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Dr Sam Edwards, reader in modern political history at Loughborough University and a specialist in Anglo-American relations, sinks his teeth into the new nine-part wartime drama from the team behind Band of Brothers
Masters of the Air – the nine-part Apple TV+ World War Two series – joins a long list of film and television telling the story of the United States Eighth Air Force, the East Anglian-based organisation responsible for the American contribution to the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. From the Gregory Peck classic Twelve O’Clock High (1949) to the British television series We’ll Meet Again (ITV, 1982) and David Putnam’s 1990 hit Memphis Belle, stories about the ‘Mighty Eighth’ have drawn persistent interest among filmmakers and TV producers. Unsurprisingly, given that it involves creative input from Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, Masters of the Air is a compelling addition to the genre.
Where Band of Brothers told the story of American paratroopers battling their way through Europe from Normandy to Austria, and The Pacific turned attention to the war fought by the US Navy and Marine Corps against …
