Heritage hampers
Midfield
I saw her in benidorm
Masters of the Air
- Thread starter Billy Fish
- Start date
0verlord44
Winger
According to the book he was never sure if she was SOE or something.
Her name was Landra Wingate I think, and there’s not much on her historically. But the series doesn’t handle it too well I agree. Thought the lass was canny.
Episode 7
“The p51 mustang, hands down the best fighter of the entire war”
So ham fisted it’s hilarious
SAFC 2012
Striker
They’re probably basing that assumption on the fact it had the range to escort them right into Germany and back
Only after it had been fitted with a license-built American version of a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and disposable drop-tanks for the extra fuel.
The American Allison engine in the planes originally supplied to the RAF lacked power and climbing ability and the British were going to use them primarily as low-altitude ground-attack fighters.
The Americans weren't even going to use Mustangs - they were designed and built to British specifications under lend-lease - and only decided to develop them for their own use after the RAF retro-fitted a Merlin engine to one of the original Allison-engined versions and they realised it's potential with a decent engine installed.
The Packard company were given a license to build Merlins and improve them as they saw fit. These were fitted to the later versions of the Mustangs and the rest, as they say, is history.
0verlord44
Winger
it was the best escort fighter, statistically. The p47 did well but the p51 beat it hands down. However as said above it was pap until we had a fiddle with it. And there were a plethora of fighters that could challenge the Mustang, Christ even the Mosquito gave it a run for its money, and that was a fighter bomber. Albeit a bit of a weapon. Theres a fair argument that it was the greatest aircraft of the war, when based on statistics.
There were spits and hurcs, 109's and 190's, zeroes and the IL2. The p47, p38, typhoons, Furys, Wildcats, hellcats and tempests. All excelled in their own roles. The typhoons and tempests were frightening in ground attack. Of course the earlier mention mozzies could do almost anything really well.
Stating the P51 is the best out of all of them is typical of the whole series really, simplified pandering to the yanks with no context given, although i think it was Crosby's opinion of course. I could be wrong
Mosquitos were the boys, mind - superb aircraft - made almost entirely from wood, by workers who had been cabinet-makers and the like.
Could carry roughly the same bombload as a B-17 but at a much higher speed and deliver it much more accurately. At the same time, they could be armed to the teeth and shoot down anything in front of them. Real airborne 'Special Forces', to steal a modern phrase.
Technically, MOTA was brilliant - the aircraft looked good and even the CGI wasn't that bad, considering the scale of what they were trying to show. There are some on-line forums bemoaning the fact that by the end of the war the 100th Bomber Group weren't actually flying B-17Fs but B-17Gs - the ones with the chin turret at the front - and apparently they wanted to show this but ran out of time and money to update the CGI and the scale models they used for the on-the-ground scenes. They tried to disguise it by showing the 'F' models as unpainted, with no camouflage, like the majority of USAAF planes in the latter stages of the war.
TBF the American built Merlins were better than the Rolls Royce ones.
0verlord44
Winger
100%, such an underrated aircraft.
I rewatched episode 8 last night and the CGI was bloody awful when scrutinized even casually.
They should have taken a leaf out of Nolan's book when he did Dunkirk, and scaled it down. Quality not quantity Imagine just following a crew over their tour, Rosenthals for example. You could have kept the same characters but focused more on the mental aspect of it. The boredom for hours followed by 4 hours of sheer terror, just to do it all the next day. A bit like 12 o clock high, which focused mostly on the ground aspects of a bomb group.
We didn't need the Tuskegee airmen, Holocaust scenes or multiple scenes lecturing us all on how nasty the British were
helps not being bombed when you are trying to manufacture them like
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It was more down to superior production techniques and machine tools.
They were given license to update them as they fit - superchargers and so on. Plus they had a hell of lot more money and resources to throw at them.
No denying that they made a great job of it, but it's debatable they would have even tried had the RAF not got their Meccano kit out first and gave it a go.
Agreed.
The Yanks forget that by the time they joined in we were tired - we had already lost thousands and thousands of personnel - and our focus was getting to the end of the war without losing too many thousands more.
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0verlord44
Winger
tends to be forgotten a bit like the whole lend lease thing. Its often remembered as America 'helping out a friend fighting for democracy'. This help cost a fortune and wasn't fully paid off until the late 90's I believe. Needed as it was, it wasn't given, it was bought and paid for
Overall I enjoyed it but a few things felt rushed. The lass who was the spy was a bit of a waste, nothing really happened with that storyline. The final episode with Rosie wandering around the camp felt a bit shoe horned in, it was a harrowing scene, but just felt a bit tagged on and didnt have the same impact as that episode in Band of Brothers.
The best characters in it were Rosie and Crosby, the 2 main pilots were okay but didnt feel attached to them in any way.
Also the main theme tune was superb.
The best characters in it were Rosie and Crosby, the 2 main pilots were okay but didnt feel attached to them in any way.
Also the main theme tune was superb.
PTR
Striker
Great thread, enjoyed learning loads of stuff that a US TV show wouldn't mention.
Really enjoyed watching this - not often I really look forward to watching something these days - went through it in about 10 days.
I see a couple of things I picked up on, others have mentioned too - such as the way they *always* show British people to be posh and somewhat unsufferable. They even went to Oxford Uni multiple times (for no real reason), ffs
And I just knew the flag shagging scene in the POW camp would have been made up. And yep, it was. What is it with yanks and obsessions with a piece of cloth?
One I didn't see mentioned was when Rosie was the last bomber left on his way home, and won a dogfight against 2-3 German fighters. I struggle to believe that one. Happy to be wrong though.
No matter how good it was though, you just cannot touch BoB - maybe simply because the interviews with the actual people were fundamental to caring about the people - and they're not able to do that now, the people just aren't there anymore.
Really enjoyed watching this - not often I really look forward to watching something these days - went through it in about 10 days.
I see a couple of things I picked up on, others have mentioned too - such as the way they *always* show British people to be posh and somewhat unsufferable. They even went to Oxford Uni multiple times (for no real reason), ffs
And I just knew the flag shagging scene in the POW camp would have been made up. And yep, it was. What is it with yanks and obsessions with a piece of cloth?
One I didn't see mentioned was when Rosie was the last bomber left on his way home, and won a dogfight against 2-3 German fighters. I struggle to believe that one. Happy to be wrong though.
No matter how good it was though, you just cannot touch BoB - maybe simply because the interviews with the actual people were fundamental to caring about the people - and they're not able to do that now, the people just aren't there anymore.
Gene Hunt
Midfield
To be fair it is possible for the Rosie story to be true. I decided to do more research into my Grandad’s flight history on the back of watching this. I discovered the narrative of a flight report of his Stirling on the way back from a raid on Bremen. They were attacked by a Me109 five times then a sixth and seventh time by a Me110. They lost one engine as a result but managed to down the Me109 and evade the Me110 by weaving and diving to cloud cover. They limped back home and had to crash land as the landing gear was damaged. Altogether the stuff of nightmares and the poor buggers would’ve been back up the next night to do it all again!!
Nero the dog
Midfield
0verlord44
Winger
Band of brothers was so well done. And according to battle reports and veterans it was very accurate. Down to the locations and time of day. MOTA simply didn’t go into the level of detail they Band of brothers, the pacific and From the Earth to the moon did.
MOTA went more with the ‘veteran said this happened once so let’s put it in’ type of approach. They didn’t focus on the actual mental toll flying Bombers, when they did it was tiptoed round, and really dulled down the way missions were carried out.
They did however have time and money to spend on anti-British quips and scenes in almost every episode, for absolutely no other reason than to create friction and conflict, in a series about the largest conflict in human history
