If you liked "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific", from the same team, 'Masters of the Air' may be good as well. Of course, a subscription to Apple TV will be need. Masters of the Air - Wikipedia Here's Your First Look at 'Masters of the Air'
You know I said to myself, "...that can't be right" so I looked it up. The 8AF had 26,000 KIA while the Marines had 24,511! I knew the 8AF casualty rate was horrible but never dreamed it was equal or greater than the Marines but when you stop and think about it (long ways away from aid the station, always heavy weapons doing the damage, 30,000 feet up, etc...) it makes a lot of sense. The marines had a bit over 68,000 WIA but I couldn't find a good figure for 8th AF, think it was ~21,000 but I think if you got hit the odds of you making it wasn't very good for all the obvious reasons. Here's a few stats to make you sit up and take notice: "Seventy-seven percent of the Americans who flew against the Reich before D-Day would wind up as casualties." "During the whole war, 51% of aircrew were killed on operations, 12% were killed or wounded in non-operational accidents and 13% became prisoners of war or evaders. Only 24% survived the war unscathed." "Half of the U.S. Army Air Forces' casualties in World War II were suffered by Eighth Air Force (more than 47,000 casualties, with more than 26,000 dead)." I got to see this film...
Yeah, I was surprised myself when I learn that years ago. There were no medics on those planes, just a first-aid kit and if you were really bad, they could drop you by parachute over a city or town.
During WW2 three airmen survived jumping from burning planes without parachutes, they were Nicholas Alkemade (UK), Ivan Chisov (USSR) and Alan Magee (USA). The Brit fell from only 18,000 ft, while both the Russian and American fell from 22,000 ft.. The British airman was something of a celebrity with pilots of the Luftwaffe, he even met Hermann Goering while he was a POW at Stalag Luff III. The American was also a POW, but the Russian was rescued by Soviet forces.
Yeah, but like Vietnam, I doubt the locals had much sympathy for airmen that minutes before were dropping bombs on them, their loved ones and homes so I am surprised there was so many, 27,000, POWs. I never really thought about it before now, but those guys really had it tough. Yeah, they hot showers, good chow, and warm barracks but the stats show the paid in full for it.
Well, it was better than bleeding to death in a bomber over Germany or France, and a few of the badly wounded men did survive because they received medical attention. The Germans did treat Allied POWs pretty good...well the Western Allies were treated pretty good, the Russians not so good...and Jewish and Black POWs weren't treated well either! There were also a surprising number of Allied aircrews that sought safety in Switzerland and Sweden, where they sat out the war. I guess they figured that the odds were against them.
