Adam Makos is a New York Times bestselling author who has written a number of books about the Second World War including A Higher Call, one of the best-known books about WWII bombers in Europe.
Masters of the Air is a 2024 American war drama television miniseries currently streaming on Apple TV+.
Based on the 2007 book of the same name by Donald L. Miller, the series follows the actions of the 100th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force in during World War II. The series serves as a companion to Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010).
A Higher Call
A Higher Call tells an incredible true story of a horrifically battle-damaged American B17 Flying Fortress limping its way back to its base in England with dead and wounded on board when the crew encounters a German fighter.
Convinced that the fighter is coming in for a final finishing blow, the American crew is stunned when it realized that the German pilot has no intention of shooting the bomber down, choosing instead to give it an escort over the English Channel.
While not the source material for the TV series, Makos’ book A Higher Call is one of the most well-known book about WWII bombers and he offers some sharp insight into the historical importance of a series like Masters of the Air.
With so many of us the children and grandchildren of World War II veterans, who are passing away on a daily basis, it’s vital that we keep their legacies and memories alive for future generations.
Interview Excerpts
Historical accuracy of Masters of the Air
I think it’s a pretty darn good representation. Rumors where they spent $200 million on this. They’ve been working on it for a decade. But really, it’s like a time capsule. That’s the way I look at it.
You’re getting to see the recreation of a bomber base in England. They built three B-17s that are used for ground scenes and taxiing. And sometimes they hoisted them up on cranes. They literally rebuilt three of these aircraft. They can’t fly, but they built them.
You get to see, you’re going to get to see a POW camp. You get to see London. You’re going to get to see officers clubs. You’re getting to see the lives of these guys. And so it’s a priceless show for that reason. And the aerial combat is pretty spot on.
No place to hide in a B17
They flew with the windows open. So when you’re going for your ride, as I did, and you did, we’re getting to like, we’re running around the bomber, looking out the waste window, going up to the nose with the glass and in the radio room. The wind is blowing in there, but you forget that there is less than a quarter of an inch of skin around that aircraft. It’s literally a tin can flying in the air.
And that’s what makes it so incredible and so tragic when you watch sometimes the old footage of these planes getting shot to pieces because you realize that these bullets are going right through that plane from one end to the other. There’s nowhere to hide up there. It was a scary, scary place to fly.
And I feel like the TV series is showing people that. And it’s showing me what Charlie Brown was talking about all those years ago when he told me his story.
Aerial combat seemingly in slow motion
There was a scene in episode five of Masters of the Air where a German fighter pulls up next to a B-17. And all of a sudden it’s in slow motion, and the American and German pilots make eye contact
with each other. And that’s all I could think of was your book A Higher Call when I saw that scene.
It gave me a chill, Jim. And it also it’s that reminds you of the humanity. It reminds you that that guy and that other cockpit might be as scared as I am. And that’s why this story of Franz and Charlie is so special.
And not because I wrote it. It’s because they lived it. It was real.
And we get to follow all their battles leading to that moment where their eyes meet. And then we get to follow what Franz did after that. How do you go back and how do you fly till the end of the war? You have to get back in the cockpit. You have to fight your enemy now and you know he’s a human. And you’ve spared him and you don’t want to be there.
It makes for a heck of a drama.
Learn more about author Adam Makos at www.adammakos.com.
