History Series / MastersOfTheAir

* YouAreInCommandNow
:** When the lead bomber is shot down or has to fall out of formation, the next plane in line taxes over as formation leader and leads the bombaers to its target.

* DramaticGunCock: A staple of the genre, we see aerial gunners racking the bolts on their machine guns as they prepare to defend their bombers from German fighters.

** Successfully bailing out of your burning or crashing aircraft over enemy or enemy-occupied territory will inevitably have the surviving aircrew either become Prisoners-of-War, TrappedBehindEnemyLines, or executed by angry German soldiers or civilians.
*** And in the second case, should any fortunate airmen come across LaResistance in the occupied territories, there's still the chance of getting executed by either the Germans or the Resistance themselves (the latter on the off-chance you're MistakenForSpies or performing a LethallyStupid action).

* TrappedBehindEnemyLines: Any US aircrew who ends up bailing out over enemy or enemy-occupied territory ends up like this by default. Their options, as one Belgian Resistance member tells [[spoiler:Sgt. Quinn]], are to either surrender to German forces and spend the rest of the war in a prison camp, or, attempt to make it back to friendly or neutral territory at the risk of being executed as a spy or saboteur.

* WarIsHell: The show makes no attempt to pretend that aerial warfare is romantic, with bombers being showered in shrapnel from AntiAir batteries, shot apart by fast-moving fighter planes, and at least one case of a plane on a training flight falling out of the air and crashing in a fireball because of pilot error. Even a moment of levity at their home base is interrupted by a German air raid.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: The USAAF and Britain's RAF Bomber Command are on the same side of the war and share the same overall objective, but both have different doctrinal philosophies and are highly critical of each other's methods. This combined with some good old-fashioned CulturalClash leads to members of both services trading jabs whenever they meet, [[BarBrawl sometimes literally]].

It tells the story of the men of the 100th Bombardment Group "Bloody Hundredth" and the African American 332nd Fighter Group "Red Tails" of the United States Army Air Forces, who were deployed in [[WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica Europe]].

* BreatherEpisode: Part Six functions in part as one, with two of its three main plot threads featuring Crosby and Rosenthal both taking time away from the front for some R & R in the aftermath of the Munster Raid. Downplayed, though, in that the C plot [[spoiler:follows Major Egan's efforts to survive and escape after being shot down in the middle of Germany, with him ultimately being captured, nearly beaten to death, and shipped to a German POW camp]].

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: During the heat of battle, a plane might be mistakenly recorded as destroyed when it was just damaged and had to fall out of formation and try to make it to England on its own. The aircrew would then land at the first available friendly airbase and news might not always get back to base that they are safe. When they get back to base, they might find that their possessions have been packed up and their quarters assigned to new personnel. Even worse, letters might have already been sent to the missing men's families.

* TheChainsOfCommanding :
** The senior officers have to deal with the fact that they are sending hundreds of young men on missions where many of them will die. It is even worse for the officers who have to stay on the ground and cannot join their men in the danger

* NeverTrustATrailer: One scene of Bucky standing on the wing of a bomber and howling is paired with inspiring music. In context, [[spoiler: he's drunk and screaming out his frustration over the deaths of his friends, and the fact that he can't feel any grief over it.]]

* ThousandYardStare: Cleven has a particularly intense one after his Fortress barely makes it to Algeria in the aftermath of the Regensburg raid, coupled with learning [[spoiler:almost half their group was shot down on this one mission]].

* TookALevelInJerkass: Bucky's attitude massively shifts in episode 5 with [[spoiler:the loss of Buck]], when his cavalier dismissal of hitting inadvertently hitting Munster's civilian population if their accuracy is off appalls some of his fellow airmen. One perceptively notes that it wasn't the people of Munster that [[spoiler:shot down Buck]].

** The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the main aircraft used by the 100th Bombardment Group. Also included is the P-51 Mustang, decorated in the [[NoseArt distinctive red-tailed paintjob]] of the Tuskegee Airmen.

** Successfully bailing out of enemy or enemy-occupied territory will inevitably have the surviving aircrew either become Prisoners-of-War, TrappedBehindEnemyLines, or executed by angry German soldiers or civilians.
*** And in the second case, should any fortunate airmen come across LaResistance in the occupied territories, there's still the chance of getting executed by either the Germans or the Resistance themselves (the latter on the off-chance you're MistakenForSpies).

* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: During the heat of battle, a plane might be mistakenly recorded as destroyed when it was just damaged and had to fall out of formation and try to make it to England on its own. The aircrew would then land at the first available friendly airbase and news might not always get back to base that they are safe. When they get back to base, they might find that their possessions have been packed up and their quarters assigned to new personnel.

* FromBadToWorse: The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid depicted in Episode 3. First, the weather prevents bomber groups from taking off simultaneously, then the delayed sorties force the 100th to venture alone, which in turn allows the German Flak and fighters to pick each squadron off without difficulty. The end result? The 100th ends up losing almost half of their planes during this mission alone.

** During the Schweinfurt–Regensburg raid, the 100th is part of one of three bomber formations and are tasked with attacking Regensburg. We see that part of the mission but the Schweinfurt of the raid is only mentioned in passing. The other two bomber formations took off late and faced even more German opposition than the 100th.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: There are some discrepancies in the series' timeline. The Sweinfurt-Regensburg raids (Episode 3) took place on 17 August 1943. The last, and 25th, sortie of Memphis Belle, referred to in Episode 4, had actually already happened on 17 May 1943, thus before the Sweinfurt-Regensburg raids. The Bremen raid, referred to in Episode 4 and during which 30 bombers were lost, took place on 8 October 1943, thus 5 months later than Memphis Belle's last sortie.

* RetIrony: A pilot is flying his 25th mission which will enable him to go home. The people back at the base anxiously wait to see if he will return from this final mission. They have a celebratory party ready and if he does not return they can convert it into a wake.