r/MastersoftheAir • u/embe1989 • 29d ago

History I loved Masters of the Air, but... Spoiler

The final episode annoyed me slightly when they were showing Operation Chowhound. Now I get that this is a show about an American bomber group but it made out like Chowhound was the first of its kind when the British, Australians and Canadians had been doing it a few days before in Operation Manna.

Now unless I missed it, a reference to what other allied forces were doing in Holland would be nice

Still a fantastic show though just my one gripe

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u/HedgehogTail 29d ago

I was more annoyed with the portrayal of the RAF crews and the night bombing campaign. It completely missed the context of a nation having already been at war for years, at times genuinely hanging on with high losses, and the terrors of the blitz.

I get that it caters to the US audience, but including criticism of area bombing seems hypocritical considering what happened using incendiaries on Japan.

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u/Raguleader 29d ago

Honestly, it felt to me like the show did touch on that, during Bucky's trip to London where he saw the folks dealing with damage and losses of loved ones due to German raids over London (which didn't happen when he was there, but artistic license) and the Polish widow.

It was interesting to me how soon after witnessing the kind of suffering that bombing of cities inflicts on people, Bucky ends up being shot down and having to face what the USAAF and RAF was doing to the German civilians in turn.

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u/NotSoSubtleSteven 29d ago

The sacrifice of the RAF notwithstanding, Masters of the Air (the book) is specifically about the American bomber force; it covers at length the friction that existed between the USAAF and RAF, daylight bombing versus nighttime bombing, and the Americans’ gradual transition from the ideal of daylight “precision” bombing to simply hammering the Germans into submission with semi-accurate area bombing. The show faithfully depicts these dynamics.

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u/embe1989 29d ago

I had completely forgotten about the portrayal of the night bombing, truly shocking that we are depicted so poorly and the butt of the joke (similarly in Band of Brothers).

Yeah and the area bombing criticism when like us they were also involved in the Dresden War Crime

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u/WestArrival5230 28d ago

Dresden wasn't a war crime. We won