New miniseries coming out covering the 8th Air Force waging war over Europe.
(Above GIF for flavor, not from Masters Of The Air.)
Should be similar to Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
Based on this book:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Masters-of-the-Air/Donald-L-Miller/9780743235457
As a kid I thought it would have been cool to be a turret gunner on a B17. As an old veteran I am still surprised to know my survival chances would have been higher in the infantry.
That one waist gunner in the clip looks like a young Grumpy Gnome.
Infantrymen, bomber crews, submarine crews.... that's were the dying happened.
In the clip, that's actually the bombardier and navigator working the cheek guns. I only know that as I've seen that movie a metric shit ton. It does look the waist guns otherwise.
The above diagram shows the crew positions. On the B-17A through 98% of the Fs, the bombardier either served the nose gun (occasionally field modded to 2x guns) or a cheek gun. The navigator served either of the cheek guns. On the B-17G the bombardier controlled the twin .50 chin turret and the navigator had the improved bulged cheek stations that allowed some forward fire. (Late Fs I believe and all Gs staggered the waist guns so the gunners wouldn't interfere with each other as much.)
Interesting chart/diagram on crew position casualties:
Sidenote: Young Grump Gnome looked like heart throb LT "Val" / Billy Zane? Good for you Brother.
Fun fact: The Army is bringing back the WW2 dress uniform.
https://www.marlowwhite.com/pinks-and-greens-information/
I'm actually excited about the new uniform. The last time we were wearing it we actually won a war. Causation or correlation? Pretty sure causation.
@JTam Nice work Tam really enjoyed it, take care all," Happy Easter". Geoff
@Geoff Maybury
Thanks Brother. You as well!
@JTam Thanks for the info and correction brother. Fascinating stuff!
As for the dress browns... Sharp uniform for sure, but I wish the US military would look forward rather than look back. I really disliked the Class A greens but I liked the Dress Blues of my era... even though I could not afford them. And the “berets for everyone” were much sharper than the Fast Food Caps (or c*nt caps) of my era... but the only beret I ever got was a Royal Welch one, which I was not allowed to wear.... of course.
@Grumpy Gnome
Think too far forward and you end up with this ;)
(Actual Space Force dress uniforms. Not a joke.)
(Interestingly I was talking with a Space Force E9 [Super Space Master Chief? AF, let alone Space Force rank is weird] and she was complaining that the Space Force dress pants fit weird on females. Which is weird as the Space Force supposedly designed the female uniform first, and then made the male version).
Mrs, GG and I have enjoyed the Space Force TV series...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdpYpulGCKc
... but yeah, that uniform looks a bit off to me. I seem to recall hearing the design was inspired by the Battlestar Galactica reboot but it seems like a “swing and a miss”.
I have not seen it yet but the trailers look good.
Really interesting read:
Well thought out, well researched, well argued.
