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Major Andy Towson, an exceptional pilot & squadron C.O. cracks up after landing. He is a friend of Savages and has flown about same amount of missions as Savage and has always been a rock. Towson's co-pilot Lieutenant Kemp suggests that as Savage's crew is rotating back to US, Towson's crew is ready to fly with him. Phil Reese is being blackmailed by Kemp who knows that his real name is Phil Chapman and that while drunk he hit and killed a young child back home. Kemp wants Reese to support him to take over the plane and fly it to Switzerland. Kemp distracts Lieutenant Patterson in the pharmacy and steals some uppers & downers from the base pharmacy and then says that they belong to Savage. General Stoneman assigns them to fly a mission to drop leaflets around Innsbruck. In the air Kemp acts as though Savage has cracked up. Savage gets the crew to back him by convincing them that they will be court-martialed and that Kemp is using them. Reese comes to Savages aid and Kemp shoots him. Sa

The 918th is now temporarily part of the 15th Air Force. They fly to a base at Bellagio Foggia Italy commanded by Colonel Yates. Yates is a drunk. Sabotage led by Major Holtzer. Shull is killed.

Savage and the Piccadilly Lily are given a special mission to bomb an oil line in the Säär Valley. Captain Dirksen is a Lead Bombardier from Wing down for the mission. Captain Walters as the alternate Lead Bombardier. Savage's crew has rotated home, so he is using a new crew but needs two new waist gunners. He chooses Waller & Maglie. Waller is actually a bombardier but has excellent gunnery scores. The navigator First Lieutenant Gunther does not want to fly with ""Wash-out"" Waller. Savage chews Waller out for his negative attitude. Waller has a chip on his shoulder because he washed out of flight school then graduated from bombardier school as a Flight Officer and not a Second Lieutenant. On the mission, a bomb gets hung up on the rack and the crew blames Waller as he supervised the bomb loading. Later Waller saves Gunther's life. Captain Dirksen is killed, and the aircraft carrying the alternate lead bombardier is shot down so Waller takes over and makes a perfect bomb run. The plane

A Squadron Commander, Major Joe Gallagher scrubs himself from a mission and his replacement Captain Larry Hollander is killed. Gallagher feels responsible and goes to meet Hollander's girl May. May is a sweet young British girl living with her Aunt Nell. He finds out that they were going to be married, and May thinks he is there to check her out for security so that she and Hollander can be married. When she realizes why Gallagher is there she breaks down. Gallagher starts to look after May and they fall in love. Gallagher finds out that she is pregnant and offers to marry her. He talks with General Savage who will not approve as she has not yet been cleared. May tries to kill herself and Gallagher goes back to Savage. Savage asks Major Stovall to check her out, he calls and she is apparently out at a seedy bar. Savage & Stovall go to check and she is out drinking with another man. When Gallagher confronts her she denies everything then when Gallagher asks her to take a pregnancy test

On a mission to bomb the rail yards at Eissen, Muller the new Navigator performs perfectly but is knocked down during a maneuver. His wallet falls out of his pocket and it contains a picture of a man in a Nazi Uniform. A few minutes later Pike has to break up a fight between Muller & Magill. While Muller is an excellent Navigator his is unpopular because he is German. The fight broke out over the picture Muller keeps of his father in a Nazi uniform. When questioned by General Savage, Muller explains that is his only picture of his father who was an American Bund Nazi. Muller is the lead Navigator on the next mission. Out for walk in the country, Muller meets a deaf girl, Nora and falls in love. Out with Nora, Muller is late for briefing and does not swing his compass before take off. As a result they are off course and miss the target. Muller realizes his error and corrects but the plane is hit and Bombardier Magill is badly wounded. Muller thinking he is dead does not help him. On the

The 511th Fighter Group arrives at Archbury to escort the 918 on the home leg of the shuttle mission. On the way Troper attacks a train making him 10 minutes late for the rendezvous. The 511th does not give the proper recognition codes and one pilot is shot down. On the ground an angry Lieutenant Col. Troper slugs Gallagher. Gallagher tells Troper to forget about it. They are ordered to train together. In London Troper gets drunk, insults Gallagher, and takes off with Gallagher's date Fay. Gallagher orders a brief at 0400, only 12 of the 511th pilots show up. Gallagher has Troper put under house arrest. Merritt leads the fighters and not one bomber is lost.

The 918 lands at Mogador in North Africa to refuel and re-arm. Gallagher's plane lands 21 hours late after his stopover in Yugoslavia. The senior officer is Lieutenant Col. Preston ""Pres"" Gallagher (Joe Gallagher's brother). Pres explains that he has a mixed unit of Americans, British & Australians and he has been barely holding on but ""Infantry holds, that's what they do"". Now that Gallagher has landed safely Pres decides to pull out. Pres takes Gallagher's gas, and sends Captain Strader to blow up the 918th's planes fights. An exhausted Pres collapses and is hospitalized. Major Dutton takes command of ground forces and orders Master Sergeant Orland to prepare to move out. Gallagher radios for gas and the incoming plane is shot down. Pres recovers and decides to fight on. Gallagher sends Lieutenant Col. Bailey with 3 B-17's to bomb the target.

A straggling B-17 joins the formation and it turns out to be a captured plane flown by Germans. It strafes the lead plane flown by General Savage which is shot down. Later it is reported that Brigadier General Frank Savage the Group Commander has been killed and will be buried with full military honours by the Germans. Brigadier General Ed Britt from SHAEF HQ must decide who should take command of the 918. His candidates are the Deputy Group Commander Lieutenant Colonel Joe Gallagher, and the other two Squadron Commanders, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Bailey & Lieutenant Colonel Chick Heindorf. Gallagher is the temporary Group Commander. On the next mission Gallagher's crew shoots down a B-17 who does not acknowledge a signal thinking it is an infiltrator. It turns out to be a legitimate straggler with radio trouble and a wounded crew. When asked by General Britt, Gallagher says he would do the same thing again if the same situation occurred. Because he can make tough decisions, Gallagher

Savage and the Piccadilly Lily are coming in damaged & low from a mission to Blaustadt. On the approach they almost hit some trees and a mansion which is on the approach to the new runway. Savage wants the trees and the mansion removed and goes to see General. Stoneman who is receiving an award from the Archbury Town Council. The house is the ancestral home of the Earl of Archbury, the current resident is Lady Catherine Hammet. Savage goes to see Lady Catherine and is mistaken fro a burglar, Corporal Smith is hurt. Later Savage tries again and meets Group Captain Evans who explains that Catherine has not been outside since the death of her fiancé two years before. Returning from a mission, Savage crashes his plane rather than hitting the house and is badly hurt. He is billeted in Lady Catherine's. house on the orders of Major Kaiser. Savage & Lady Catherine fall in love but she still won't leave the house. In order to set her free Savage orders the destruction of the house with the hel

While working on a plan to bomb Strassbourg, Savage gets trapped in a cellar during an Air Raid. Trapped with him are Lady Constance, Dr Glenway, Miner Bert Higgs and a pregnant woman Eleanor Nicholls. We learn more about the each of the people as they try to free themselves. Dr. Glenway turns out to be Archie Lewis, a lower class con man who redeems himself. After they are freed, Lady Constance decides to open Penrose Hall up as a home for young women like Eleanor.

General Crowe is waiting for Savage to return from a mission, he notices that when the aircraft ""High Flyer"" lands an ambulance rush out to meet it. Out gets a pretty girl dressed in a hula skirt who welcomes the crew. He questions Savage about it. Savage explains he just approved the marriage of one of the gunners, a Hawaiian nicknamed ""Pineapple"" to an English girl, Dorothy Hall. Crowe tells Savage he wants him to meet some one, and whisks him back to his hotel where Savage meets resistance leader Nicole Trouchard. Crowe wants the 918th to bomb two targets on the next mission, first the Rouen marshalling yards, the second being a Gestapo building the French Resistance wants destroyed. Crowe feels this will make the resistance feel that the Americans are true Allies and points out that they need the resistance to help with downed airmen. Crowe also reveals that he and Nicole had a brief affair in the past. Savage is concerned that his men will get hit badly on the second run, Crowe te

Tom Lockridge is a copilot, on a mission the pilot is killed, and he takes over allowing the crew to bail out. His best friend Captain Wade Ritchie disobeys orders and flies cover with his B-17. Back on the ground Savage tells Ritchie he is going to charge him with disobeying an order for leaving formation. When Lockridge returns and finds this out he turns his back on the General. Savage tries to explain to Lockridge the concept of formation discipline, but he is only concerned about his friend. Ritchie draws a court martial and is reduced in rank to 1st Lieutenant. Savage speaks to Libby MacAndrews, Lockridge's girl and she and Savage both keep working on him. On the next mission Lieutenant Ritchie flies as copilot with Savage and they get hit, Lockridge now an aircraft commander realizes he can't break formation.

Axis Sally is broadcasting some very accurate information about the 918th. Including that Savage is going to be killed. When a bomb blast injures 2 men it turns out to be sabotage. Getting treatment for a minor injury, Savage is almost killed by an overdose of 20,000 cc's of morphine administered by a new Nurse, Lt Dietrich. Colonel Reed from G-2 arrives to investigate. Savage leads the next mission and no German planes shoot at Piccadilly Lilly, but shoot down 2 other planes and badly damage 5 more. At base Savage learns that Axis Sally's has made a new broadcast. He aircraft was not shot at as she wants him to die on the 13th. Colonel Reed arrests several people in the Group including Lieutenant Dietrich. Unknown to all Gilly Bright the barber turns out be the spy and he and Savage are going fishing on the River Wye. Gilly tries to shoot Savage on the day after Friday the 13th but at 13:00 hours in compartment 13 on the train; Savage throws him off the train.

Andy Lathrop is an unsophisticated Tennessee boy. Flying as Savage's lead bombardier, he saves Savage's life, gets promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and gets recommended for the DFC. On leave he meets and falls in love with Barmaid Mary Lean and asks her to marry him, she agrees. Later the pub she and her father have is destroyed during an air raid and Mary is killed. Crazed with grief he goes AWOL. He and Savage talk and he reconsiders and returns to duty a little wiser.

Major Jack Temple leads the low Squadron on a raid to bomb the flying Bomb (V2) assembly plant at Laon. His aircraft ""The Lucky Lady"" is hit and he is forced to bail out with his crew. Major Temple and 4 of his crew (Kinner, Nichols, Weinstock & Moody) are captured and taken before Oberst Alfred Hoeptner, the commander of the Laon facility. Hoeptner decides that he is going to keep the men prisoner at the factory to prevent them from being bombed. Major Temple states that it is a violation of the Geneva Convention, and Hoeptner aggress hoping that the Americans will file a protest with the Red Cross. All he needs is a little time to close down the factory and move the machinery elsewhere. Back at Archbury, Frank & Harvey are listening to Lord Haw Haw's broadcast outlining the capture of Temple and the fact that he and his men are being held at Laon. Frank and Harvey head off to the officers club, and when Harvey suggests darts, Savage comes up with the idea of pinpoint bombing the targ

The 918th Group has just finished 21 missions in the 30 days since May 1, 1944. They have been bombing for Operation Point, the lead up to Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. A 10 day leave is authorized then cancelled and instead they are assigned to fly the Overleaf missions, dropping leaflets all over the French coast. Everyone is exhausted from Gallagher on down. General Pritchard tells General Britt that they need all groups in the air. Britt explains he only has two flyable Groups left, 918th & 966th, he has used the 82nd to replace men & aircraft for the other Groups. Later at Wing, General Britt explains to Gallagher that this could be the ""real thing"". Gallagher says he has heard that before. Britt also tells Gallagher that the G-3 is moving up and the position could go to Gallagher if he wants it. On the first ""Overleaf"" mission to Youreville, they get hit by flak and Pat Barstow's ship gets shot down. Back on the ground, Lieutenant Col. Christy is upset over losing

A German unit bombs the 918th's base in Archbury, among the dead are a group of new replacements and a WRAF Sergeant Winifred Broome. The Chaplain anguished over the dead but most especially Winifred, shoots and kills a Luftwaffe survivor parachuting down to the ground

On the way back from a bombing run over the Ruhr valley, bombs are accidentally dropped on Ste Monique. 1st Lieutenant Parks the bombardier is interrogated. A single bomb falls in the village square killing resistance leaders Pierre Fecamp. Two pilots hiding in St Monique escape Major Coefield from the 918th and Captain Pollard from the 511th Fighter Squadron. Pollard has fallen in love with Claudine, the woman who rescued them. She has brought her son to England, he is badly wounded and may lose his leg. Claudine hates Gallagher and is going to kill him. She goes with him to the 918th officers club and sees the pilots get drunk. Meanwhile in Ste Monique, Hauptman Bergdorf says they will not bomb because of the last mission, so now they can put in a German Radar Station. On the way to Wing HQ in Archbury, Claudine tries to kill Gallagher. General Marteen orders the 918th to bomb Ste. Monique that night. In Ste Monique, Marcel Lenoir is killed as he radios information to London.

Due to cloud cover over the target, the 918th led by Major Fitzsimmons is unable to bomb Kiel. They abort loosing 7 planes. Back at base Gallagher makes an angry complaint to General Britt who has a solution, a new Group Weather Officer. The new officer is a woman, Captain Patricia Bates. She is a former Meteorology Professor from UIT who has a new approach to Weather Forecasting. They have dinner with her and her assistant Lieutenant Rogers. The next day Gallagher flies with her in Weather 1, a modified B-17 with only a top turret gun, built for speed. On the mission, the B-17 takes off with Rogers as Meteorologist, gets shot up and Rogers is wounded. The plane comes in on its belly, Bates is upset and wants to quit. Britt orders Gallagher to order her to fly the next mission. Gallagher tells her they need her so she flies with Captain Blodget and finds a path through the storm but the plane is iced up and has to ditch in the channel. Gallagher goes to find her, which he does. The Res

A cashiered pilot slips in for another try.

A shuttle raid is planned by 8th Air Force commander Lieutenant General Harry Owen. Bombers will bomb Ergen Oil Works land in Poltava Russia, then hit Berlin on the way back. A straggling Russian Bomber joins the formation and does not give any recognition signals nor does it respond to Baladin's radio calls. The aircraft is shot down by Major Baladin flying Major Simpson's plane (against Gallagher's orders). Later we learn that the aircraft was piloted by a hero, Major Tobulkan & Captain Chernikov. General Voredenko wants to know who is responsible for this and says that until the man is caught no supplies will be issued. It is the system. Worried that Voredenko will have him shot, Baladin asks Donald ""Doc"" Kaiser for help.

After a tough mission, Gallagher needs a new gunner. Corbett, a replacement has a perfect gunnery score (1000, Komansky only has 400). He takes over from the wounded Staff Sergeant Abbott as Left Waist gunner & joins Gallagher's crew on a practice mission. He spots the target first but his gun jams. The other gunners kid him and he does not join in the after hours fun at the Star & Bottle. Komansky adopts Corbett and helps him, they go to another pub and Corbett meets Gillian. On the next practice mission, Corbett spots a real German FW and shoots it down. He gets promoted to Sergeant but is upset by killing someone. He checks in to the hospital, confesses to being only 15 and runs away to see Gillian at the pub. He comes back to see Gallagher and sneaks aboard for the next mission. Hachensberg is the target. After the other gunners are hit Corbett takes over ands performs well. On the return Gallagher chews him out and says he will get court-martialed. After he is taken away Gallagher

Mission to bomb a refinery & fuel storage area at Kasendorf. A pilot from the 53rd Fighter Squadron, Lieutenant Harley Wilson hits Gallagher's plane while trying to shoot an enemy fighter. Wilson is very eager to fit in, he feels like an outsider and hitting the Colonels plane doesn't help. The young pilot has been trying to get a kill for two months. He goes to the Star & Bottle where he is snubbed by Sandy, tries to chat up Agnes the Barmaid but she is too busy, and even tries to ask out Captain Vincent not realizing she is Gallagher's date. He volunteers for the next mission, a photo recon over Kasendorf. On the Photo recon mission, Gallagher blows a jug while flying a P-51 and has to bail out. Wilson disobeys orders, breaks off & lands while being strafed by enemy fighters and saves Gallagher. He is put in for the DFC and becomes a ""hero"". Later in the Star & Bottle, he is cheered by the group and gets to talk with some Reporters (Harkness, Toley, and Barnes) The Photo Recon shows

After completing On his 25th mission, Major Tom Parsons is going home. At Wing HQ General Britt is chewing out his Group Commander (Fred, Gallagher & ?). Sveringen is the production centre for the new ME-262 rocket powered fighter. They have tried to bomb several times and failed. Gallagher suggests nighttime precision bombing. Britt says the RAF have tried and failed. Gallagher suggests sending in a pathfinder to mark the target by dropping incendiaries on either side. Gallagher picks Parsons to fly the pathfinder mission; he refuses as he has completed his tour. At the officers club Parsons meets his former co-pilot Captain Cowley who has just got out of the hospital. Cowley asks about Parsons girl, Naomi. Is he taking her back to the States with him? Parsons is non-committal. Gallagher orders Cowley to fly the pathfinder mission and gets Parsons to train him. General Britt has been reviewing Parsons orders to rotate back the States; he finds that Parsons has only flown milk runs, ev

B-17 ""Angel Babe"" is returning from a perfect mission to Willemshaven as the Group Lead. Flight Engineer Willets explains that when ""Angel Babe"" leads they always come home safe. On the ground Major Stovall waits with a team from the Public Relations Office (PRO) who are filming & photographing the plane which has completed its 49th mission. They want to take the plane back to the US for a promotional tour as it will be the first in the Eight AF to complete 50 missions. The Flight Engineer, Technical Sergeant Willets thinks that ""Angel Babe"" is a fighter and she won't want to go home this way. The PRO team will fly on the next mission, her last and some of her crew including Willets, Harkness and the two pilots think that ""Angel Babe"" is their lucky charm. The plane blows a tire and aborts the mission. When they land Willets hits Cameraman Staff Sergeant Ben Prinzi to keep him from going back in the plane, because of the live bombs. Major Budd the PRO feels that the crew is trying to s

An escaped POW, 1st Lieutenant Wally Bolen returns to the 918th after 5 months of captivity. He is welcomed by Komansky and promoted to Captain by Gallagher. At the officer's club, they are having a welcome back party; his ""girl"" Ruth is there along with Ken Shaw, a press corps journalist and his buddy Chuck Nielson. Also there are Captains Lewis & Stewart, former fighter pilots. Bolen wants to fly again and gets checked out by Gallagher. The Group is going to be bombing Battenheim again. They will be sending a pathfinder group of 3 in at a low altitude to mark the target. Gallagher chooses Bolen as Flight Leader, and Lewis & Stuart who both have low level experience. On a practice mission, Bolen orders Lewis & Stewart to close up, Stewart flies to close and collides with Bolen's aircraft. Bolen freezes and his plane hits Lewis' plane. Stewart's B-17 crashes, the entire crew is killed and they injure a civilian, the Rector of the Archbury Church. Bolen orders his crew to bail and every

On a bombing mission to Focke Wulfe Factory in Marienberg, East Prussia the 918th is attached by fighters and loose 9 AC & 100 men. The 966th was hit the same way yesterday. Gallagher's radioman overhears the German and Gallagher gets the idea of trying to confuse the Germans by broadcasting on that frequency. . When the group lands they find out that everything on the mission was broadcast by the ""Danzig Lady"". Sandy is dating an English girl, Helen Graham. Seeing her react badly to the ""Danzig Lady"" , Her father is a retired Major in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Helen Graham is really Helen Conboy and her sister Patricia Conboy is the ""Danzig Lady"". Sandy reports it. British Intelligence says it will ask an agent to find out the information. The agent speaks to their contact, a waiter who is being watched by the Gestapo. The waiter is killed by Gestapo agents.

A Legendary World War I fighter ace acting as a Ferry Pilot arrives at Archbury on his way to SHAEF HQ. On the way in the pilot gets killed when Hartley in the co-pilots seat engages some German fighters. The co-pilot is badly wounded while trying to take over the plane. The co-pilot later dies but not before mentioning the incident. Colonel Hartley turns out to be Savages mentor. The 920th Bomb Group will be arriving shortly and General Stoneman is looking for an experienced commander. Savage suggests Major Cobb, then asks Stoneman to consider Colonel Hartley. Hartley is temporarily assigned to the 918 and ignores orders several times. On a final mission Hartley takes his own route & crashes his plane into the target killing himself.

Maintenance problems plague the 918th. General Creighton from G-2 orders the 918th on a mission to drop a spy (Ilka Zradna) into occupied Poland. Aircraft Army 262 has to abort the mission, (Langaard & Hetz are killed) and only 3 crew (Komansky, Rodman, Booker) survive along with Ilka. Back at Group a furious Komansky slugs Podesta and both are busted to Private by Gallagher. General. Creighton informs Gallagher that 20 German saboteurs are known to be in England impersonating Allied airmen and they will be closing in once they can identify the entire Group and the leader. Podesta is later found murdered beside some sabotaged ammunition and it is learned that the saboteurs are on base. It turns out that Podesta was a CIC agent (as is T/4 Thibideaux). General. Creighton orders CIC Major Adams on base disguised as Master Sergeant Young. Gallagher orders a plane on the mission to drop Ilka. He then switches to the Piccadilly Lilly. Just before they take off, T/4 Hansen delivers coffee to

On a bombing mission into Norway, Lieutenant Col. Christy aborts the mission after 10 out his 21 planes get shot down. When he returns, Gallagher sends an angry note to newly promoted Major General Britt asking why the target is secret, ""How can his men keep risking there lives for a secret target"". Summoned by Britt to what turns out to be Britt's promotion party, he is surprised to see his father Lieutenant General Max Gallagher. General Gallagher intercedes with General Pritchard to keep Pritchard from seeing and disciplining Colonel Gallagher.

While trying to bomb Hamburg, the 818th is turned back by flak & fighters over area called the ""Slaughter Pen"". A new German Underground Radar Station is spotting them. Back at Archbury, General Pritchard says that all 3 of his Wings have been turned back. Gallagher says that it is not a target that can be taken from the air, it needs to a ground assault. Pritchard asks Gallagher to get cleaned up and come with him to Brincott Hall. There General Pritchard explains that Brincott Hall has been turned into a Combined Operations Commando School. It is run by British General St John Keighley. General Pritchard explains that SHAEF has approved a commando raid. Gallagher will command the mission and the Air Group, Colonel Percy Vivyan (Lord Brincott) will command the British Commando's and the overall Ground Forces, Colonel Peter Thom will command the American Paratroopers & Rangers, Captain Eddington of the Royal Navy will command the Naval Forces. A Radar Expert is also assigned to the Mis

The Dulabine Shipyard bombing mission is turned back due to overcast. On the ground in Emstad, the German commander, Oberst Erhland is frustrated that he can not attack due to fighter maintenance problems. It will be at least 5 days before the weather overcast clears. Erhland orders Hauptman Schmidt, his maintenance officer to take the time to repair his fighters (18 are in need of repair, 7 are unserviceable). Erhland also talks with his Radar Officer Hauptman Schiller. Back at the 918th's Base, General Britt is waiting and introduces Gallagher to Dr Michael Rink from the Signal Corps. He has a new airborne radar device called Bomb through Overcast (BTO) Radar. Three aircraft sortie on a test mission to bomb Duronde, the BTO performs perfectly and they get an 80% success rate over the target. Dr. Rink has a heart condition and collapses as they complete the mission and his assistant Master Sergeant Zemler has to take over. On the ground, the Germans try and figure out how the American

On a mission after hitting the target a bombing runs, Captain Bradovich's B-17 experiences engine trouble. Tourneau drops back to aide him. Bradovich reports him for lack of air discipline. Talks with Harvey. Goes to officers club and his co-pilot Stan Ainsley tries to get him to join in. He does not but meets Sarah instead. On the next mission, his plane is hit, and Ainsley is wounded. Bradovich orders crew bail out, they do but only Bradovich returns and the other aircraft only see one chute before the plane disappears into the clouds. They locate his crashed aircraft, two bodies, and no survivors that they can find. His new crew is Dickey, Williams, and Flight Engineer Brack. Brack has a ""head cold"" and replaced by Komansky who volunteers. In the air the crew snubs Bradovich, and Komansky understanding that Bradovich is a loner like him, chews out the crew and supports him. Back on the ground, Bradovich finds a tipsy Sarah in the Denby Lion with Lieutenant Tourneau. A drunken Tourne

A flight instructor goes to war.