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Review of “Masters of the Air” TV series

Masters of the Air

Review by Richard Howe

Masters of the Air is a World War II miniseries on the Apple TV streaming service. There are nine episodes in all, released weekly beginning on January 26, 2024. If you’re into binge watching, all are now available.

The show follows pilots and crew of the 100th Bomb Group which flew B-17 bombers from England over occupied Europe from 1943 until the end of the war. Masters of the Air complements Band of Brothers from 2001, and The Pacific from 2010, to form a trilogy of World War II streaming series. Now all we need is one about the U.S. Navy, although as far as I know, nothing like that is being considered.

This latest edition does not sugarcoat the experience of these aircrews, many of whom died in combat. In the early years especially, flying these planes was near suicidal and the show emphasizes the strain and trauma that surviving crews endured, especially with the knowledge that they had to go back and do it over again the next day and the day after that and the day after that.

The program strives to depict many of the experiences of these men including the struggle to jump from an out-of-control airplane; the extreme cold they operated in due to the high altitude they flew at; the experience of surviving a shoot down only to be placed in a prisoner of war camp; how the western European “underground” helped some downed flyers make it safely back to England; and the importance of the maintenance workers who kept the planes flying.

The show also explores the morality of strategic bombing in World War II. The planners and theorists maintained (publicly, at least) that only military targets were being bombed, but the crewmembers knew full well that most of the bombs fell on neighborhoods, killing hundreds and even thousands of civilians.

An early episode features an argument between the newly arrived American flyers and more experienced British bomber crews over the wisdom of daylight bombing which the Americans did versus nighttime raids done by the British. American theorists maintained that flying in daylight made aiming the bombs more precise and that, with 10 heavy machine guns each, the American “Flying Fortresses” (called that because of all the machine guns) could protect themselves from enemy fighters. The British maintained that dropping bombs from 30,000 feet was inherently inaccurate, day or night. Whatever accuracy was lost by operating at night was offset by carrying more bombs due to the reduced weight of fewer machine guns and crew members. It’s an argument that has no winner, although given the high toll taken on the American planes by German fighters and antiaircraft artillery, the British approach seems to have made more sense.

The show’s title, “Masters of the Air,” comes from a book by that title but refers to the air superiority that was achieved by the Allies by the middle of 1944 and the D-Day invasion. A big part of this was the deployment of more advanced American fighter planes, particularly the P-51 Mustang, which had the range to accompany the bombers all the way to their targets and the capability to outperform almost every German fighter plane.

This development is depicted on the program by a squadron of Black American fighter pilots, some of the esteemed Tuskegee Airmen. The program uses these characters to highlight the racism endemic in American society at the time.

Even if Allied air superiority reduced the threat from enemy fighters, German antiaircraft artillery, known as flak, was still deadly to the bomber crews. One of the final episodes graphically depicts this, and builds upon the experience of a surviving crew member who bailed out over Russian lines and, before being repatriated, observed firsthand a recently liberated Nazi concentration camp and all the dead civilian prisoners inside of it.

If you’re interested in military history and have an Apple TV subscription, I recommend watching Masters of the Air.

In Pencil

In pencil – (PIP #28)

By Louise Peloquin

L’Etoile published many accounts of young locals serving abroad during World War II. Here is an example:

L’Etoile – June 30, 1944

Soldier Marcouillier proud of his experiences

Words of gratitude addressed to the Franco-American Club of Dracut which is interested in the soldiers.

     In a letter of thanks to Joseph Chanelle, President of the Franco-American Club of Dracut, soldier Raymond Marcouillier, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Marcouillier, 120 Colombia Street, says he is proud to have participated in the campaigns in North-Africa, Sicily and Italy. Member of the American Army third infantry division, one of the best he says, he drops details which suggest his proximity to danger.

     “The other day” he said “I had the happiness of getting my hands on a famous New York newspaper. The first thing I noticed was the column stating that everything was calm on the Italian front. Alas, this was not the case and our casualties attest to it. Those were not birds flying at night making an infernal racket; those were not apples crashing on the ground and exploding to create holes twice their size.”

     He added “I do not want you to fear the horrors of war but too many people seem to believe that it does not exist. What threatened to weaken the morale of our fighters here during these most somber days was seeing that a certain percentage of people refused to work in order to receive more money. What would happen if we, the soldiers, had done the same thing? I am convinced however, that the Franco-Americans are not in this category.”

     And to end, solider Marcouillier, who is the son of the Franco-American Club treasurer, offers his best wishes for the increasing success of this organization and expresses the desire to join it upon his return. He also explains that his letter is written in pencil because “the other day a bomb hit close to me and broke my pen.”

     Soldier Marcouillier attended Saint Joseph High School and joined the army two years ago. His military training took place at Fort Meade Maryland. (1) 

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1) Translation by Louise Peloquin.

Book Retells our Lives with Love, Loss and Hope by Marjorie Arons Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog.

An Unfinished Love Affair: a Personal History of the 1960’s by historian and biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin is the book I have been waiting for, and it doesn’t disappoint. It is an intimately told, stunningly impactful history of the 1960’s told through the eyes of her husband, presidential speech writer and himself a shaper of history, Dick Goodwin. Full disclosure: Doris is a dear friend, a relationship spawned 45 years ago when she was a panelist on my Sunday morning political discussion program Five on Five. My husband, Jim Barron, and I hold dear the friendship we shared with both Doris and Dick.

Dick was, with Ted Sorenson, speech writer for JFK and had been one of the driving forces behind the Alliance for Progress in Latin America, the Peace Corps, the work with Jackie Kennedy on the arts that became the National Council on the Arts, and other New Frontier initiatives. After the Kennedy assassination, Dick stayed on with Lyndon Johnson, crafting the most memorable speeches of LBJ’s “Great Society” program, which term he coined, as well as history-making civil rights addresses.  (Doris met Dick in 1972 and married him in 1975, just after she had helped Johnson write his memoirs and just before she published her own Lyndon Johnson and The American Dream.)

For readers of a certain age, stories of the battle for civil rights, the challenge to LBJ’s war policy, the grassroots building of the anti-war movement, the spirited youthful campaign to back Gene McCarthy’s presidential bid will resonate. So, too, will Dick Goodwin’s anti-war passions taking him to support McCarthy when his friend Bobby Kennedy demurred, his moving to RFK when Kennedy finally got into the race, and, still grieving after the assassination, returning to McCarthy. Goodwin, a brilliant, intense personality often described as a loner or enfant terrible, would turn afterward to teaching and writing, including a play based on Gallileo’s challenge to the Pope about the solar system. Dick’s take on that epic battle between titanic powers was surely informed by Dick’s own experience among the most potent players in our country.

This book is an emotional trip down memory lane. What were you doing during this event or that? For those of us who took sides between JFK and LBJ, this book provides an opportunity to rethink our views of each.

Dick had saved everything – speeches, drafts of speeches, transcripts of conversations, tapes,memorabilia, letters, diaries – in hundreds of boxes stored in their Concord home, not even in chronological order. Doris, in her ‘70’s, and Dick, in his ‘80’s, together went through these materials in preparation for this new book, truly a product of her love of him and their shared love of history and politics. An Unfinished Love Affair includes their ongoing conversations over three years about the events of the sixties, and Doris’ ancillary research following up Dick’s unfinished stories. After Dick’s death in 2018 at the age of 86, she turned to writing this book, a triumphant history-infused, deeply personal memoir.

Dick’s writing remains powerful to this day.  His famous “We Shall Overcome” speech that LBJ delivered to a joint session of Congress to launch the push for the 1965 Civil Rights Act still brings tears to the eyes. Dick’s deep knowledge of the law (he was editor of the Harvard Law Review and clerked for Justice Felix Frankfurter), his memory for history, literature, including poetry, and his visionary dreams that America might one day fulfill the promise of its founding documents have stunning impact. His writings are stark reminders of the dearth of such lofty and inspirational writing today.  I didn’t start writing professionally until 50 years ago, and his writing is of a quality to which, even half a century later, I can only aspire.

The book is occasionally more dewy-eyed than a hard-hitting expose of the underbelly of the political world, and various events and people, of necessity, are omitted. Doris has done a remarkably deft job of weaving together history, her personal relationship with her beloved husband, their parallel lives at different stages, his singular writing and activism, her own political coming of age, and her rise to prominence as a notable historian and biographer. It is silken in its tapestry.

An Unfinished Love Affair” captures the spirit of the 1960’s, when, despite three shattering assassinations, urban riots, and the buildup of the war in Vietnam, people had hope and the will to push for fulfilling the promise of our national ideals. As Doris so eloquently puts it, the lasting gift of the sixties was not the violence and turmoil but “the spark of communal idealism and belief that kindled social justice and love for a more inclusive vision of America.” This reader wants to reach back, scoop it up and force-feed it to the so-called leaders of 2024. Better still, require it be read by the young adults among us, to quell their cynicism and inspire them that they have the capacity to bring about change for a better world.

Lowell Politics newsletter: April 21, 2024

Much of Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was devoted to the need for sidewalks on Campbell Drive, a 1960s-era residential street in the Highlands that’s home to the Bailey Elementary School. The school, which was constructed in the 1990s, is set back from the road and connected to Campbell Drive by a narrow driveway squeezed between two houses, so parents and caregivers picking up students must park on Campbell Drive awaiting dismissal. They park on both sides of the road and on neighboring streets. Without sidewalks, children walking from the school to their rides, or the few who walk all the way home, must walk in the street which creates a dangerous situation.

The council asked the City Manager to study this and come back with a report but if this was an easy problem to fix it would have been done long ago since the problem that exists today is not a new one.

A couple of observations: Other than arrival and dismissal times on school days, Campbell Drive is a lightly traveled, relatively wide residential street like many others in that part of the Highlands so walking on the street (as I often do since I live nearby) does not feel dangerous. While sidewalks are generally a good thing, they are expensive to construct and so the quantity that can be installed is limited. As one resident who spoke on this issue pointed out, stretches of outer Westford Street, Stedman Street, and outer Chelmsford Street, all lack sidewalks and are far more dangerous to walk or bike on every minute of every day and probably are more in need of sidewalks than on Campbell Drive (although the speaker emphasized they did not oppose sidewalks there).

And “neighborhood schools” are not necessarily the answer. As Lowell grew through the 19th century, when new neighborhoods with new houses were constructed, the city would just plop a school in their midst. But in the 1990s when the city embarked on a massive school building program (which was available because the city had adopted a “controlled choice” school assignment program that is still in place today and still subject to US District Court supervision), the new schools were built on whatever vacant space the city could find. Those lots were not in the middle of neighborhoods but were usually on the periphery or in areas that were otherwise unbuildable (as is the case with the Bailey School). In other words, these schools were not built in places that are easy for children to get to on foot, even if they live nearby. Consequently, most parents and caregivers who do not qualify for bus transportation because they live too close to the school, will still drive their children to and from school. If the number of children riding buses is diminished, that will add more cars to the dropoff/pickup chaos.

All this is not to say that the issue at the Bailey School should be ignored. It should not, because it’s a hazardous situation. But it’s one that is likely duplicated at every school in the city. It’s also to point out that there is no quick fix and that it’s a problem of long duration. It’s important to continue to attack the problem, but it’s equally important to bring a sense of realism to the struggle.

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While we’re on the subject of road chaos, the Council’s Transportation Subcommittee had an interesting meeting back on April 2, 2024. That meeting flowed from a response to a Councilor Wayne Jenness motion that asked for a report on bike and pedestrian accidents. City Transportation Engineer Elizabeth Oltman used her report to highlight a federally mandated Vulnerable Road Users Assessment done by MassDOT.

A “vulnerable road user” or VRU, is anyone not in a vehicle who uses the road. This would be pedestrians and bicyclists mostly. The MassDOT ranked all communities in terms of their VRU risk. Lowell was tenth on that list, and most of the deaths and injuries here happened in what Oltman called “environmental justice neighborhoods,” specifically, the Acre, Lower Highlands, and Back Central. Besides conducting this study, MassDOT has followed up with grants to the city to create action plans for the relevant neighborhoods and is also assisting with “low-cost, high-benefit, quick-turnaround projects” that can help.

During the subcommittee meeting, Oltman shared some general principles worth highlighting:

• People will walk or bike if they feel safe; if they don’t feel safe, they won’t.
• The slower that motor vehicles go, the fewer the incidents involving vulnerable road users there are.
• If a road is designed for traffic to move at 40 mph, simply putting up a sign that says “Speed Limit 25 mph” won’t reduce the speed on the road.
• The city has accumulated “a lot of planning documents” but now “we have to implement” the plans.
• On major connector roads, bike lanes must be physically separated from car travel lanes; it’s not enough to just put a line on the pavement; you have to physically separate them to create the level of safety needed to encourage bicycle usage.
• To the question, “How hopeful are you that this will work?” Oltman replied, “our bike lanes don’t lead anywhere and people don’t feel safe riding on the ones we do have” which implies she’s not optimistic absent a major change in attitude and policy.

Perhaps those changes might be triggered by the coming UMass Lowell LINC development on the school’s East Campus. Subcommittee members (Councilors John Descoteaux, Wayne Jenness, and Vesna Nuon) specifically asked about that. Ms. Oltman said UMass Lowell planners want people who reside in the LINC area to feel safe and comfortable getting to downtown Lowell by walking and biking without feeling the need to drive there.

A major cause of the challenges we now face is a set of miscalculations made by urban planners back in the 1960s. Back then, newly affordable cars and single-family residences in the suburbs caused city dwellers to relocate. Planners assumed that the jobs held by those new suburban residents would remain in the city, so the planners sought to create high speed roadways to rapidly get the suburbanites to and from their urban jobs. In Lowell, that gave us the Lowell Connector, the Sampson Connector (which is the official name of the Thorndike-Dutton corridor), and Father Morissette Boulevard, to name a few.

The first miscalculation was that the jobs would stay in the city. They did not. Instead, they followed the workers to the suburbs. The second miscalculation was to disregard the harm these “connector roads” which were essentially multilane highways would have on the neighborhoods they passed through. Think of how Dutton Street physically separates the Acre neighborhood from downtown. Distance-wise the walk time from the National Park Visitor Center to St. Patrick’s Church is negligible, but having to cross Dutton Street requires so much thought and preplanning that you would rarely consider walking between these two logically connected places. The same experience exists going from upper Merrimack and Moody Streets to Lelacheur Field. You just don’t think about walking between the two.

Had this road design improved the experience for those driving in cars, you might ask whether the tradeoff was worth it, but that’s not the case. The promise of “high speed connector roads” mostly resulted in more traffic and longer waits than would be the case if people chose multiple routes through a standard road network, a network that would have the added benefit of creating a safe setting for people walking or riding bikes.

Finally, the whole, “I never see anyone riding bikes” attitude expressed by some is both ignorant and misleading. People don’t ride bikes in Lowell for two reasons: they don’t feel safe doing so and the bike network, such as it is, doesn’t go anywhere. There are a few random bike lanes that go from one unconnected point to another, but there is no coherent network that would support bikes as an alternative to cars for those interested in using two wheeled transport.

Between the new Lowell High School at one end of Father Morissette Boulevard and the coming LINC development at the other, the city has a chance to get this right after nearly 60 years of reinforcing a failed urban planning strategy. Hopefully the opportunity won’t be missed.

If you’re interested, the Traffic Subcommittee meeting is on the LTC YouTube channel.

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If you’re reading this early on Sunday, I’m leading a Lowell Cemetery tour today at 10am starting from the Lawrence Street entrance to the cemetery. The tour is free and will take 90 minutes. Plenty of parking is available within the cemetery. Enter “1010 Lawrence Street” in your GPS for directions.