YESSS, FINALLY!!! - Masters of the Air - The 8th Air Force, Spielberg, Hanks, Goetzman (Crew behind Band of Brothers, Pacific)

[atomheartbevo 90689]

[locodos 5593]

1 hour ago, Texzilla588 said:

So if you want a barely related movie on postwar Germany that is actually very funny watch One Two Three with James Cagney as a CocaCola exec in 50’s Berlin with his family.

During wwII Coke had engineers imbedded with combat troops.  They had some sort of sweetheart deal to set up bottling plants as the army advanced.  After all you need good sources of clean water.   The French dubbed it Coca-colonization.  It lead to some of De Gaulle's pushback against American cultural spread after the war and France's resistance to all things English & American.

Quote

Coca-Cola in World War II
During World War II, Coca-Cola ran a series of ads which expressed Coca-Cola as a patriotic brand which greeted Americans wherever they went, ‘reminding them of home’.

In 1941, America entered World War II and thousands of US citizens were sent overseas. To show support for those brave men and women, Coca-Cola President Robert Woodruff ordered that “every man in uniform gets a bottle of Coca-Cola for five cents, wherever he is and whatever it costs the company.”

When U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower saw the early success of bottling plants, he sent a pressing telegram addressed to Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta. Dated June 29, 1943, his request included 10 portable factories, 6 million filled bottles of Coke a month, and the materials and resources to provide American GIs with refreshingly cool Cokes.

Vital equipment, gear, and food for survival packed the cargo decks and rooms aboard supply ships. Anything that wasn’t used for survival was viewed as nonessential, and that included crates of Coke. When Eisenhower’s plea was received by high-level executives from Coca-Cola, they started devising a plan to bring distribution of Cokes to combat areas.

Six months following the message, a Coca-Cola representative flew to the capital of Algeria to implement the paper plans into actionable construction of the first bottling plant. Eisenhower anticipated only 10 would be sufficient but, to his surprise, 64 bottling lines were by the war’s end.

Soon, 148 representatives from Coke filled the ranks with an official title of “Technical Observers,” or TOs. The TOs were given army fatigues, treated like commissioned officers, and had one responsibility: to serve Coke to every American GI, no matter where they were located. Americans welcomed the TOs without prejudice. Their inclusion into these units earned them the nickname “Coca-Cola Colonels,” and they worked tireless days, two returning home in flag-draped caskets.

The “Have A Coke” promotions featured ads with unique art accompanied by underlying meanings of the expression. All featuring people smiling with bottles of Coke, the ads used a message to appease civilians and armies alike. By the end of World War II, over 5 billion bottles were distributed to those in uniform, and Coca-Cola transformed the experimental war-time plants into fully operational facilities.

 

Edited March 15 by locodos

[kevwun 16450]

Interesting, I always wondered at seeing cokes in every war movie regardless of where it was set.  I guess that was actually accurate.

[MissingInAction 25606]

 

Did ww2 coke have coke in it?

If so that would explain alot.

[Js1 87306]

Executive Producer hopes for a season 2 but says he won’t be the one to do it. I wonder if a season 2 would be in the pacific theater? Or is that already too close to The Pacific 

[kevwun 16450]

The Pacific is ripe with material for an air series.  Huge carrier battles, long range bombing, the Cactus Air Force, etc

[Js1 87306]

9 minutes ago, kevwun said:

The Pacific is ripe with material for an air series.  Huge carrier battles, long range bombing, the Cactus Air Force, etc

[Pescado_Rojo 19593]

18 minutes ago, kevwun said:

The Pacific is ripe with material for an air series.  Huge carrier battles, long range bombing, the Cactus Air Force, etc

They've done the Army (BOB), the Marines (The Pacific) and the Army Air Corp (MOTA). The next one should be focused on the Naval campaign in the Pacific including the fighter battles. 

ETA they could probably just make a 9 part series about the USS Enterprise and call it a day. 

Edited March 15 by Pescado_Rojo

[kevwun 16450]

A series that follows the Enterprise would fit their model.

[Js1 87306]

1 minute ago, kevwun said:

A series that follows the Enterprise would fit their model.

Quick someone call Tom Hanks 

[Pato del Muerto 53607]

Samuel b Roberts 

 

I think the IJN turned an entire carrier group around because of her. 

Edited March 15 by Pato del Muerto

[kevwun 16450]

It would be the closest story to BoB that they've done.  In action from the beginning of the war to the end and earned more battle stars than any other ship.

[locodos 5593]

26 minutes ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

They've done the Army (BOB), the Marines (The Pacific) and the Army Air Corp (MOTA). The next one should be focused on the Naval campaign in the Pacific including the fighter battles. 

ETA they could probably just make a 9 part series about the USS Enterprise and call it a day. 

I say this with affection, but an accurate portrayal of the Battle of Leyte Gulf would show both bravery and stupidity on a grand scale.  Fantastic that we won, but man oh man did we get lucky.   Scenes could include pilots in unarmed planes buzzing Japanese ships.  In one case resorting to throwing a clipboard at the stunned Japanese commanders on the bridge.  WTF! Did he just throw a clipboard?  

Edited March 15 by locodos

[Aqua Buddha 14810]

3 hours ago, F250 said:

The liberation of the POW camp was awesome. Loved seeing that P-51 fly in with no fucks given.

In “The War” by Ken Burns, he interviewed a woman who was a prisoner in a Japanese camp in the Philippines.  One day there were planes overhead and someone asked “Are those Japanese?”

She smiled and said “With that deep throaty engine, those are American.”

I think about her whenever I’ve heard a P-51 over the years.

[atomheartbevo 90689]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Executive Producer hopes for a season 2 but says he won’t be the one to do it. I wonder if a season 2 would be in the pacific theater? Or is that already too close to The Pacific 

27 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Quick someone call Tom Hanks 

Hanks would like to do some more destroyer-based stuff, he feels there was a lot more to do after Greyhound.

[kevwun 16450]

I went to the Pacific War museum a couple of weeks ago and they have a bridge mock up from a destroyer.  They also have a night battle simulation going on and it's crazy standing in that little iron box with flashes of light coming through the window slits while you here radio chatter from all the stations of the ship.  I can't fathom the amount of training it takes to know what the hell is going on in that situation and to make decisions with multiple yelling information at you at the same time.

Edited March 15 by kevwun

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5663]

2 hours ago, Pescado_Rojo said:

They've done the Army (BOB), the Marines (The Pacific) and the Army Air Corp (MOTA). The next one should be focused on the Naval campaign in the Pacific including the fighter battles. 

ETA they could probably just make a 9 part series about the USS Enterprise and call it a day. 

NCC-1701-D? Make it so!

Edited March 15 by WelfareBuysMyWeed

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5663]

4 hours ago, kevwun said:

Interesting, I always wondered at seeing cokes in every war movie regardless of where it was set.  I guess that was actually accurate.

Fun Fact: Hitler was so addicted to Coca-Cola, that when he couldn't get any during WWII, he ordered the creation of Fanta, which is the Nazi knock-off of Coca-Cola.

[Macanudo 13347]

I'm disappointed in the finale but realize why they did it the way they did.   I think Rosie walking into the death camp and Egan's flag raising were pretty heavy handed/sappy but then I have to remember that a lot of Americans really have no clue about WWII and the Holocaust.  I would have preferred they just showed Rosie's conversation with the old man.   

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5663]

13 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

I'm disappointed in the finale but realize why they did it the way they did.   I think Rosie walking into the death camp and Egan's flag raising were pretty heavy handed/sappy but then I have to remember that a lot of Americans really have no clue about WWII and the Holocaust.  I would have preferred they just showed Rosie's conversation with the old man.   

They had to make those scenes heavy handed because a not-insignificant portion of Americans today think the nazis were the good guys.

[Js1 87306]

Just now, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

They had to make those scenes heavy handed because a not-insignificant portion of Americans today think the nazis were the good guys.

And that the holocaust didn’t happen 

[Macanudo 13347]

Yeah, I know.

Something else that jumped out at me...   Buck Compton (Bob) and Rosie went on to have very distinguished legal careers followng the war.  

[atomheartbevo 90689]

The Bloody Hundredth is up on Apple, it’s the real-life stories/interviews/etc. 

[4th&Five 42027]

Just watched it. An hour well spent. Funny that Rosie said he also yelled Pepsi and Lucky Strike, not just Coca Cola. 

[HouTex 1943]

57 minutes ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

They had to make those scenes heavy handed because a not-insignificant portion of Americans today think the nazis were the good guys.

Uh, no.  JFC.  Some of you believe your own bullshit.  

[Gil Bang 26264]

9 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Uh, no.  JFC.  Some of you believe your own bullshit.  

 

One-fifth of US citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that the Holocaust is a myth, according to a new poll from the Economist/YouGov.

 

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5663]

35 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Uh, no.  JFC.  Some of you believe your own bullshit.  

I find it hilarious that you put considerably more effort into your numerous posts about how much you love colonoscopies and how little resistance your asshole gives to things going inside of it than you do trying to justify your dipshit assertion that neo nazis do not exist. Spend less time playing with your fingers in your ass and try typing a message like a big boy.

Edited March 16 by WelfareBuysMyWeed

[bschoolprof 6352]

I thought some of the episodes were uneven in writing and storytelling, and I agree some of it was heavy-handed and very paint-by-numbers.  The Tuskegee episode in particular had a TV movie feel to it and just seemed thrown in there.  

But I'll be damed if they didn't nail it with the finale.  I got misty at the end when they showed the real-life counterparts to each actor.  I enjoyed the series overall.

 

[BearSchlong 8253]

Agreed. Very emotional ending. The Nietzsche quotes were timely, and the humanitarian missions were a fitting end.

[Smax 3800]

Great series and amazing finale 

[atomheartbevo 90689]

1 hour ago, bschoolprof said:

I thought some of the episodes were uneven in writing and storytelling, and I agree some of it was heavy-handed and very paint-by-numbers.  The Tuskegee episode in particular had a TV movie feel to it and just seemed thrown in there.  

Having seen the finale, and they nailed, and I mentioned this earlier, but I really wonder if 7 & 8 were cut down from an extra episode or two.

[F250 29210]

5 hours ago, WelfareBuysMyWeed said:

Fun Fact: Hitler was so addicted to Coca-Cola, that when he couldn't get any during WWII, he ordered the creation of Fanta, which is the Nazi knock-off of Coca-Cola.

I believe it was an over zealous German Coca-Cola executive that came up with Fanta to keep Coca-Cola Europe from sinking during the war. It's actually a pretty wild story. The world is at war and this guy seemed to only care about the Coca-Cola corporation.

[Pato del Muerto 53607]

Have a coke and a heil?

[MissingInAction 25606]

9 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

In “The War” by Ken Burns, he interviewed a woman who was a prisoner in a Japanese camp in the Philippines.  One day there were planes overhead and someone asked “Are those Japanese?”

She smiled and said “With that deep throaty engine, those are American.”

I think about her whenever I’ve heard a P-51 over the years.

That's fucking cool.

[RPM 26682]

13 hours ago, Texzilla588 said:

So if you want a barely related movie on postwar Germany that is actually very funny watch One Two Three with James Cagney as a CocaCola exec in 50’s Berlin with his family.

Written and directed by Billy Wilder who also did Stalag 17.

[Bama Llama 1510]

13 hours ago, kevwun said:

The Pacific is ripe with material for an air series.  Huge carrier battles, long range bombing, the Cactus Air Force, etc

Late in the Pacific campaign my uncle Sage Johnston was flying a carrier based Dauntless when a Zero kamikazied him and his gunner down into the Pacific. He survived the kamikaze and was picked up by a patrol boat.  Unfortunately for him it was flying the rising sun. He spent the rest of the war in Tokyo at Ohana prison, a vety bad place. He witnessed the random beheading of American officers. Later he returned to Tokyo and testified on behalf of some of the kinder and more humane guards. A photo of him and a few other US POWs from the liberation of Ohana survives - He looked like death on a cracker. About 90 pounds on a 6’1” frame. He suffered from beei beti and was routinely beaten by guards and tortured by suspending him backeard from his elbows high on a wall from a bamboo pole. Sage was from Boligee, Alabama and lived well into his 80s.  Sage’s remains rest about fifty yards downhill from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. I was privileged to draft and probate his last will and testament and to witness the inurnment ceremony on a chilly, breezy, cloudless day in November, 2014.  I gotta say, the air was rather dusty that day. Sage treated each day like Christmas Eve and suffered no fools. Makes sense. He did NOT talk about the war as a rule but would pipe up if you asked an intelligent question. After the war, he met a beautiful lady from Rennes in Brittany, she a veteran of the French Resistance, and they married and had three boys together, Sage, Derrick and Brett.  He flew for PanAm for many years iin the 50s and 60s.

He told me he and many of the other Navy prisoners at Ohana wanted to shank a fellow prisoner trusty who gave out their meager ration of food each day. He had mastered the art of dropping tidbits of meat and rice into the knee pockets of his flight suit (prisoners wore what they eere captured in) as he brought out a platter of food. Sage said the guards knew he was doing it but didn’t care. 

[aggie08 21853]

8 hours ago, F250 said:

I believe it was an over zealous German Coca-Cola executive that came up with Fanta to keep Coca-Cola Europe from sinking during the war. It's actually a pretty wild story. The world is at war and this guy seemed to only care about the Coca-Cola corporation.

Chaos is a ladder.

[HouTex 1943]

13 hours ago, Gil Bang said:

 

One-fifth of US citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that the Holocaust is a myth, according to a new poll from the Economist/YouGov.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/do-1-in-5-adults-under-30-really-believe-the-holocaust-didnt-happen-not-so-fast-how-some-online-polling-practices-are-fueling-misinformation-210458949.html?

3% is still too high though.  

[The Ace of Aces 5380]

The finale was good! But the series was severely hurt by the 6,7 and 8 deposed that jumped around, intrigued stuff that wasn’t necessary and just were meh. 
 

They cut too much and Butler imo was a bad character you felt no emotion toward. Rosie stole every scene. 
 

I’d rank this below The Pacific, ultimately. What might have been - wasn’t. 

[HornPhD 1392]

Great finale.

I was looking for Hogan and his crew when the POWs arrived at Stalag 13. 
 

[Guest]

I enjoyed the series.  It's also one of the few shows my wife and I enjoyed together, for whatever that's worth.

Did not like it early on, or at least thought it could be better.  The middle episodes pulled me in.

I liked  it and will likely watch it again soon.

[MissingInAction 25606]

45 minutes ago, HornPhD said:

Great finale.

I was looking for Hogan and his crew when the POWs arrived at Stalag 13. 
 

Yea I yelled out, SCHUUUULTZ!" , as soon as I saw that.

[F250 29210]

1 hour ago, HornPhD said:

Great finale.

I was looking for Hogan and his crew when the POWs arrived at Stalag 13. 
 

Yeah, the thought occurred to me too.

Edited March 16 by F250

[MisterP 127]

21 hours ago, HouTex said:

Uh, no.  JFC.  Some of you believe your own bullshit.  

Careful brother, it's an echo chamber. Fits right in with the whole morale superiority complex deal. 

[mininghorn88 2338]

I have been traveling in India and am now just finishing up the MOTA.  If anyone saw a middle-aged man crying like a baby in the Delta Lounge in Concourse D of the ATL airport earlier today that was me watching the last two episodes.  No apologies.

The below uniform is one of several that I have from the 8th, 9th and 15th USAAF.  It belonged to a waist gunner that was WIA during a bombing mission over Karlsruhle, Germany on September 5, 1944.  He was originally assigned to the 492nd BG before tranferring to the 466th BG, 785th and 74th Bomb Squadrons, 8th AF.

Plus some assorted flight gear:

[Macanudo 13347]

Mining,

I really hope your will specifies which WWII musuem gets all of your stuff.   Please, please, please don't let someone toss all of that in the trash one day.  Might possibly even document it all and then send that list to the museum's curator you pick and let them know it exists.  

[mininghorn88 2338]

9 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

Mining,

I really hope your will specifies which WWII musuem gets all of your stuff.   Please, please, please don't let someone toss all of that in the trash one day.  Might possibly even document it all and then send that list to the museum's curator you pick and let them know it exists.  

Yes, I have spreadsheets and “values” of most of my collection. All of my uniforms are well documented with whatever history I could find on the respective soldier through family members, unit histories, Ancestry.com, Fold3, and Newspaper.com.

I have heard horror stories about donating to museums. Unless you have Eisenhower’s uniform or something like that it most likely will end up in the basement or some other storage area only to be sold at a later date by the museum. I would prefer my kids and grandkids get the money if they elect not to want it. They can sell it off or I will liquidate it one day. I just want to make sure the groups stay together and that we keep the family stuff.

[Ted Lange 16447]

Awesome finale.   Didn’t really think ep 8 was very good but the finale was fantastic.    Did I just miss it or did we never find out what happened to the red headed kid who was with the Belgium/French resistance who got shot down in ep 3?

[Captainant 28607]

5 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

Awesome finale.   Didn’t really think ep 8 was very good but the finale was fantastic.    Did I just miss it or did we never find out what happened to the red headed kid who was with the Belgium/French resistance who got shot down in ep 3?

We saw him come back onto the base in Ep 6 or 7 I think. But he was shown to make it back safe

[Captainant 28607]

20 hours ago, mininghorn88 said:

I have been traveling in India and am now just finishing up the MOTA.  If anyone saw a middle-aged man crying like a baby in the Delta Lounge in Concourse D of the ATL airport earlier today that was me watching the last two episodes.  No apologies.

The below uniform is one of several that I have from the 8th, 9th and 15th USAAF.  It belonged to a waist gunner that was WIA during a bombing mission over Karlsruhle, Germany on September 5, 1944.  He was originally assigned to the 492nd BG before tranferring to the 466th BG, 785th and 74th Bomb Squadrons, 8th AF.

Plus some assorted flight gear:

It's not near to this depth, but I recently came into possession of my late great uncle's folio from his USAAF service and it is remarkable! It has some original marked restricted documents from 1944 for his ferry missions taking B24's to Europe, and then getting his type certification on B29s and flying copilot in Europe in 1945. His record didn't indicate any combat missions but its humbling to hold onto history like that. 

I've got it another couple of weeks before I'm handing off to his daughter that teaches at a university here in Houston, it's been a treat to look through it

Edited March 17 by Captainant