The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress — or its computer-generated likeness — received plenty of screen time in the Apple TV+ series “Masters of the Air.”
Inspiring the World War II series was the tumultuous history of the 100th Bombardment Group of the Eighth Air Force. Three years (1942-1945) of daylight bombing runs by the Eighth’s Flying Fortresses over Nazi Germany unleashed 697,000 tons of bombs.
But the effort to pry the claws of the Third Reich from Europe was met with deadly resistance, with casualty totals that, by war’s end, would exceed 115,000 personnel from the U.S. Army Air Force.
Of that total, over 47,000 were from the Eighth.
Despite devastating odds, men from the “Mighty Eighth” again and again climbed into B-17 cockpits and bombardier enclosures and took to the sky. Many of those missions provided inspiration for the series’ most harrowing scenes.
For those who enjoyed the series — and want more of the Flying Fortress — a few classic films (and one recent documentary) can help satisfy any B-17 cravings.
The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944)
Director William Wyler left Hollywood to document the war for the U.S. and received permission to film an account of a B-17 crew on a mission over Germany. He ended up flying five missions with pilot Robert Morgan of the 91st Bombardment Group, two of them in Morgan’s regular plane, Memphis Belle.
Wyler used his footage to create a composite 25th mission for Morgan and the crew of the aircraft. (While not the first bomber to complete 25 missions, Memphis Belle was the first to return to America after having done so and earned much public attention as a result.)
Released on April 15, 1944, the New York Times called the film “a perfect example of what can be properly done by competent film reporters to visualize the war for people back home.” The real Memphis Belle is on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.
Cold Blue (2018)
A modern and breathtaking addition to this list — albeit with a historical tie-in — director Erik Nelson’s project “The Cold Blue” resurrected and restored footage from Wyler’s “Memphis Belle,” while adding previously lost footage, new recordings and interviews with veterans who lived through the experience.
“We screened the film to the Eighth Air Force reunion in Dayton [in 2018], and I wanted them to see that their story is still being told, and I want to tell the story in a way that this really would impact young 20-year-olds today,” Nelson told Military Times in 2019.
“These guys were 19, 20, and 21, and they’re flying B-17s on these ridiculously complicated, hazardous missions. The idea that they’d be in these planes for 10 hours, round-trip, in temperatures equaling Mount Everest, with this sort of crude technology to drop bombs, and they’d head back and wake up and do it all over again ... people just can’t imagine now.”
Air Force (1943)
While B-17s are known primarily for their role in the European Theater, they flew in the Pacific as well.
Howard Hawks’ “Air Force” tells the story of one such Flying Fortress known as Mary Ann. After flying into the attack on Pearl Harbor, the aircraft and its crew proceed to Wake Island and then on to the Philippines to take action against the Japanese.
The production used real B-17B, C and D models, supplemented by model work when necessary. The film stars John Ridgely, Gig Young, Arthur Kennedy, Charles Drake, Harry Carey, George Tobias and John Garfield.
Memphis Belle (1990)
The fictionalized film based on Wyler’s picture — and co-produced by his daughter — also tells the story of the titular B-17′s 25th mission. However, it suffers from a willingness to embrace cliché as the crew faces a familiar litany of threats — bandits, flak, cloud cover, engine loss.
The film is directed by Michael Caton-Jones and stars Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. Sweeney, Billy Zane, Sean Astin, Harry Connick Jr., John Lithgow and David Strathairn.
Command Decision (1948)
Where “Masters of the Air” focuses on what B-17 crews endured during the war, “Command Decision” looks at the commanders who sent them on missions in what Brig. Gen. “Casey” Dennis — played by Clark Gable, who actually flew some missions over Europe — calls “the weirdest kind of war on earth.”
“In a few hours from now they’ll be fighting on oxygen five miles above Germany,” he says, watching B-17s and their crews head out on a mission. “Tonight some of them will be dancing at the Savoy. Some of them will still be in Germany.”
The film can’t escape its roots as a Broadway play (adapted from a novel) and remains mostly set-bound. A scene i Dennis has to talk down a B-17 bombardier flying for his wounded pilot suffers from some obvious model work that stands out in comparison to the actual combat footage used elsewhere.
Twelve O’Clock High (1949)
Directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck, Hugh Marlowe, Gary Merrill and Dean Jagger, “Twelve O’Clock High” covers some of the same ground as Command Decision — but does it much better.
The focal point is General Frank Savage (Peck), who takes command of the snakebitten 918th Bombardment Group after its previous commander got too close to his men and efficiency suffered. Savage plans to whip the unit into shape, even if it means attracting the crews’ ire. The 918th does improve, but the stresses of command eventually take their toll on Savage.
B-17 fans will especially enjoy a legendary stunt sequence when stunt pilot Paul Mantz performs a belly landing in a real Fortress. The film later inspired a television series.
The War Lover (1962)
Directed by Philip Leacock and starring Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner and Shirley Ann Field, this adaptation of John Hersey’s novel tells the story of a pilot (McQueen) and co-pilot (Wagner) of a Flying Fortress — and the woman (Field) occupying the thoughts of one of them.
The pilot, “Buzz” Rickson, is the title character, a man who treads the “fine line between the hero and the psychopath,” in the words of the squadron doctor. Filmed using three actual B-17s, the film boasts a strong performance by McQueen but is weakened by the romance in which Field’s character is used to deliver the movie’s themes.
“You are on the side of life,” she tells Wagner’s character, subsequently explaining to Buzz, “You can’t make love. … You can only make hate.”
Target for Today (1944)
Also of interest, this wartime documentary provides a detailed nuts-and-bolts look at what it took to plan and fly B-17 missions over Europe.
Cast with real military personnel and filmed largely on location, it offers viewers some key background for the events of “Masters of the Air.”
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
