Masters of the Air - Part Four 1x4 (First Time Watching) REACTION 

Yeah, he sung it wrong too. "Just how proudly we hailed..."

Plus Bob had no bruises or scratches from jumping out from a plane getting shot down

I agree with you and the rest on this thread. He also (correct me if I'm wrong) wrote the numbers themselves in a very 'Un-American' way. Dig the '1' and the '9'.

@@michaelgonos3165 Yes he indeed did

His first words set off alarms in my head. He made it seem like his group went second, when I’m pretty sure it was Buck’s formation that went late due to low visibility.

I don't know if he was in episode 1 but he was definitely in episode 3. He's the guy standing behind Buck who gets shot in the leg.

He also wrote the number nine like a lowercase letter g. I'm not familiar with how handwriting was in the 30's and 40's but I've never seen any "American" do that.

Not really. Our military dates with the day first, then month, then year. So, that's not relevant. Not having a Zippo is. The lighter did Bob in!!

@@leizimmerman6184 The US uses month, day, year method of dating. Bob wrote the date using the European method of day, month, year. That gave him away as a European, not American. The resistance fighter was getting his revolver out to kill Bob dat the same time as the other partisan asked for a "light."

So there are several tells: 1. As you note early, they ask questions of location and national knowledge. As we saw Bailey explain that, 1 Rooth never played for the team they said, 2. He never knew about Trafalgar square because of where they were located and guys like him are enlisted personnel so less rarely to receive a pass away from base to even see London. Now a German infiltrator may not know this knowledge and we never see Bob answer either, and German infiltrators were taught to study landmarks for different units depending on the country. - funny enough this was quite the standard way to expose German infiltrators amongst Scottish aircrews as they’d ask them questions about English landmarks and plenty of the guts serving wouldn’t have much of a scooby… but the German would, cause amongst the Germans, they rarely distinguished the difference between Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. - also these questions were somewhat tailored with help from escaping allied personnel and also from special operation advisers who helped coordinate many resistance groups especially in late 43 and 44 and 45. As such the reason these questions are asked is they are general questions that they know through experience and asking other personnel what their units would most likely be aware of and what knowledge they’d have. 2. Second give away was the anthem, besides the occasional mistake what actually gave our friend Bob away was how he sang it. He sang it full and proudly, while compared to Quinn and Bailey, they treated it like a chore - cause they are brought up singing and like most Americans when they get out are probably sick of having to sing it as such either like Bailey treat it like chore or like Quinn can’t remember parts of it so just humm the tune. Germans in this era were taught to be proud and national about their anthem and would sing it proud and loud. 3. Yes you are correct on the handwriting. Even tho military standard was dd/mm/yyyy it was still standard after landing to change back to American date systems as to avoid personal and documents becoming confused. As such in this citation they actually would write it the American way vs military way. In addition yes the 9 bring a g is how the Germans in this era were taught to write it. Most Anglo Europeans by this point just done the 9 as the head and shaft but the Germans still taught to do the curve. 4. Yes they caught him finally on the lighter. It was an Austrian variant vs a Zippo which was standard American issue almost.

@@reecedignan8365In my time in the military, early 80s - late 2000s Military date construction was DD/MMM/YYYY . No dashes or dotes. I.e. 10 MAR 2024. Spelling out three character month makes it absolutely clear.

You are correct that they are only clues but I would say a man carrying a German lighter, had NO injuries like the 2 other American pilots even though he too supposedly jumped from a downed plane along with signing the date as day month year vs how Americans typically sign with month then day and year along with how Bob actually started the national anthem incorrectly with his first line, was all too much to ignore. It's rather obvious he was a spy. That was the justification for his execution for the resistance. They certainly had some strong circumstantial evidence that Bob was not who he claimed to be. Great episode here, I really enjoyed it.

Two indicators would be that he got a few of the words wrong in the Star Spangled Banner and also that he wrote the date on the paper in a non-American format.

@@johnpalmer3848 exactly, but it’s things that theoretically could just be mistakes. But as the guy says, “we don’t make mistakes”

@@johnpalmer3848 That and the number 1 and 9 were the German version with the curved tail of the 9 making it look more like a lowercase g

Yeah, “Reel History” YT channel Talks about her.

Yes. Changed to 35 when Doolittle took command of the 8th. Was cut back to 30 the end of Sept. 1944.

Brady was his name...