In the excellent World World II series World at War, I remember an RAF pilot saying how the war in the air had a certain alternate reality to it. He elaborates by saying a pilot doesn't feel the same sense of loss or shock seeing one of his friends get shot down as an infantryman would if the latter sees someone get his head blown off or something. This episode of Combat shows how those who fought in planes during the war still had a difficult job just like all other servicemen, especially if they were brought down. The episode begins with a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot named Major Caldwell (Lee Philips) and his wingman being shot down by German planes near Hanley's position. He is told by a jeep driver to go rescue Caldwell, as he is something of a war trophy for the Nazis. Having over 20 enemy planes to his credit, the Major is quite the skilled flyer. After Hanley and the others find where Caldwell is and hide his parachute from german patrols, Caldwell tells the squad that his wingman is nearby and must be safely returned to him before the germans find him. They find Caldwell's wingman in an open field laying on the grass, and Hanley suspects a trap. Sure enough, germans ambush the squad when they approach him. The wingman is killed, along with a Private from the squad. Later, the Major is wounded and Doc attempts to get him to safety via a route Hanley thinks is free of german forces, but Caldwell, outranking Hanley, orders him to take a shortcut through a cornfield. Despite Caldwell's certainty, the squad runs into germans. In the ensuing gunfight, another squad member is killed, and Doc is wounded. Hanley and Caldwell work together in order to ambush a german patrolman and steal his motorcycle. Using it, Hanley drives Caldwell to safety while being chased by a second german bike. Caldwell then takes it upon himself to ride back into harm's way in order to save Doc. The two of them make it back to Hanley, who is waiting to ambush the german cycle with his carbine. After the driver and the guy in the sidecar are both dead, Hanley, Doc and Caldwell get into the second motorcycle and ride off. This episode is alright. The beginning kind of irritates me as someone who likes to read about world war 2. Caldwell is (supposedly) a quadruple ace, having over 20 kills to his name, and yet his flight of Thunderbolts gets bounced by a couple of Junkers Ju-87 dive bombers. The Stuka (as it was called) was a poor choice for air to air combat due to its sluggish speed and non-retractable landing wheels, not to mention its anemic armament which didn't include any cannons. Additionally, the P-47 was a notably difficult plane to bring down, the designers at Republic Aviation doing their jobs well when it came to installing armor plates. I found Caldwell to be not that intriguing as a person, since he doesn't really have anything that makes him special besides being a pilot, and therefore unattached to the ground aspect of world war 2. Being another episode in which Morrow doesn't appear, it was nice to have the focus on Hanley once again. Just a shame he technically isn't in charge anymore once he meets Caldwell.
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