Masters of the Air

The Mighty Eighth Podcast

The 100th Bomb Group is probably the most famous bomb group of them all – and the focus of the Stephen Spielberg / Tom Hanks TV mini-series Masters of the Air.

Nicknamed the Bloody Hundredth, it had a 'bad luck' reputation, sustaining heavy losses of men and planes on numerous disastrous missions.

But just how unlucky was the 100th Bomb Group? What is myth? And what is the truth?

In this episode, we visit Thorpe Abbotts – the airfield in eastern England which was home to the 100th during World War Two.

We climb to the top of the control tower and look out across what was a huge military airbase.

We talk about the missions of 1943 which gave birth to the legend of the Bloody Hundredth – and look at the evidence to support the claims.

We learn about the real-life characters Robert 'Rosie' Rosenthal, John 'Bucky' Egan and Gale 'Buck' Cleven – all of whom feature in Masters of the Air.

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To contact Johann and Mike, email [e-mail].

With special thanks to the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum for welcoming us and allowing us to record this episode.

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