Continuous stressful missions have made the men of 918th extremely fatigued, and put their planes in very bad shape with even more missions to come.
Thomas Carpenter, a pilot who washed out of flight training and was subsequently dishonorably discharged from the service for insubordination, finds his way to England as a civilian and proceeds to ...
A Lt. conspires to make Gen. Savage appear to be mentally unstable, so he can take over his plane and land in Sweden where the crew can sit out the rest of the war.
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Title: 12 O'Clock High (1964–1967)
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This series chronicled the adventures, in the air and on the ground, of the men of the 918th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. First commanded by irascible General Frank Savage, and later by Colonel Joe Gallagher, the son of a Pentagon General. The group is stationed in England, and flies long-range bombing missions into German-held Europe. Written by Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca>
For episodic television, "12 O'Clock High" is solid entertainment. Most of the plots are well conceived, and the writing is, overall, decent. There are some of those stereotypical "If you weren't a general, then I'd pound you" scenes that are teeth grating, but those are few. The production team actually makes each of the scenes in the air interesting - which is hard to do because after a while they could dramatically become the same in that a team of men in a B-17 fly to a target and get shot up. Each one fits. The base scenes fold in what was the standard operations of the time: briefing room with the big map of Europe, the debriefing room, the commanding officer's office and the infirmary. It is television, so there's a certain amount of liberty taken with the "squadron bar" set pieces. I've spoken with veterans of World War II, and I don't think there was a dance every night at the squadron. Where the series departs is the romantic drama. I don't think every body hoofed it into the nearby British pub for fun and recreation. This seems to be melding peace time Air Force American activities that audiences had come to expect some 20 years after World War II had ended. I also don't think "girlfriends" came and went on most bases during World War II as they pleased. If there is one big detraction for me, then it is what I call the "rogue P-47." The production used an insert of a P-47 Thunderbolt fighter firing its six .50 caliber machine guns to represent a Luftwaffe fighter shooting a t B-17s a lot ... almost every episode of the two Black and White seasons. They couldn't find a Focke-Wolfe to substitute out, I guess. The viewer has to look past that. And the women all have 60s haircuts ... Plots are still top rate.