User Reviews

USAAF technicals flaws..., yet..., I really do not care. I spent my Navy Officer career in the aviation community and likely have experienced and understand just as much, if not more than most who contribute to these reviews. I grew up in the late 50's through the early 70's and watched this series every week, without fail along with Star Trek of course with one of my favorite episodes guest starring Robert Lansing (Assignment Earth). Do I notice technical flaws throughout the series? Of course I do. Do I really care? Nope, not a wee bit. What I enjoy are the many life lessons, especially the leadership lessons. When I attended the Civil Air Patrol's Cadet Officer School at Maxwell AFB, in 1970, we watched the movie "Twelve O'Clock High" with Gregory Peck as BGEN Frank Savage. Why? It was for leadership training. Were there technical flaws in it? Certainly, like the popular close-up of a P-47 Thunderbolt (The Jug) used as a Luftwaffe aircraft firing upon the B-17s. I mean every time you see the Luftwaffe flying against the 918th, they ALWAYS show P-47s and P-51Ds portraying ME-109s and FW-190s. Of course, when I saw that it was a dam, I thought of the Wooden Wonder (Mosquito) and the movie "633 Squadron" and the AVRO Lancaster in the movie "The Dam Busters", or perhaps our B26 Martin Marauder (the widow maker). A P-47 would have been a better platform than the Mustang. Again, I notice yet do not care in the least. I actually have fun seeing how many I can spot. Anyway..., take it from an Aviator, enjoy the many and varied flight sequences and more importantly, reflect upon the important life lesson messages in each and every episode. P. S. I was bummed out when they killed off BGEN Savage. Paul Burke, though he performed admirably, doesn't hold a candle to Robert Lansing. HOOYAH!! 🇺🇸

Lt. Stiger (Earl Holliman) is a pilot known for being fearless...perhaps too fearless. But he's managed to survive and has been in the war longer than most other Americans, as he was a volunteer back when it was just Britain versus the Axis. He also, oddly, has apparently had flying experience with bombers AND fighter planes...which is the experience they need for this crazy mission to have a single P-51 take out a dam.

Not I am a history lover and used to teach history. So, when they talked about a P-51 fighter plane taking out a dam, I was a bit annoyed. After all, the famous British 'Dam Busters' took out a dam...but it required several large bombers and a specially created round 9000 pound bouncing bomb AND tons and tons of training. Here, Stiger gets three days training in a P-51 and the bombs are standard 500 pound bombs. Plus, I cannot imagine a fighter pilot suddenly being placed in the cockpit of a bomber...switching like this seems odd to day the least. Clearly, unless this is a very tiny dam, a P-51 would have no effect on a dam. And, if it could take out the dam, then it wouldn't be a large one and its impact would be negligible. On top of all this, there WERE fast fighter-bombers which COULD have done such a mission (on a VERY tiny dam)....specifically the British de Havilland Mosquito. Oddly, the RAF never seems to be mentioned much in this show and it seems as if the only bombers are American ones.

Now if you add to this, the very sloppy use of stock footage, you have an episode that technically speaking, sucks. The P-51 planes keep changing from the older razor-back models to the later bubble canopy models...which looked very different. On top of that, one piece of footage shows one with special D-Day markings...which were ONLY used around D-Day in 1944.

There's more about the episode I didn't get to here...such as Stiger winning a lottery and the General refusing to allow him to marry before the mission (thus allowing his fiancee to inherit the money should he not make it). I didn't like this either. So, at least for me, it was a pretty bad episode....and a technical mess.