Film Student Reacts *MASTERS OF THE AIR* Ep 7 | First Time Watching 

The pilot who was yelling and cursing when the mission requirement was raised from 25 to 30 was Captain Robert Shoens. Bob Shoens survived the war and very recently passed away on February 3rd, 2024 at the age of 102. You can look up interviews of him here on youtube.

Trivia: the red flare fired by some planes on return to the airfield is a signal that they have wounded men on board. Those planes were supposed to be given landing priority and immediate ambulance support. In the shot of the first return from Berlin, nearly all of the planes were firing red flares. An excellent detail to include.

Camp Stalag Luft 3 was the locus of the escape shown in the classic movie "The Great Escape." The Brits dug 3 tunnels, code-named "Tom," "Dick," and "Harry," complete with homemade ventilation pumps, and snuck out, but many were recaptured and, as this episode mentions, executed. The Brit and US POWs were held in separate parts of the camp so the Americans weren't involved in it.

Fun fact - Buck taught advanced mathematics courses to his fellow inmates in the camp (he was a physicist as his peacetime job). Various prisoners taught all sorts of subjects. Some of the courses were later accredited as legit qualifications in the US and UK.

Holy shit, that's a good catch on the lyrics of the song when Croz and Sandra were together.

Rosie Rosenthal, what a man, they don’t make em like that anymore.

One story that could have been told in this episode. There were 15 bombers from the 100th on that subsequent mission to Berlin. As they crossed over the channel, Colonel Bennett, the CO of the 100th, flying as command pilot, radioed back to his tail gunner and asked how many planes from the 100th he could see. The tail gunner replied: “All fourteen, sir.” Colonel Bennet later said he “was strongly moved. These fine young men were following me in spite of what had happened on their last trip to Berlin.”

Remember to see the Bloody Hundredth documentary when you finish this series. It includes interviews with the real men who were main characters in the series and provides excellent history.

Jacqui, on my 24th birthday (1984) my Mom and Dad took me to see a bunch of WW2 'Warbirds' airplanes when they came to our town. I toured a B-17 bomber, and when I looked around, all I could see was aluminum. The guy next to me was around 60 years old, the right age for him to have served in WW2. I said, 'Where did they find guys to ride in these? There's no place to hide from the bullets that would go right through the airplane!' The man said, 'They were drafted.' At that moment, the insanely dangerous nature of the war became real to me.

Rosie Rosenthal flew 52 sorties in total, the P-51 was a game changer during the bombing campaign

The raising of mission requirements was a major theme in "Catch-22," which is very good as a novel, a movie, or as a miniseries.

Thats crazy my grandpa was a radio operator in Africa and Italy in ww2 such a soft spoken man will always remember him for his kindness such a shame this happened in our lifetime

Great reaction Jacqui like always. The P-51 was really a game changer in the war they could fly and fight with British and American bombers all the way to Berlin and back again. They originally had a non-turbocharged version of the P-38's Allison V-12, but really became 'the machine' after it was fitted with the Rolls-Royce Merlin V-12 from the Spitfire/Hurricane. Better high altitude performance, better fuel economy. Its range was so large that it even began to replace some of the British Spitfires towards the end of the war. On their way back from escort duty Mustangs would also take out targets of opportunity like enemy trucks, barges, and trains. And the escape of the prisoner camp of Stalag Luft 3 at Zagan in what is now Poland is well documented, the Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Roger Bushell came up with a plan to get 300 of his men out of the camp. It was 300 men originally. But when an area of land was cleared to expand the camp it was cut to 200 because one of the tunnels had its planned opening in the cleared area. From memory one of the other tunnels was discovered but the tunnel used to escape survived and the ‘shut down’ tunnel was used for storage. The plan consisted of the men digging three separate tunnels which were named Tom, Dick, and Harry respectively. The genius of the plan was that, if one tunnel was discovered, the German officers would never consider the existence of two more tunnels. After a full year, the tunnel called Harry was finally complete. These tunnels were not simply holes in the ground, but were complex systems that included air circulation, staging posts, and tools made of tin cans. In March 1944, as the Gestapo ordered Stalag Luft III to increase efforts against escape, Bushell's plan went into action. Due to unforeseen problems such as tunnel collapse and inclement weather. The last 200 men were not expected to get back to britain the first hundred or so had various attributes that it was considered gave them a good chance of getting to britain but the idea was that the 200 roaming around germany/poland would create a big distraction that would give the first 100 a better chance. In the end there was a couple of mishaps that slowed the escape. But only 76 men were able to escape via the tunnel rather than 200, and the 77th man who tried to escape was caught, leading the Germans to uncover the conspiracy. And this was the inspiration for the movie THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) with Steve McQueen you should watch it, amazing. Keep up the good work.

Another great reaction, young lady. The respect and admiration you have for these men genuinely comes through. Have tissues handy for the next two!

Regarding being bait. They were still bombing, their presence meant the Luftwaffe had to get up to meet them. The escort wasn’t quite as shown, the escorting fighters would be much higher than the bombers looking to dive down on the Luftwaffe aircraft. Loving your reactions.

Awesome reaction of my favorite episode of Masters Of The Air!!!!!!😊😊😊😊😊😊

I love the amount of red, especially that gemstone necklace, looks like a ruby. 12:18

This old guy I knew from my family’s church: He was that ball turret gunner under one of those B-17s. course he loved to play jokes on his crew mid mission until one day a German fighter strafed him and nailed him in the leg. He stopped the jokes after that. Lived on for more missions, awarded the flying cross for escaping German capture, passed away at age 87. Hell of a run he had.

By this point, things were getting ‘easier’ plus the 8th AF commanders didn’t want lose experienced crews unnecessarily. So it was upped. Not long after it was upped to 35.

17:29 they changed the number of missions because the P-51s increased the odds of the crews completing a tour

Such a great series. Salute to our heroes in the air.

You're going to love the 9th episode.

Tunnels were actually extremely sophisticated. Escapees also prepared to escape, forged documents, edited clothing, some of the better prepared ones trained in speaking French or German. Stuff was even hidden in red cross packages to send to POWs to help them escape.

I have been reading about the 100th Bomb Group since I was 12 years old, (about 55 years ago.) So there are no spoilers for me. I was excited when they first released the cast list as I recognized the names as being from the 100 Bomb Group. Just as Band of Brothers concentrated on a single company, I thought it wise that Masters of the Air concentrated on a single bomb group. Unfortunately, there were very few members of the group that were with the group from the beginning to the end. MINOR SPOILER ALERT. Harry Crosby was one of those few and later wrote a book about his experiences. I believe his book was one of the primary sources for this series. And, yes, I read his book.

8:10 Crosby still flew, but not as frequently. He flew a total of 32 missions.

Always so glad to see your reaction to MotA come up in my feed. I wait all week for this! You cover not just the contents of each episode but highlight the excellent "things" (music, etc) the show uses to bring out all the "feels". So looking forward to your reviews of the last 2 episodes AND the documentary Apple TV has put together (think of it as episode 9 1/2 or 10). Have a Blessed week. The shots of the P-51 fighters coming in DOES add wonderful effect (so I understand why they did it), but in reality the allied fighter cover flew at the "edges" of the bomber formation to intercept the German fighters before they can reach the formations. That just doesn't make for dramatic effect though...I'm ok with it.

There was a biography on the Italian director Roberto Rossellini and during World War II, there was a meat shortage in Rome. To survive, Romans would place pigeon traps on their roofs and serve pigeon with pasta and red sauce. Every once in a while, Rossellini would make the dish to remind him the days before he was famous and married to Ingrid Bergman.

Lt colonel Bennet was described as a machine/robot by his men. On one mission was in a nose dive , electrical system gone , his Co pilot was preparing to Bail but realised the bell wouldn't work. All the while Bennet is calm trying to get the electrical system working again. He manages it and gets them out of the dive and they completed the mission and got home

The dolls are likely good luck charms. How they qualified could be due to anything.

Alot of this was shot during Covid so I'm sure you haven't realized this but the stresses of reality might have gotten to the actor Anthony Boyle who plays Crosby. I don't think they were trying to show the stresses of staying at base. Another thing they never explain is that when the 100th Bomb group is the lead group in formation. It's the lead navigators responsibility to lead the entire formation. And since Crosby is the lead navigator he still goes put on major missions. In otherwords he didn't just all together stop flying missions. Crosby flew 32 combat missions there only nine episodes soo it'd be impossible to portary what he went through accurately

It is incredible how little literacy there is when it comes to filmmaking and storytelling conventions. Just shows how passively many people consume, rather than engage more intimately with the art form.

Movie Night with Jacqui, Your videos always make me happy, so I subscribed!

That was cool to hear that about your Grandpa, mine too as Canadian infantry for a brief stint in Sicily until wounded.

Yeah unfortunately the food in the POW camps wasnt great except from red cross packages. E.g. the coffee was made from acorns and called Ersatz coffee. So to prevent starvation they would have anything so that cat became stew If i remember correctly, the senior british officer once asked for a cat or dog and was given a kitten he decided to call Ersatz ( as it was a substitute) unfortunately i need to read a particular book again to double check about his cat.

I don't care what some people say, I love this show. Glad you do too.

Rosie is the epitome of a real man

if you want to read a really good book on the real story of the British Great Escape , the build up, effort of construction, during and the aftermath from the perspective of one the escapees. See if you can get a copy of Moonless Night by B.A. "Jimmy" James. Absolutely fascinating story and one i think anyone wanting to know more would enjoy

Jacqui, if you ever need a break, "The Finest Hours" is a charming period movie. Would love to hear how you think it is put together.

Crosby mentions in his memior that when unescorted women etc found out he was from the 100th and a survivor he became very popular and his confidence grew as well. Got a lot of attention

Us brits escaping that was mentioned is known as the great escape. This period about clearing the skies b4 d-day is known as big week.

Red cross packages could contain records, sports equipment etc In Britain MI9 was set up to specifically design escape materials which could be hidden in red cross packages and equipment given to prisoners

That dogfight and shot wasnt exaggerated either. It was that chaotic and sometimes described as a furball

I think the was a general in the tower when rosie and his crew decided to buzz the tower. 3 times as well haha

The british managed to hide a lot of secret radios in stalag Luft 3 and americans and brits built a few as well. Two of my favourites are the one the brits hid in an accordian and another they hit in a model sail boat

Great reaction. Thanks for the film making info. 😊❤

Buzzing the tower was actually quite illegal and could be severely fined for it something like £500 dollars each maybe which in those days were a lot. A story of one crew that reached 25 the night before they did a fundraiser around their unit to raise the money for the fine

“Masters of the Air” was originally structured to have 10 episodes. The finale is technically two episodes combined into one. Basically the closing of WWII was shortened, rather than drawn out like “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific”.. Which was the right call, since Ep.8 nearly killed “Masters of the Air”, it was just that poorly edited and outright pointless. Plus, neither “Band of Brothers” nor “The Pacific” actually needed their tenth episodes. Regarding the ensemble cast, Crosby is technically the lead character and Rosie is the main hero. The Bucks get a lot of attention, but their arc is actually secondary. Despite all four characters competing for screen time, which partially caused the miniseries to collapse under its own weight.

CRYSTAL RADIO uses the power of the received radio signal to produce sound (needs no external power source) These cheap homemade radio kits were popular in the 1920s and 30s A Look At Two Crystal Radios ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Uer7xSEPh3k.html 1921 Westinghouse Aeriola Jr. Crystal Radio ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JbWldwueBho.html How a Crystal Radio Works ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0-PParSmwtE.html --- STALAG 17 (1953) MOVIE POW camp fictional THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) MOVIE (1944 March) is the same 50 escape POWs executed in Episode 7 of the Masters of the Air (Thanks - Dave Strong)

Are you going to finish Band of Brothers? Please do!

Ford named their car the Mustang after the P51 Mustang. Dodge got the hell cat name from the carrier plane the f4f HELLCAT. Which shot down a shit load of Japanese planes in the pacific. There’s a World War Two RU-vid channel that has stories about the German POW’s and their experience in the United States. We took really really good care of those guys. I sold a car to man who was in the German Luftwaffe during World War Two. He was captured and sent to the United States because he flew the ME262’s (the first jet produced by Nazi germany) and the United States thought he was “valuable”. After the war he decided to stay here in the United States (Arizona).

(7:12) Probably not. If your enemy is getting closer, your chances of hiding such crimes becomes that much more difficult and your likelihood of facing consequences increases. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, just that most sane people would probably think twice about it. :)

That returning aircraft scene was perfectly capped. After the lone returner episode they purposely build your hopes with the slow count before dropping the hammer that that's only just over half.

By this point buck and bucky had been at the camp 5 to 6 months. Also in real life Clevan also taught calculus classes to other prisoners

A film student referencing Shawshank about the great escape from Stalag Luft III instead of, well, “The Great Escape” makes me think film education has gone as much to hell as the rest of higher ed

Hi Jacqui, how are you lovely beautiful lady? I've loved your reactions to this awesome series so far :) and this episode in particular - it was an an emotional rollercoaster in and of itself! I love this series and anything aerial warfare based :) please react to Memphis Belle (1990), it's a perfect follow up to this show. It's based on of the first B17's to complete the 25.

If you want. Great WWII film from the other side react to Das Boot

The P51 wasnt that great until they lent some to the british and a british Test pilot went what if we fit them with Rolls Royce Merlin engines instead ( same as spitfire and other planes) improved the performacne massively and made it the escort fighter needed

Even if you don’t watch it on the channel, I highly recommend you check out the series Black Sails if you haven’t seen it. Based on what seems to excite you as a film student, I think it’s right up your alley. It’s an absolute mastercraft in screenwriting and doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. The dialogue and performances are amazing. Practically no scene is wasted or pointless. You can watch any scene or episode multiple times and always find something you missed before. Would love to see you react to the show, (only a few reaction channels have done it, because it doesn’t generate a ton of views) but even if not on the channel, you should check it out

I honestly don't get a lot of the criticism, it was an excellent show and did the men justice.

I do believe that the Airmen were not aware that they were actually bait. I believe that remained secret many decades after the war. Which makes sense to me. Can somebody second this?

You really should watch The Great Escape!

Crosby alludes to the relationship in the book but doesnt go into detail about what they did per say. He also didnt tell his wife or admit to anything till his book which i think happened after her death

nice reaction😍

I am dying to see your reaction to episodes 8 and 9, any idea when you will be posting those reactions?

Picking up the ques comes pretty easy once you figure out the code. You said a long time ago during the Ted Lasso reactions that everything said is done for a purpose. I wasn't aware of this when I saw Top Gun (SPOILER ALERT for a 40 year old movie everyone has seen) in the theater, but when you look at Maverick and Goose, you quickly realize Goose is cooked. Film makers do like to f with the audience by manipulating us either with fore shadowing or misdirects as well.

Good JOB Lady !!!!👍👍👍👍

if you think the mission upping is bad you need to watch Catch 22

Can you please react to the Saban’s Power Rangers 2017 Movie!!! It is a very goooood movie and sadly underrated. You may look at the name and think it is childish and cheesy. But it is hilarious and shows the growth of friendship and trustworthy. I swear it is a must watch.❤🎉

When are we getting the next episode?!

20:48

It's difficult to not spoil things for you, but I won't. 😜

Jacqui is dreamy.

Technology improved and the 8th AF fighter groups flying P47s and P51s could now escort the B17s and B24s to Berlin and back! The bombers flew the missions as usual "Not Just Bait" Bomber Losses went down, when Gen. Jimmy Doolittle turned the fighters lose on the Luftwaffe! The objective was to destroy the Luftwaffe in the air and on the ground before D Day! (It worked) One thing not addressed was how the wounded aircrews had hours of flight time ahead of them before they received help back at base!, pure misery! In real life the American senior POW officer Hub Zemke (Fighter Pilot) said to the Luftwaffe camp commander, their are no Jews only Americans. Also the Luftwaffe Camp Commander (a professional military officer) could not look the Allied POW officers in the face as he told them about the NAZIs executing the escaped POWS!

The 100th association released a photo of bucky during his time at stalag luft III recently and you could tell how much he had aged just in that photo

26,000 men lost their lives

It's a shame that they didn't focus more on Doolittle's impact and Big Week. That was the true game changer of the air war.

5:27 Too much to tell in too little time, this series should have been 2 hour long episodes or at least like 5 episodes more. Last 3 episodes are fastforwarding like 1.5 years. Basically entire Band of Brothers was during last two episodes of this series if you don't count episode 1 training phase.