watching the rest. Apple has a movie Killers of the Flower Moon that looks like going to be good. Looks like can still get apple tv free for 3 months through Best Buy.

 

[chopsaw]

Killers of the Flower Moon

I want to see that too .
Been looking to set this up so I can watch the Masters back to back .

 

[Smokin Okie]

I'm smokin ribs for my youngest daughter today and won't get to this til tomorrow, but Episode 3 has dropped.

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

I got to thank you for this Smokin Okie . I am really enjoying this. Another show I started watching is Reacher on amazon that is pretty good. Nice to finally have something to watch.