‘Masters Of The Air’ Episode 5 Recap: No Record

“Pilot to crew. Does anyone see any other ships from the Hundredth?”

“Top turret to pilot: negative.” 

“Left waist gunner to pilot: negative.” 

“Ball turret to pilot: negative.” 

“Nose: negative.” 

“Tail to pilot: negative.” 

“Right waist gunner: negative.” 

October, 1943. Two days after the disaster that was the Eighth Air Force’s second raid on Bremen, where Buck Cleven’s B-17 took a direct hit in Masters of The Air Episode 4 ( “Damn Bremen”). And in the sky above Münster, Major Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) is on comms wondering if his fort is really the only one left. This latest raid, targeting the train marshaling yards just east of the city, began as just the latest clusterfuck. With only 17 planes airworthy, their crews dog tired and cobbled together with veterans and new guys, the wing lit out for Germany. But mechanical issues made them 13 before the flak even started, and overall command pilot Bucky Egan only had 11 ships to work with by the time the Luftwaffe showed up and started shooting. Egan’s plane managed to drop its bombs on target, as did a few other aircraft. But the clouds were soon filled with carnage. 

This is Rosenthal’s third mission. Remember, he’s one of the greenhorns who arrived fresh from Army Air Force training in the US, excited to meet star pilots like Egan and Cleven. Now, Cleven is either dead or missing. Egan was forced to bail out of his burning B-17 over enemy territory. (More on that in  a second.) And Rosie’s crew is calling out an airspace completely devoid of Allied planes. Suddenly, more bogeys. Rosenthal’s gunners give the Luftwaffe all they got, but it’s literally ten guys vs. one hundred. And in a spectacular shot that captures the visceral insanity of airborne warfare – part five is the first episode of Masters of the Air to be directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck of Captain Marvel fame – the action shifts to slow motion as two German fighter pilots converge on Rosenthal’s plane, close enough to identify the color of their eyes. 

So what happened with Bucky? His gunners were blown apart by flak and his plane was on fire, but the last thing Egan wanted to do was abort the mission or even worse, hit the bail out buzzer. This raid on Münster was meant to be a payback mission. Payback for Buck. (Part five opened on Bucky smoking a bitter cig and pulling on a bottle in the driver’s seat of a ripped up B-17. “Don’t worry! I don’t even feel it!” he told a crewman, and nobody in the entire European theatre was gonna believe that.) Exhausted airmen, beat up and borrowed planes – whatever. Münster was to be the latest transaction in the succession of payback bombings Bucky’s Polish fling Paulina had given him the moral authority to perform. 

But it didn’t turn out that way. And Egan parachutes into Westphalia, where he quickly hides behind a bale of hay. The adventures of Quinn in occupied Belgium was one thing (Part three, “See You In Algeria.”). But there are no resistance fighters in northwestern Germany. If Egan can manage to fight his way out of this predicament, he should be given the right to wear two pencil thin mustaches. 

The once and still unwieldy cast of Masters of the Air now feels like a check against the inevitability that it would shrink. Back in England, Colonel Harding and newly promoted group navigator Harry “Cros” Crosby are on the tower balcony, scanning the skies over Norfolk. Where are the boys? But it’s only Major Rosenthal’s fort that limps into a landing. It was his valor in the thick of the attack that saved the air crew. Extreme downward evasive action leading to even more extreme “become the target” evasive action, which lured two bogeys right into his rear gunners’ sights. But they’ve dumped onto the hardstand with most of the crew wounded and everyone dazed from the Bloody Hundredth’s latest mission disaster. In after-action interrogation, there’s only one phrase repeated to upper management queries about tail number status and the potential for survivors and chutes. “No record.”    

Masters of the Air will stay with the story of Nate Mann’s “Rosie.” Major Rosenthal’s courage during the Münster mission is one aspect of the series that stays true to history, and Masters will explore his backstory as well as the toll it takes, losing hundreds of his comrades-in-arms after only a few short bombing missions. After so many L’s for the Eighth Air Force, Rosie’s story gives us a new pilot to root for. But hey, don’t stop believing in Bucky. There might be no record of his survival, but if anyone can survive, evade, resist, and escape in enemy territory, it’s Callum Turner’s cocksure flier with the weaponized confidence.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.