In past Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg-produced World War II dramas—like the commemorated Band of Brothers—the we’d typically see the POV briefly shift from the primary characters to see another group’s painful life on the battleground. Band of Brothers episode 4 focused practically exclusively on the team’s replacements, while episode 6 followed Easy Company’s medic through a bitter cold winterseason. In this week’s episode of Masters of the Air, we regain some of that morecomprehensive storytelling with the Tuskegee Airmen.
Speaking of Band of Brothers, the Apple TELEVISION+ series simply passed the intrusion of Normandy on the World War II timeline. The 100th provided air to the ground soldiers in Normandy, cutting off interaction centers and assaulting airfields throughout the Battle of the Bulge. This duration of time might feel reduced due to the episode’s focus on Gale Cleven (Austin Butler) and John Egan (Callum Turner) in the detainee of war camp at Stalag Luft III—but the 100th flew over 300 objectives throughout the war.
Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal’s brave choice to keep battling in the last episode was a huge part of that effective project. He took part in 52 objectives throughout World War II—and even prosecuted Nazi officers throughout the Nuremberg trials. In Masters of the Air‘s penultimate episode, the U.S. Air Force does its finest to get our kid some assistance.
We kick things off this week with Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) finally in the cockpit. He plays Tuskegee pilot Robert Daniels, a 2nd lieutenant in the all-Black 301st Fighter Squadron. He’s accompanied by Josiah Cross (A Thousand and One) as pilot Richard D. Macon and Branden Cook (Industry) as lieutenant Alexander Jefferson. Jefferson is apparently the star pilot of the trio, while Macon is the brains. Macon stands up throughout the instruction and spitfires a load of numbers, consistingof remarkably particular ranges. (Fuel varies of 999.8 miles? Damn.)
Branden Cook (left), Ncuti Gatwa (center), and Josiah Cross (right).
During their next flight over Marseilles, Sant-Tropez, and Toulon in France, the trio is shot down and taken to Stalag Luft III. Though questioned by the S.S., none of them fracture. The Nazi officers even attempt to make them betray their fellow pilots by arguing that their nation is so racist that they won’t even get complete acknowledgment for their service. “I understand what my nation’s imperfections are,” Macon states. “I understand it’s attempting tough to endedupbeing what it states it’s expected to be. And when I get back, I’m gonna assistance them do that a lot faster.”
The trio lateron links with Egan and Cleven as Stalag Luft III, where they strategy an escape together. Jefferson, who leads the group togetherwith Cleven, is an fascinating figure in history. In his book, Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW, he composed that the Nazi officers didn’t reward him inadifferentway than the white detainees. However, he was being marched to Dachau—one of the veryfirst and longest-running concentration camps under the Nazi program—when he was lastly released by General Patton’s forces. It was just when he got back to America that he understood simply how much work still had to be done back home. “Having been dealtwith by the Nazis like every other Allied officer,” Jefferson composed in his narrative, “I strolled down the gang slab using an Army Air Corps Officer’s uniform towards a white US Army sergeant on the doc