Masters Of The Air – Ramrod To Emden
Ramrod to Emden was a a documentary made in 1943 using the 56th Fighter Group under the leadership of Hub Zemke.
Showing a Ramrod Mission (Ramrod being the code name for a bomber escort mission) it shows every aspect of a mission conducted by the 8th USAAF at that stage of the war.
The 56th FG was one of the most storied Air Corps units of World War II. Comprising of 3 fighter squadrons, the 61st, 62nd and 63rd FS, it was the Fighter Group that developed such well known aces like David Schilling, Frances “Gabby” Gabreski, Robert S. Johnson, Fred Christensen , Walker Mahurin, and CO Hubert “Hub” Zemke.
The 56th Fighter Group were also the only 8th USAAF Fighter Group to fly P-47 Thunderbolts for the duration of World War 2, long after the other groups had converted to the P-51 Mustang!
Based on Donald L. Miller’s book of the same name, and scripted by John Orloff, “Masters of the Air” follows the men of the 100th Bomb Group (the “Bloody Hundredth”) as they conduct perilous bombing raids over Germany and grapple with the frigid conditions, lack of oxygen, and sheer terror of combat conducted at 25,000 feet in the air. Portraying the psychological and emotional price paid by these young men as they helped destroy the horror of the Third Reich, is at the heart of “Masters of the Air.” Some were shot down and captured; some were wounded or killed. And some were lucky enough to make it home. Regardless of individual fate, a toll was exacted on them all.
The series features a stellar cast led by Academy Award nominee Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Anthony Boyle and Nate Mann, who are joined by Raff Law, Academy Award nominee Barry Keoghan, Josiah Cross, Branden Cook and Ncuti Gatwa.
#mastersoftheair #austinbutler #callumturner #buckcleven #buckyegan #b17 #flyingfortress #boeing #bandofbrothers
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At an e their Force fighter base on The Invasion coast of England the commander of a combat Wing pins DFCS on Thunderbolt Pilots they won those medals in the Battle of Germany escorting our bombers to their targets ramrod is the Fighter’s name for an escort job and the ramrod begins at bummer
Command the route and the plan for the job comes over the Scrambler phone into the combat Ops room at fighter command the time is late afternoon October 1st 1943 and the mission is ramrod to emden tomorrow let’s draw it on the maps have
A look at the job it’s to be a big deal almost 400 bombers and here’s their route into the Target and out again 300 miles and more each way and where do they want fight to cover where are the Rendevous points that’s the key to a ramrod
Job and so the details are sorted out and boiled down into the field order by A3 the deal is all wrapped up but still General Kepner fighter Commander must check before he gives the final okay that releases the whole complex Machinery of another attack in the Battle of Germany from fight a command
Through fighter Wings the field order goes by a teleprinter and finally at about 2100 hours the order cluts over the printer at the base of the 56th Fighter Group the same ramrod order reaches the group Ops room and here is where words are translated into a weapon translated into the ram rod to
Emden First draw down the bomber route to the Target and home again and then the route of the Thunderbolts of the 50 sixth group and all important the rendevu point and the rendevu time always that emphasis on time because time is gasoline and gasoline may make the difference between success and
Failure of this Mission 90 seconds is your margin for error at the Rendevous point but in those 90 seconds a whole group of fortresses can be wiped out if Fighters miss the rendevu early on the morning of October 2nd the S2 officers prepare the maps for
Briefing the pilots who will fly to mden in this room the attack order that began at bomber command completes its Journey Down In The Fighter Group in another Nissen Hut a group operations officer reaches for the telephone briefing at 1330 hours got it briefing at 1330 hours Roger it’s a tank
Job so get them on and the same order goes out to the Ops offices of the other squadrons in the 56th Thunderbolt group and in each Squadron now the pilots are taking it easy they know a job is cooking and take it easy now boys because soon the tension begins and soon
The pilots will know which names a down for each team on today’s Ram Rod to emden each squadron commander knows his men and wise as a football coach he lines up his team flight by flight are out around the field the ground Crews put on the belly tanks that the
Thunderbolts will need today to do their job the name of this Slugger is little cookie and the two crosses record the Huns that have been blown to kindling by the eight guns in the wings of these rugged Fighters two things these Fighters can do better than any
Hun they can dish it out and they can take it they have to do plenty of both the guns are loaded the tank is on and finally the gas the precious gas back at headquarters the group coo studies the job in the Ops room a veteran of more than 80 missions he
Knows full well what these lines on the map mean to planes and Pilots like a tuscanini or a Benny Goodman he must absorb and memorize the music because he leads the job today and next let’s check with stormy the weather officer over the sea to landfall 6/10 clouded low altitudes the Dutch Island
Should be open for a landmark but expect an overcast in the Target area the wind clocks at 110 mph at 30,000 ft from the West so get down low coming home or you might not get home and then the S2 officer checks the FL map those red
Areas up there on the Dutch Coast spell danger any aircraft guns are down below that reach up to 30,000 ft so look out and now in the briefing room the S2 officers in the Ops officers wind up the job of laying out today’s mission on the Large Scale map and outside now from
Scouted corners of a station that is sprawled all over the English Hills carefully dispersed to guard against sneak Raiders the 50 or more pilots who will go out today in Thunderbolts arrive at the briefing Shack on battered bicycles and some in the always reliable Jeep if it weren’t for the bikes and the
Jeeps you’d have to spend half of each day just walking between the places you have to go on the average fighter station in Britain the bomber Crews were briefed hours ago for today’s ram rod to emden a fighter briefing is plenty serious 50 or more pilots for the day’s
Job file into the briefing Hut and there they sit down the co comes in and the briefing begins well here it is the big big friends are pasting Amden today we’re to give fighter cover from zood Camp over the Target and back out again to the Sea
And then partway home the 56 will lead the show in we escort the lead box of bombers we’ve got to give them head gone cover nothing must break through the fourth Fighter Group covers the tail of our task force and there should be over a hundred of us
The b7s will be in three boxes of 60 each altitude 25,000 ft the course home is 249 de magnetic and remember our Rendevous with the bombers is at 1548 at zud Camp they’ll be to the north of us start engine at 1443 take off 1449 to 1458 set course 1503 at 3,000
Ft course out 80° Target 89° 1600 course back 249 land at 1722 carefully on the back of his hand each pilot writes down the dope on the day’s job and now back to the co again my wing men white two will relay messages and work on the bomber Channel for the
Takeoff I will lead the 61st off runway 5 the 62nd will queue up on Runway 6 after I take off the 63rd will move into position and be ready to shove as soon as the runway is cleared and now the dope on the enemy flacking Fighters for the day’s job from the S2
Officer a flack map shows you where you may have trouble today heavy flack around in muton and Amsterdam and over the target so open up stay out to see on the way home German fighter strength is heavy here look out for twin engine rocket ships they’ll be below you keep
Your eye out for them and don’t let them through to the bombers and now the dope on the weather weather will be important today because the bombers are going to hit the Hun through heavy Cloud the weather officer takes over the briefing now you’ll see just about enough ground
To today to know the Earth is down below the target area and the whole stretch of the zider Z in Holland would be pretty well covered the front over to the west of us won’t affect the base for your return there’ll be scattered Cloud winds above are 110 mph at 250° contrails are
Possessed at 31,000 and now with the time check the briefing will come to an end this moment is dramatic in its tension and important 4,000 men will be in the air on this ram rod to emden all 4,000 must be synchronized to the second okay boys good
Hunting Jeeps will carry Pilots to the planes in England as in Burma or in Italy General mud hang hang to your feet like everything else in every Army the Jeep must carry twice the load it was designed to do 54 Pilots ride out to 54 planes none
Of them know what ahead but they aren’t worried because so far this group has shot down Huns at the rate of 4 for one the crew chief helps the pilot into his shoot and crew chiefs worship their planes and their pilots and they always say good luck sir see you later and
Sometimes they may say how about lending me a pound until tomorrow boss and now the time for start engine Years 6 minutes after the first engine starts the first Squadron must begin the takeoff 7 minutes later all 54 planes must be [Applause] Airborne crew chiefs ride the wings to guide the pilots into the tight pack lineup on the runways remember no seconds can be wasted now these Thunderbolts will need every thimble of gas to get to the Target and fight and then get home again today there goes the
Flare and there goes the first pair like sprinters at the star is gone The leader will fly three miles out make a slow turn and then before he finishes a half turn of the field the 16 planes of his Squadron plus two spares must be airborne and in position the first Squadron is off and the second gets away from the other
Runway the third Squadron moves into red is where the first Squadron took off 2 minutes ago One slow climbing turn all three squadrons will assemble and form into a huge V the lead Squadron in the center the spearhead the flights fly in a four ship V eight aircraft operating as a section the trailing section flying 500 ft above the other the two spares of
Each Squadron straggle behind now the whole group sets course on 80° a slow climb to the Dutch Coast the open up into battle formation 3 hours from now home again if you’re lucky from other fields other fighter groups take off Thunderbolts and lightning in the Battle of Germany a Fighter’s first
Last and only job is to protect the bomber Thunderbolts must climb to High cover positions above the bomber climb slow and Compact and then open up each Squadron to its planned position throttles are kept pretty well forward so Fighters must weave in orbit to cover the slow obom sometimes our Fighters will pull
Out 5 miles ahead to break up the frontal attack by the Hunts the Thunderbolts operate like interference in football taking out the Tactic While they are still climbing the fighters stay in close then it’s wide open the throttles are blasted forward as the combat begins The bandits are sighted and begin their slashing attacks through the bomber formations and the Thunderbolts are on top of the Attackers You see those two flares green green distress signal a bummer needs help and here come two [Applause] Thunderbolts there goes what was a Hunt there goes the other pair of the Flight And now a snaky string of lightnings moves into the battle they are the fighters that cover the bombers on deepest penetrations into Germany Remember this yes you can out diive anything you’ll meet in the Battle of Germany keep on his tail and in the end you’ll get Him you run wide open and you got to Reef it In watch these Huns the single engine jobs always hit the fortresses from the Front going into the bombing run you’ve really got to protect the bomber because they’ve got to fly straight in level through flen fighters to get their bombs onto the pinpoint targets down Below the opening of The Bombay is the signal for the bandits to press home their attacks the bandits know that the Forts and Libs cannot take evasive action until their bombs are away the bombarder must forget his nose guns now and concentrate on that bomb site through cloud of clear skies those eggs
Must go down and find the Target and it’s up to you to help the bombers lay those eggs on targets like these and now the battle moves on on some missions all the bombers go for a single Target on other days several task forces will Hammer different Targets For Oh And now a fresh Fighter Group moves into the scramble It’s Hammer Hammer Hammer every mile of the way when Engine Huns come up now with their long range rocket guns watch this Explosion that was a Rocketeer after all the boms are away the fortune livs must fight their way home again that’s not easy because many of them are cripples now and now is when fresh fighter groups speed into the battle to help their big friends get back to Britain Oh here come the wing prints across the sky that mean fresh fighter stength Brother The Battered bombers are plenty glad to see it you see the whole story in these contrails the broad Mass trails are where the bombers turn for home and there are the single streaking trails
That show how the Thunderbolts weave above the Homing bombers as top cover look at that fors tail a 20 mm chew it off some of the bombers are bound to get it there goes one of the big boys spinning [Applause] down some of the fighters get it too there’s the single shoot of a thunderbolt pilot floating down many of the men shot down over Germany are still alive prisoners of War there are the black smudges of the Flack that come up from the anti-aircraft guns below
Battle stays hot as ever through flen Fighters as the forts move on and onto the coast sometimes the battle goes on halfway across the channel welcome is the sight of the coast of England but even then the battle is not ended for God’s crippled planes must still be
Landed and often that is not easy the battle damage Fighters lip home to land ahead of their group watch this Landing his right tire is shot away easy hold [Applause] it at last he down and now a group of Lightning’s land now the 56 group comes home flight after flight will peel
Off a new flight moves into peel off position as each proceeding flight goes into the Approach hurry hurry because gas is Low the first first it down in Cross order they must clear the end of the field as fast as possible each plane taxes to its own hard standing widely dispersed around the field the Jeeps that took the pilots to their planes now take them back to the [Applause]
Interrogation a pretty happy Bunch they got four Huns and lost none of their own planes today now this is the Thunderbolt group that swore back last April that they would knock down 100 Huns by hesis day and they made it with two to spare the S2 officer the pilots call him the
Spy conducts the interrogation it’s a lot different from the last time they were together and they were tense and expectant at briefing the Spy will ask well how about the rendo and Gabby a squadron leader will reply we hit it on the nose 1558 at zot camp and then the
Spy will say okay okay and now for the claims how many Huns did you get today well I blasted One Park wolf at that Island he took plenty of lead but he went down and then another one I parked him on a cloud nice shooting brother and
How about our big friends did anybody see any bumbers go down yeah I saw one six guys bailed out any more claims yeah I got one of those rocket carriers he tried to get away but I nailed him and so it goes another ram rod comes to an
End it’s been a good one only four bumbers were lost today thanks to the fighters Bottoms Up The Hunting was good [Applause] a