The Cold Blue

It was a surprise to see that William Wyler (Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, Funny Girl) accompanied the US air force on a mission and got to film them in action. Must've been quite the exhilarating experience.

One thing that caught my attention was the part about their superiors raising the number of missions that they had to carry out. It reminded me of "Catch-22" (wherein the superiors keep ordering the pilots to fly more and more missions).

Anyway, "The Cold Blue" is a good documentary. A story like you can't imagine.

We owe so much to these boys plucked from farms, shops, and their homes to fight Hitler in Europe in 1942. These boys left home, some of them not yet 20 years old. Fighting cold, German fighters, and fear of not coming home at the end of a mission, they were the 8th Air Force flying daylight bombing missions against the German fatherland. Flying 5 hours there and 5 back while flying thru German fighters and flak to lay a few bombs on a target they may had hit the day before and the day before that too. Sometimes barely making it home with only part of a tail or on 3 engines to land and have their ground crews patch them up for the next mission. So proud of these teenagers and early 20's boys forced to grow up too fast and too early in a war they didn't start or want either.

Its a monumental presentation of one of the most heiroic war machines ever made, the b-17 bomber ship,and the crews using them up in the cold blue, as presented by on scene documentary makers in 1944. its a historical document of high value, most of it in colour. its a must see if your into war history thinks the grumpy old man

A fantastic tribute to all the brave and heroic men of the 8th Air Force. I would also recommend watching the History Channel Air War.

Stunning original footage with a thoughtful narrative and truly moving recollections from the few remaining veterans.. .Those ignorant enough to condemn the bombing of the third reich as a "war crime" should be sat in a chair and advised to watch this film... This campaign ,as terrible as it was ,put a stop to the V1 rockets the V2 rockets and the gas chambers .Without doubt it saved Europe at a huge cost to the young men of The USAF and RAF and should be properly remembered in exactly this way..