Deborah L.

This is a well produced series that I heartily recommend if you’re interested in World War II history, liked Band of Brothers and/or The Pacific, or like flying history, or even just like Spielberg productions. The production values are top quality and Apple TV sharpness was great, and the cast was excellent. I’m also a Boomer who had several relatives that were WwIi vets, including an uncle who left the US through Canada before we even entered the war and joined the RAF and flew Air Transport for them, so this series was of particular interest. The particular scenes of the missions they had to fly were harrowing, basically suicide missions with very high fatality rates. It wasn’t until later in the war that the bombers had effective fighter escorts. The despair of the crews running grueling missions almost daily with only 1/2 the planes or worse returning was clear. The brass seemed to not care about the men (common in war when you have to send troops into battle), my husband and I noted Catch-22 a few times! I developed great respect also for the planes themselves and the maintenance crews, with many of the planes limping in missing wings, engines, with hundreds of bullet holes after hundreds of miles. Apart from being killed, the crews suffered horrendous injuries. That said, having finished the whole series, I was a little disappointed in the later episodes. They seemed kind of choppy and in need of some editing or continuity. There was a little too much jumping between the main characters and some time jumps were a little hard to follow. I also felt the British RAF forces who had valiantly held on during the Battle of Britain were needlessly minimized in favor of the savior Americans. Yes, we brought personnel, machines and $$$ to tip the scales but that doesn’t replace the Brits’ sacrifices. The D-day invasion commentary was a little rushed - mentions that the Luftwaffe had to be neutralized and wasn’t there - but why? There were a few “huh?” moments like the significance of the fight between the 2 Bucks at the stalag - was it real or staged distraction - and the Sandra segments regarding her spy activities were given short shrift. What happened to her? Was she a real person or a token composite? A update for her at the end would have been nice. But those are smaller complaints across the whole scope.