Intrigue

A WWII bomb group commander must fill the shoes of his predecessor and get the performance rating up to snuff. He struggles with his own men, until he is able to develop pride in the group and win the men over, but at a cost to him.

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.—Marg Baskin <marg@asd.raytheon.ca>

This story is based not-to-loosely upon the real experiences of the crew of Frenesi, Captained by William "Pappy" Cely, flying out of Rougham Field, Bury St Andrews. Though the sketch in general is a composite of any B-17's crew at the time, there are unarguable parallels to the Frenesi story, specifically, the mission to Brunswick on February 11, 1944. Cely and his crew flew an inordinate number of missions; more certainly than the required twenty-five. Cely flew Frenesi and her crew on this critical mission to bomb a ball bearing factory in Brunswick this day. The formation received heavier than usual flak and suffered gravely. Upon approaching target, dense, but intermittent low fog made dispatch questionable, and the standard operating procedure would have been let fly and hightail it, but Pappy opted for a go-round, and re-approach to minimize collaterals. There was a school. Well, Frenesi took a lot of heat. She was very badly damaged, but she was rewarded with a break in the fog to allow her to precisely dispense her load. She rattled back to Rougham, held together by her skin alone; her structure being later deemed "the most heavily damaged bird to safely land". She was a miracle, and Cely, a saint.

World War 2. The 918th Bomb Group is part of the US 8th Air Force, tasked with bombing Germany by day. Flying B-17 Flying Fortresses and commanded first by Brigadier General Savage then by Colonel Gallagher, these are some of the missions they took on and the dangers they faced.—grantss