On October 10, 1943, Major Harry H. Crosby called his base in code, his heart heavy with concern for his friends’ return “from pass.” The air was filled with loss; his worst fears were confirmed in a chilling brevity: “Yes, all but one.” The US Army Air Forces’ 100th Bombardment Group had encountered the unthinkable over Münster, Germany. Of the 18 planes sent out, 13 made it through after five were turned back. Only one plane, a battered symbol of survival, made it back to base.
This sobering mission cemented the 100th Bombardment Group’s nickname, the “Bloody Hundredth,” a name that was evoked with respect and a haunting reminder of the price of war. The mission was one of a comprehensive campaign that would see the Eighth Air Force, to which the 100th belonged, incur losses higher than the total Marine Corps during World War II. In fact, the Eighth was assigned to fight a new type of war, one that soared into the skies over Germany with a newfound ferocity, striking at the jugular of the Axis war machine.
The airmen of the 100th, as their parent division, lived on the razor’s edge of hope and despair. Hattie Hearn, a curator at the Imperial War Museum Duxford’s American Air Museum in England, took their reality: “They knew they had to go out on another mission, and that it wouldn’t stop until they’re either shot down, wounded or they eventually complete their required missions.” It was an emotional toll huge, an ordinary battle against the hanging anticipation of another fatal sortie.
Their tale is dramatized today in “Masters of the Air,” a mini-series that follows in the footsteps of “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific.” It traces the 100th from deployment in 1943 through the end of the war in 1945, a gruesome odyssey realized by such actors as Austin Butler and Callum Turner. Through primary research and consultation with families of veterans, the series honors the sacrifices and valor of these men.
The men’s experience on the Münster mission was perhaps the most horrific challenge of their will. German planes fell upon the bombers, eyewitness account says, with a ferocity never before witnessed, and the Luftwaffe’s focused strafing of the 100th devastated the group, with only one plane remaining to tell the nightmare story upon its return.
