Masters of the Air 1x8

1. While the Eighth Air Force was hitting the Germans from bases in England,

2. the 15th Air Force was striking at them from bases in Italy.

3. The 99th Pursuit Squadron was part of that effort.

4. They were known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

5. Bubble Blue to Cap One. On your word, sir.

6. Heading?

7. One minute, six seconds away from Point Foxtrot.

8. Prepare final approach. Line astern. Chatter off.

9. Coming into range. Bombs away!

10. Seven direct to the structure! Two hits on vehicles!

11. I'd log that as a direct hit.

12. 500!

13. - Nighty night, Hitler. - Tuskegee, baby! 500 missions!

14. With 19,000 pounds of kisses from the Gruesome Twosome.

15. 500 Tuskegee missions under our belt.

16. - That's reason to celebrate, Lieutenant. - Captain, sir.

17. Relax, Alex. I was just coming to congratulate you.

18. Was fine work out there as usual.

19. Thank you, sir.

20. Am I gonna have to court-martial you into taking a sip of that beer?

21. No, sir.

22. You're a clever fella, Alex.

23. But don't let smart be the enemy of happy.

24. No, sir. It's just—

25. Hi ho, men

26. Tuskegee's up Tuskegee's up again

27. Straight into the sky There and then

28. Tuskegee's up Tuskegee's up again

29. Don't get me wrong, Captain.

30. I'm extremely proud of what we've accomplished, but...

31. when are we gonna get into some heavier action?

32. There is some talk of us joining up with the 332nd fighter group

33. and doing missions further into Europe.

34. Truly?

35. Plans are underway.

36. The 96th is due into Foggia a few days from now.

37. Gonna fly our first mission over Germany. An escort run. Munich.

38. P-40s can't handle that type of altitude.

39. New birds, likely. P-51s.

40. Just be patient. We'll see.

41. In the meantime, relax.

42. Enjoy.

43. Yeah, I know...

44. It's just hard when—

45. when some of our guys are already out there.

46. You didn't wash out, Alex. So now don't burn yourself out.

47. Everything in its own order.

48. Bases loaded, top of the ninth.

49. Two outs, three balls, one strike.

50. Newhouser sets and delivers a curve ball!

51. Big swing and a miss from Keller for strike two!

52. That hack almost took him right out of his shoes!

53. Gordon takes a couple of steps back...

54. - Hey, Bucky. - ... toward the bag.

55. Big game going on here, Buck.

56. Me and the guys were wondering what the score is.

57. You okay, Major?

58. Yeah. Why wouldn't I be okay?

59. Just asking.

60. You're just asking? Well, I'm great, is the truth.

61. I've been here for eight months now.

62. Still trapped, still cold, still eating scraps.

63. And we keep waiting for something to happen even though it doesn't.

64. It could be worse. We could be dead.

65. Well, maybe for you. At least that I could stand.

66. I can't stand this.

67. What are we waiting for?

68. We all think something's gonna happen. Maybe we need to make it happen.

69. Like those Brits did? Go and get executed?

70. We have to be patient.

71. 5:56 to 5:57 a.m. on June 3rd, 1944.

72. Three days to D-Day.

73. The last minute of sleep I'll get for 72 hours.

74. Our job was to bomb the German defenses in Normandy

75. only minutes before the landing craft hit the beaches,

76. and then spend the day hitting German bridges,

77. railroads and communication lines further inland.

78. About 200 missions in total, all needing flight plans and maps.

79. Twenty-four hours.

80. The first night lies to you, tells you it's easy.

81. The second breakfast on the second day, that's when the fight starts.

82. I tried contacting Sandra whenever I had a break,

83. but I couldn't reach her. It was like she vanished.

84. Papers.

85. Papers. Where are you going?

86. Only to my work, sir.

87. Thirty-two hours. The second afternoon on the second day.

88. That's when coffee is no longer enough.

89. You need to sleep, Crosby.

90. Yeah. When the mission's over.

91. - Not take more pills. - Yeah, I will. I will, Doc. I will.

92. After.

93. Only one every 12 hours.

94. - You hear me, Croz? - No. Yeah. No, I hear you, Smokey.

95. I hear you.

96. Sixty hours. Your mind starts playing tricks on you.

97. You can hear that, right?

98. What? What?

99. Come on. You can hear it. It's the tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

100. Just as I'd finished mapping the route for one mission,

101. operations handed down five more.

102. All high-priority targets.

103. The lack of sleep, the coffee, the uppers, the stress, the fear, the disconnect.

104. That's a drug in itself.

105. I am interested in the gilding.

106. I covered the entire building.

107. Good job.

108. We received some news from a train station in Le Bec-Hellouin.

109. Jean will brief you on your assignment. You leave tomorrow.

110. Sixty-four hours.

111. You just try to survive,

112. breath by breath, step by step.

113. Crosby?

114. Crosby! You have to go to sleep.

115. No, no, no, no, no. No, I'm fine. I just gotta...

116. - ... the briefing. - Go to bed, Croz. That's an order. Now.

117. I can't do it, Jack.

118. - Crosby! - I'm fine. Truly.

119. Just a couple of more things I gotta get done—

120. Harry!

121. Watch out.

122. Sit down.

123. For those of you seeing this mug for the first time, I'm your new CO.

124. Name's Jeffrey.

125. Lieutenant Colonel Bennett is being assigned back to the 395th,

126. but the changes made during his command will remain.

127. Rosie.

128. Thank you, Colonel.

129. Well, boys, if the station on full lockdown,

130. sound of a couple thousand ships forming up weren't your first clues,

131. we're a few hours away from the invasion of Europe.

132. Any last words of wisdom, sir?

133. No, I don't have any last words because I'm gonna see you again.

134. All right?

135. Just take off, do your job, you land,

136. and then you're gonna be giving me some words of wisdom.

137. Each flight is its own lesson.

138. That's it, boys. It's coming.

139. All right. Now we're getting it.

140. There you go. Keep that pressure on. It's coming.

141. There you go, Simmons. Keep that pressure on.

142. This looks like a work camp, the way you jackasses are grinding away.

143. Now the ground's loosened up, we got a chance of getting wood for cook fires.

144. Take a break. Come on. Let's play some ball.

145. Boys, you wanna play some ball? No?

146. Ball, Murph?

147. Come on. Skins versus Bones. What do you say?

148. Skins can be the away team. Actually, no.

149. No, we're all away. We're both the away teams.

150. So Bones can take first bat by mutual agreement—

151. Either pitch in or knock it off.

152. - Why don't you shut the hell up? - What the hell's wrong with you?

153. You ain't gonna help, stay out of the way.

154. You're the new king of the camp, and I'm just in the way?

155. King Cleven says, "No baseball.

156. Just work, work, work." That's all he wants to do.

157. I'm sorry. Come on.

158. No, work. You got a stump to pull,

159. - King Stump Stumpity Stump. Get to work. - Come on. Get up, you loony.

160. - Come on. Get up. - No, get back to work.

161. - Get up, you loony. - Get off of me.

162. - Get off. Get off. - How's that?

163. Can't handle it? What, you can't handle I—

164. Hey! That's enough, fellas.

165. Back in the base, men!

166. What's going on?

167. Back in the barrack.

168. Looks like the Krauts got some bad news.

169. They landed, didn't they?

170. You think?

171. We're in Western Europe. It finally happened.

172. There you go, gentlemen.

173. - Man. - Cheers, man.

174. Good God, she's a beaut.

175. She's beautiful, Joe. Congratulations.

176. Thanks, Macon. Her daddy said yes.

177. Gonna do it in my auntie's backyard as soon as I'm back.

178. You gonna be a father nine months after that then.

179. To the day. I hope so. I hope so.

180. Now, show me yours.

181. - You wanna see my sweetheart? - Come on now.

182. Okay, here you go.

183. - Goodness. - Now you see,

184. that's 23.7 acres of loblolly pine.

185. Prime timberland too. Man said he gonna hold it for me.

186. Is that right?

187. Evening, Captain.

188. Colonel Davis.

189. To Munich.

190. Now, you know I can't toast to any mission with the loss of even a few bombers.

191. We were 12 bombers for every fighter.

192. On a raid escort? They knew we were spread too thin.

193. Only losing a few bombers is a major victory.

194. Brass was expecting much heavier casualties.

195. Brass doesn't know what they should expect.

196. What's really possible.

197. Take a look around this room, Lawrence. You see what I see?

198. I see a group of proud pilots who flew their first mission over Germany.

199. Who can't wait to suit up and do it again.

200. A group of men, thousands of miles away from home,

201. who finally feel like Americans.

202. And I see too many second lieutenants. First lieutenants.

203. On mission counts alone, I see men who should already be captains. Majors.

204. And we both know why they're not and we both know why they may never be.

205. Can't change the weather, Colonel.

206. We'll just keep getting better at charting new courses.

207. To bluer skies.

208. Ceiling and vision unlimited.

209. Hey, Daniels.

210. We need a fourth, man.

211. Partners or cutthroat?

212. What you think?

213. I was wondering if you'd ever wake up.

214. Shit.

215. What time is it?

216. 7:30.

217. 7:30?

218. Shit, there's still time.

219. There's still time! Where are my pants, goddamn it? Pants.

220. Pants! Where the hell are my pants?

221. Come on, goddamn it!

222. 7:30 Saturday morning, Croz.

223. You've been out of it for three days.

224. Fuck.

225. What'd I miss?

226. Croz, you missed so much.

227. I did three sorties, but I couldn't see any— anything for the first two.

228. And then the clouds parted.

229. And...

230. you've never seen anything like it.

231. Hundreds of ships.

232. Thousands of men.

233. For the third time that day, we hit bridges, rail yards,

234. communication centers,

235. so the Germans weren't able to bring up any reinforcements.

236. And the best part?

237. There wasn't a single Luftwaffe fighter in the air.

238. The skies were ours.

239. All from the routes you plotted, Harry.

240. Are my daring tales of heroism not daring enough for you, Captain Marvel?

241. Just...

242. I just can't believe I missed it.

243. Red Army have crossed the Vistula River...

244. Where's the Vistula River?

245. Vistula River?

246. Vistula, Vistula...

247. It's here.

248. - That's what, 450 miles? - No, it's less.

249. Still seems pretty far away to me.

250. Yeah, but now our guys are here, almost at Paris.

251. Hitler's worst nightmare, a two-front war.

252. With us right between them.

253. Well, the Krauts will slaughter us before they let us go.

254. We won't go without a fight.

255. We need to make more weapons. Whatever we can.

256. There's one other scenario.

257. They force-march us out of here before the Russkies can set us free.

258. Move us somewhere deeper in the Reich, say, Bavaria.

259. That's leverage, all those POWs.

260. But how would they do that?

261. Like this.

262. We need to start preparing now.

263. Conserving rations, getting the men in shape.

264. Everything we do from this point on

265. needs to be to prepare for all three scenarios.

266. Mass execution, forced march, or pitched battle.

267. Christ.

268. If we could retake the coast...

269. Gentlemen, you're going to France.

270. Ah-ten-hut!

271. Be seated.

272. Operation Dragoon takes place in three days.

273. Your mission is what makes it possible.

274. Marseille.

275. Saint-Tropez.

276. Toulon.

277. Each critical landing points for our incoming forces.

278. Now, we will have the manpower to prevail but if, and only if,

279. we knock out their eyes.

280. German radar detection systems are mounted all along here.

281. We are gonna take them all out in phased aggressive strafing runs.

282. - Yes? - Colonel, sir,

283. Toulon is 473.51 miles away,

284. and that is 947.2 miles round-trip.

285. And the maximum fuel range of our P-51s is only 999.8 miles.

286. And that of course is before you take into account

287. the drag coefficient plus the excess weight of the munitions,

288. which are both variable

289. and will obviously cause a faster fuel burn.

290. Now, with the drop tanks,

291. let's say that gets us up to, what, 1,375-mile range,

292. but it also adds significantly more weight.

293. And if we kick the tanks after the run, that'll drop us a couple thousand pounds

294. but we'll still fall hundreds of miles short, sir.

295. You're right, Lieutenant Macon.

296. This is gonna be close.

297. But it's not impossible.

298. You use every drop of gas in your wing tanks.

299. Try to make it back to friendly territory someplace.

300. We're gonna give you IDs,

301. so if the Germans don't get you as soon as you land,

302. you can be somebody else.

303. And you might be able to blend in with the population.

304. Good luck blending in.

305. Are we Tuskegee men or what?

306. Sir, yes, sir!

307. - Will we get this job done? - Sir, yes, sir.

308. Then let's take care of it.

309. Here you go, sir.

310. Thanks, Sarge.

311. - Name? - Burrel. Right here.

312. The edge of the front's moving pretty fast across the mountain range.

313. Just timing.

314. We'll do it.

315. It's all mathematics.

316. All right, men. Kick your tanks!

317. Copy that, Lieutenant Macon.

318. Damn it.

319. Lead to squadron. Stay on course.

320. What's going on with your tanks, Westbrook?

321. I said drop.

322. Tanks won't drop.

323. All right, Westbrook, I'm with you. We're gonna work this out.

324. We ain't gonna leave you, kid.

325. Westbrook, you gotta kick it hard now.

326. Kick! Watch me. Come on. Kick!

327. You ain't pushing hard enough, kid. Come on.

328. I am pushing it!

329. Like me, like me. All right?

330. Got it!

331. That's it.

332. Hey!

333. Nice work, kid. Now let's get this thing done.

334. All right, boys. We're coming back into formation.

335. Roger, Macon.

336. Wall of fire. They know we're coming.

337. Was never gonna be easy.

338. I didn't come all this way not to take a shot, boys. Come on.

339. I was hoping you'd say that.

340. Gordon, you lead.

341. Westbrook up the middle, and I'll follow.

342. Now drop in here.

343. Hit 'em hard, boys.

344. I'm hit! I'm hit!

345. Get out of there, kid. Westbrook, you gotta bail. Bail, bail!

346. No!

347. No, Gordon, get out! Bail, bail!

348. Oh, no. You're gonna pay for that.

349. Put the Black ones in here with the others.

350. In here is good.

351. Told you I saw another chute.

352. They got y'all too, huh?

353. Who's that?

354. Second Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson.

355. Went down about 30 miles away.

356. Looks like you in bad shape.

357. No, no, no.

358. Every time I move, I— I pass out.

359. You must've hurt your neck.

360. Let's see what we can do for you.

361. Who's that?

362. Think that's the new commandant?

363. A guard told me they were sending someone.

364. The moment our boys landed in France, the order went out.

365. All POW camps run by SS.

366. Seems like that would require a lot of 'em.

367. You think they're just trying to scare us?

368. Well, let's hope so.

369. SS rules would put us in a world of trouble.

370. Yeah.

371. We gotta get the men in shape.

372. It's not gonna look good to our German host, now is it?

373. We gotta get these guys ready to fight.

374. There's no telling what these Krauts'll do.

375. All of us training together, building up muscles,

376. that's something they might notice.

377. But that stump remover, that's a solution.

378. We've all had a turn on that thing.

379. It's hard work.

380. It'll build the strength we need to resist.

381. Up the rotations.

382. If we're consistent for a couple of months,

383. we'll all be ready to fight.

384. And the Germans will be none the wiser.

385. We tell them we're after the wood, stocking up for winter.

386. Plus, extra wood, extra weapons.

387. Have a seat, Lieutenant.

388. Nice watch you have here.

389. I have to thank you.

390. These are my favorite.

391. I'm keeping the pen though.

392. So, how are things in the States?

393. Alexander Jefferson, Second Lieutenant, 0819461.

394. Let's not be so formal, Jeff.

395. I feel as if I already understand you.

396. Your father worked over ten years at the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company

397. assembling air brake lubricators.

398. He earned $17 a month.

399. No wonder you went into chemistry.

400. We Germans value scientists greatly.

401. Although I'm sure there must be many American laboratories who would hire you.

402. As a toilet cleaner.

403. So, what was your target that day?

404. Richard D. Macon, Second Lieutenant, 0821916.

405. How did you hurt your neck?

406. Do you have pain?

407. Second Lieutenant, 0821916.

408. I love jazz.

409. I still remember visiting Paradise Valley in Detroit.

410. You must know it.

411. Alexander Jefferson, Second Lieutenant, 0819461.

412. What's the place in Los Angeles where all you Blacks are forced to live?

413. Yes. It's Watts. Watts.

414. I'm familiar with those places.

415. Why do you fight for a country who treats you like that?

416. Do you know any other country that's better?

417. I know

418. what my country's shortcomings are.

419. And I know it's trying hard

420. to become what it says it's supposed to be.

421. And when I get back...

422. I'm gonna help them do that a lot faster.

423. Are you kidding me?

424. I hope you gave 'em hell, boys.

425. You guys know 'em?

426. - Tell us the news! - Hey!

427. Hey, look. It's the Red Tails.

428. What regiment y'all with?

429. I'm telling ya, those guys are Red Tails.

430. Any updates? Hey!

431. They all belong somewhere else!

432. - Where you from? - Where you coming from?

433. Went down flying over Berlin.

434. I look like a goddamn cripple.

435. You look like a goddamn soldier.

436. What are we doing here?

437. How many of them did they get?

438. Hey, Red Tails.

439. You guys saved our asses so many times, I tell you what.

440. What unit you guys with?

441. 332nd.

442. Here, let me help you there.

443. I'm over in the north.

444. - Thank you. - Yeah. Come with us.

445. We'll get you fixed up.

446. What do we got?

447. - Come on. Let's go. - Man, what is that?

448. Goddamn it, Murph.

449. Second Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson, 332nd Fighter Group.

450. Second Lieutenant Richard D. Macon, 332nd.

451. Gentlemen, welcome to paradise.

452. Follow suit, Lieutenant.

453. All right, where were we?

454. No, it's your deal.

455. - I just dealt and I won. - All right. All right.

456. All right. Let's see how many more smokes I can get off you then, huh?

457. Christ. Let's go.

458. - You playing, Murph? - No.

459. All right, deal him out.

460. We've put a lot on your shoulders of late. You've handled all of it.

461. You went above and beyond, Croz.

462. I appreciate that, sir.

463. That's why you're getting a month off.

464. You— You mean leave?

465. Starting tomorrow.

466. I'm sorry to ask this, sir, but is this my choice?

467. - 'Cause I kind of feel as if I'm— - Listen, Crosby.

468. We need you functional.

469. We need you to get a real vacation.

470. Proper R and R. You're too important to us.

471. Is that clear?

472. Yes, sir.

473. Can you please explain what this is regarding?

474. As I've explained three times to the last three people I've been put on with,

475. I'm a friend.

476. I've been calling for a couple of days now.

477. Subaltern Wesgate gave me this number to reach her.

478. Captain Wesgate is not available, sir.

479. Captain?

480. Okay, well, is she out for lunch? Will she be gone a long time?

481. - I'm not at liberty to say, sir. - Okay, can you just tell her that...

482. Will you tell her I'm going home on leave

483. and this will be my last time in London for a while?

484. I'll put through the message, sir.

485. Thank you.

486. That's double-barbed wire,

487. and there's a guard tower every 50 meters and dogs everywhere.

488. Running out of here is out the question for me anyway.

489. Plan it right, wouldn't have to run.

490. - I don't know, Bob. - I'm telling you, it could work.

491. Well, even if we get the truck, and now that I can believe,

492. and even if we recruit one of those white boys to drive it—

493. - Two. It's gotta be two. - Uh-huh.

494. Krauts always travel in pairs.

495. Okay, okay, so we got the truck,

496. we got the two white boys in Nazi uniforms,

497. it still took us four days to get here from Frankfurt.

498. Yeah, and half of that was by train.

499. Point is, where we gonna refuel?

500. It ain't like we can just stop off at some POW camp and top off.

501. We ride until it's empty then we hike from there.

502. Three days might get us to friendly territory.

503. Alex mapped it out.

504. What do you think of 'em?

505. I don't think anything of 'em.

506. Think maybe we should.

507. Girl of your dreams, huh?

508. No, not mine.

509. No, my dream girl is 5'2".

510. River hips.

511. Skin like Lena Horne.

512. And at this moment, at this very moment, Lieutenant,

513. she's kissing the last of her departing 5th graders sweetly on the forehead,

514. whereupon she is immediately without dalliance taking the number 54 bus

515. straight to 650 Marion Street

516. where she is dutifully watching and waiting by her window

517. - for yours truly. - You hope.

518. Yeah, I do hope.

519. This—

520. This is just another kriegie wet dream for Turner over in 112.

521. Well, you just make sure they pay you in Old Golds

522. 'cause these smokes here ain't for shit.

523. Anyway...

524. It might be useful in talking strategy with that major.

525. Buck.

526. Fella didn't have two words for you, you coming here.

527. Now you're his.

528. You flew P-51s?

529. P-39s, P-40s, P-47s, P-51s, AT-6s.

530. AT-6s. I trained in the AT-6.

531. That's a powerful torque.

532. P-51s are much smoother.

533. It's an easy transition.

534. You know, I started out wanting to be a fighter pilot.

535. Then I ended up falling in love with the big birds.

536. Yeah, I've been building model planes since I was a kid.

537. Built every model imaginable.

538. But my masterpiece, you know, my absolute masterpiece,

539. was a Supermarine Spitfire

540. with twin two-foot floats, three-foot wingspan.

541. Drew the plans myself from newspaper photos.

542. How about that?

543. Yeah.

544. What are you reading there?

545. A story about an artist.

546. He sacrifices everything to pursue his passion.

547. You draw this?

548. Yes, sir.

549. Is this to scale?

550. More or less.

551. No elevation though.

552. Wow.

553. You know, we could use your help.

554. We?

555. There's a group of us figuring out next moves, running scenarios.

556. We can't just stay sitting ducks.

557. Yeah, I noticed the new and improved supergoons around.

558. Yeah, I got a plan for that.

559. What would you need me to do?

560. This.

561. We need help charting the area to get out of here.

562. Back on that first day, all the guys looked to you.

563. You got the final say.

564. Why didn't you gripe about us bunking in eight?

565. Well, let's just say, I at least knew you weren't spies.

566. Ain't that a bitch.

567. Gale Cleven, Major, 100th Bomb Group.

568. Everybody calls me Buck.

569. Second Lieutenant Alexander Jefferson, 332nd Fighter Group.

570. You can call me Alex.

571. Now, John here's gonna demonstrate for you.

572. You hand over the papers, immediately grab the wrist.

573. Bring the ball straight across the temple.

574. Here or here. Knock him clean out.

575. That's it, fellas. Uh-huh. Angle it, angle it. Center yourself.

576. That way, the center of your gravity got more leverage.

577. if in doubt. Because those splinters will take the whole thing up, okay?

578. Cutting it's gonna do no damage at all.

579. It's gonna go straight into the neck, okay?

580. And then you're gonna push it forward and rip his throat out.

581. You got it?

582. A message from the lady to meet at the hotel, sir.

583. Okay. Thank you.

584. Good night, sir.

585. Sandra.

586. Sandra?

587. Come out or I'm coming in.

588. Sandra.

589. Sorry, Croz.

590. I've been called away once again.

591. Probably for the better.

592. You belong with Jean, and we've still got a war to win.

593. I'll always remember our time together fondly.

594. Love, Sandra.

595. When you headed out?

596. Tomorrow morning.

597. Four weeks in New York City.

598. - God, how I envy you. - Oh, yeah?

599. You know I told Colonel Jeff I didn't want leave?

600. It'll be good for you.

601. What's that supposed to mean?

602. Means I think it'll be good for you.

603. You excited to see Jean?

604. I mean, what if it's not the same?

605. Nothing's the same, Croz.

606. Nothing.

607. Never will be.

608. Ain't that the truth.

609. Thanks.

610. led by the Russian front of the Red Army.

611. Jesus Christ.

612. The Russians crossed into Germany.

613. East Prussia.

614. How close, Buck?

615. Lights out.

616. They're close.

617. Really, really close.

618. March, march!

619. Goons gave us 30 minutes. Then we march.

620. You're not thinking of running, are you?

621. Not in this icebox.

622. Any idea where we are?

623. NUREMBERG-CS.

624. Nuremberg.

625. We're in the heart of their fatherland now, boys.

626. "Whoever fights monsters should take care not to become a monster."

627. Yeah, that's made us do some tough things.

628. The things these people are capable of...

629. No, they got it coming.

630. I'm in. We make a run for it tonight.

631. Get going. I'm right behind you.

632. Don't shoot. Go, Buck. Get out of here.