The Bloody Hundredth

Alongside the final episode of "Masters of the Air" Apple TV also released this documentary which includes real interviews with some of the actual airmen that were part of the 100th bomb group during World War 2.

During the second World War, the American Air Force establishes bases on the East Coast of England, from where they can lead bombing raids on Nazi occupied mainland Europe. Whereas the R. A. F prefer bombing raids at night, and are relatively indiscriminate with their targets, the American's prefer daytime raids on strategic targets. Whilst that tactic relentlessly damages the German War machine, the bombing group suffer severe and sometimes catastrophic losses.

Containing a mixture of stock footage, interviews and talking head opinion, the documentary retells the story of the 100th devision focusing, as the series did, on the lead airmen, Fale Cleven, John Egan and Rosie Rosenthal and navigator Harry Crosby. It's narrated by Tom Hanks, who does a fine job as you might imagine. The talking heads include Stephen Spielberg as well as historians. In and of itself it's a fine documentary.

The trouble is, we've just seen this story told in dramatic detail across nine hours, with the added drama of real actors playing the characters and full CGI recreations of the various raids and battles. The documentary can't really compete with that, and doesn't particularly try, offering no new information about the base, missions or squad other than tellings us that, pretty much whatever we saw in the series, is largely how it happened.

If the documentary was all we had, it would be fine, but it feels awfully dry against the dramatic recreations.