A Book and Video Review

I’m sure everyone reading this site is well aware of the Apple+ series that came available early this year. The book its based on is probably less well known, but truly is important in its own right. So I thought it seemed fitting to say a little about both of them. There will be some spoilers here…

The Book “Masters of the Air” by Donald Miller was published in 2006. No shock, but its sort of a different thing from the video series that shares its name. To be clear, I don’t intend this as a criticism. A 9 hour series for mass media consumption WILL be a different thing from a 500 page military history. The type of products have different strengths and attributes, its wrong to expect too much similarity. Except of course, in the end they’re both aiming at the same set of truth.

The book is a serious history of the 8th Air Force. Really, the whole history, starting with the “Bomber Mafia” of the 1930s to the early days of 1942 with a handful of officers and no airplanes to a vast air armada 3000 planes strong in 1945. Its a staggering level of development and an often painful history to follow along. Because of the 8th’s role in the War some attention is also paid to British Bomber Command, 9th Air Force, 15th Air Force, Dwight Eisenhower… So many big things interconnect and influence each other, there is no simple way to tell this story.

Donald Miller follows more than just the growth in scale and scope too. There are sections on the growing area of radar navaids, aviation combat medicine, escape and evasion, the life of POWs. This is an epic story told with the depth it deserves. I’ve read a lot of books on this overall subject, but most of them focus more tightly on a specific aspect. Like a particular airplane, bomb group or battle. Even a few that just look at the operational history of the 8th, or even aircraft markings of the 8th… This is perhaps the best over-arching history of the 8th Air Force that I’ve seen.

Like many well written books it often takes things down to a very personal level too. Many quotes, anecdotes, opinions from participants, eyewitnesses and a number of previous historians. Its on this level we finally get to some overlap with the video series the book inspired. One member of the 100th Bomb Group, Harry Crosby, left an excellent memoir of his War experiences. And he wrote at length about several of his close friends like Gale Cleven, John Egan and Robert Rosenthal. Several others, including Gale “Buck” Cleven and Robert Rosenthal, were interviewed at length by the author. In the book, these are mixed in with dozens of writers from other units or places for the huge “big picture”. Overall, this makes for a book that’s both thorough, and completely engaging on a human level.

While the video series of the same name takes a slightly different approach. It is produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks which tells us a lot about its quality. It does for the European air war what Band of Brothers did for the land war. Seriously I think its a worthy companion to that series.
It focusses in on the story of the 100th Bomb Group.
I’ve seen some complaints about the nature of CG effects used in the production. Frankly I find the complaints more than a little silly. No doubt, some liberties are taken for the sake of visual story telling. Distances are often shortened to enhance visibility of detail on screen. And visible damage on surviving aircraft is somewhat exaggerated, also for visual impact. But practically speaking, there is NO WAY to show on screen what they want to, without the complete CG treatment. We live far enough passed these events now that the actual relics are treated with kid gloves, seriously at least three of the bombers from “Memphis Belle” are no longer with us. And they lacked enough planes to achieve the sort of realistic mass we see here when that previous movie was shot.

I think focusing on a single Bomb Group was a very well chosen angle for coming at things. It keeps to a more manageable cast of characters. It also keeps things a little more exciting for those who may know the big picture pretty well, but find ourselves struggling to remember many details (like which members of the “Bloody 100th” survived their tour, or chose to serve a second tour of duty).

Some liberties are taken with strict facts. Like one that made me laugh; Harry Crosby admitted to cheating on his wife while in England, and he made friends with a British spy named Sandra, but she’s not the one he had an affair with! I guess that would count as simplifying the story? And did Buck Clevan really fly on Operation Chowhound? Let’s say I’m 99% sure that’s not true. After a harrowing adventure he was back at Thorpe Abbotts on VE Day, but I see no mention (In the Book “Masters of the Air” or on Wikipedia) of him flying that mission.

So no shock, the Apple+ series is more interested in telling a *highly* visual story about American heroes of the Greatest Generation than it is in being as factually precise as the massive book its based on. I think its an excellent and worthy effort regardless. I’ve now read the book, and watched the series, twice. Both things will likely happen again…