On September 15th, the classic HBO produced WWII series Band of Brothers and The Pacific are premiering on Netflix.
And, on September 20th, the long-awaited, much-anticipated series Masters of the Air premiers on AppleTV+. This series, over ten years in production with a budget in excess of $300 million dollars and produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the team that brought us Band of Brothers and The Pacific, focuses on the lives and achievements of the B-17 pilots and crews who flew missions over Germany from their bases in England.
Starring Academy Award nominees Austin Butler (Elvis) and Barry Keoghan (Banshees of Inisherin) along with other renowned young actors, this 9-part series should deliver the same riveting, heart-wrenching drama as did their predecessors.
We can’t wait.
For those who want to learn more about the real-life experiences of combatants from a documentary perspective, we recommend:
Pistol Packin’ Mama Missions of B-17 (Stream for FREE on Tubi here!), considered by some to be the best documentary ever produced on the B-17 and its crews (“Masterful film” wrote Don Miller, author of Masters of the Air, the book on which the Apple production is based; and, “One of the very best . . . an emotionally moving film” by M. Paul Holsinger, editor of the book War and American Popular Culture);
Peleliu 1944 Horror in the Pacific (Stream for FREE on Tubi here!), featuring interviews with Eugene Sledge, the main protagonist of The Pacific;
17th Airborne the Bulge to Rhine (Stream for FREE on Tubi here!), focusing on the 681st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, whose combat experience mirrors that of Band of Brothers’ Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment as they, too, survived the Battle of the Bulge and crossed the Rhine into Germany.
All of these films, as well as our fourth film Fighting 17 the Jolly Rogers (Stream for FREE on Tubi here!), can be streamed free on Tubi and are available to purchase on DVD through our website or Amazon.
—Jeff Hohman, Producer, American Hero Series
]]>Premiering 6/7 on HBO Go and HBO Now is a documentary film on the B-17’s, their pilots, and crews. HBO released the following information about the film:
Directed by Erik Nelson (Dreams with Sharp Teeth, A Gray State), The Cold Blue takes an inside look at the daily life of men of the Eighth Air Force, who flew mission after deadly mission in World War II. The film features newly restored 4K footage and outtakes, shot by director William Wyler (Oscar winner for The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben-Hur and Mrs. Miniver) for his 1944 documentary The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.
In 1943, William Wyler, one of Hollywood’s most renowned and versatile directors, went to Europe to document the air war in progress. Wyler and his crew flew actual combat missions on B-17s, during which one of his cinematographers was killed. Incredibly, all of the raw color footage Wyler shot for The Memphis Belle was recently discovered in the vaults of the National Archives. After a frame-by-frame restoration, Nelson has constructed a compelling new film out of the material.
A meditation on youth, war and trauma, the film is a tribute to one of the world’s great filmmakers and the men of the Eighth Air Force. In recent interviews, nine of the few surviving Eighth Air Force veterans recall the harrowing experiences that Wyler and his cameramen captured in the summer of 1943.
The Cold Blue is a production of Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions and Creative Differences; produced by Peter Hankoff; executive produced by Paul G. Allen, Carole Tomko, Rocky Collins, Catherine Wyler, Clark Bunting and Dave Harding; directed and produced by Erik Nelson.
We're looking forward to watching it while waiting for HBO to finish production on their Mighty Eighth series.
]]>He was the last survivor of the Company K-3-5 veterans of the 1st Marine Division we interviewed on film for the production of our film on Peleliu.
Sergeant Burgin was a gracious and gentlemanly fellow who told his story well. Like the man himself, he told the tale of the men of Company K-3-5 of the 1st Marine Division in a direct, honest, and forthright manner. He pulled no punches when describing the horrific battle for the island of Peleliu.
His book, Islands of the Damned: A Marine at War in the Pacific, published in 2010, was very well received and compliments the excellent book, With the Old Breed at Peleliu to Okinawa (1981), by his fellow Company K-3-5 Marine, E. B. Sledge. Both Sledge and Burgin were featured characters in the HBO production The Pacific. Jay de l’Eau and Bill Leyden from our film appeared as characters, too.
With Burgie’s death, we are reminded of the remarkable opportunity we had to capture the stories of thirty special Americans on film, to spend time with them during the interviews, and to share the truly special camaraderie these men had for one another over dinner and drinks in the evenings after shooting was the experience of a lifetime.
From the completed films:
Peleliu 1944 Horror in the Pacific featuring members of Company K-3-5 of the 1st Marine Division: E. B. Sledge, R. V. Burgin, Jay P. de l’Eau, William J. Leyden, Roy R. Kelly
Pistol Packin’ Mama the Missions of a B-17 featuring crew members of the B-17 Betty Boop Pistol Packin’ Mama of the 390th Bomb Group: James R. Geary, Richard H. Perry, Nathaniel “Gus” Mencow, Shirl J. Hoffman, Clifford Puckett
17th Airborne The Bulge to the Rhine featuring the personal accounts of five members of the 381st Glider Field Artillery Battalion: Robert A. Harrsch, Walter C. Byrd, John “Jack” Fischer, Carl Arend, Stanley J. Polniak. Their stories dovetail with many of the stories depicted in HBO’s production of Band of Brothers.
Fighting 17 the Jolly Rogers featuring members of famed Navy squadron VF-17: Tom Blackburn, Roger R. Hedrick, William L. Landreth, Dan Cunningham, Robert H. “Windy” HIll
And from interviews shot for two films that went uncompleted:
From the U.S.S. San Francisco at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: John Bennett, Donal George Brown, HE (Bill) Dresser, Edmund E. McGuire, Donald E. Jenkins
From a proposed film on the Bataan Death March: Philip D. Toland, Brownell H. Cole, Richard M. Gordon, Louis B. Read, Leon O. Beck
Thank you all for your service.
Jeff Hohman and Bill Semans
Producers
]]>The series uses interviews with soldiers, intercut with battle footage and home front reportage, to tell the story of the war. Because Gene died in 2001, the producers, being unable to interview him, had an actor read extensive excerpts from his book. It was very effective.
Our film, “Peleliu 1944 Horror in the Pacific,” which we produced in 1991, uses extensive interview footage of Eugene along with his fellow Company K Marines: R. V. Burgin, Bill Leyden, Jay de l’Eau, and Roy Kelly. Gene was the main character portrayed in the acclaimed HBO series, “The Pacific”. R.V., Bill, and Jay were also characters in the series.
If you want to hear the straight story of what it was like to be a Marine at Peleliu, our film is as good as it gets, coming from the men themselves.
]]>Just a reminder that the story of HBO’s series “The Pacific” was built around Eugene Sledge and Company K-3-5 of the 1st Marine Division. Four of the Marines we interviewed for our film appear as characters in their production: Eugene Sledge, R. V. Burgin, Jay de L’Eau, and Bill Leyden. Also, the story of our film “17th Airborne, the Bulge to the Rhine” parallels the story of “The Band of Brothers”, HBO’s other great WWII series. We expect that their announced series, “Masters of the Air”, which will tell the story of the men and crews who flew the B-17, will be just as remarkable.
Recently, at an air show where flights on B-17s were offered, a table of books and films featuring the B-17 were on display and available for purchase. A Congressional Medal of Honor winner, who flew B-17s, walked by the table and looked over the materials for sale. After spending a few minutes there, he asked the person manning the table why they didn’t have our film “Pistol Packin’ Mama” on display and then told them that is was the best film ever made about the B-17, better than “12 O’clock High”, which to my mind is one of the greatest WWII films on any aspect of the war. Humbling praise.
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I strongly recommend this fine book. In addition to comprehensively covering the history of the Air Force, the technology of the planes, the strategies of air warfare, and the combat missions, both major and minor, that were flown, Professor Miller interweaves tragic, sad, poignant, and comic stories of individual pilots, crew members, grounds crewmen, and their officers to provide a strong human context to the larger historical overview. A clear portrait of WWII England is also painted.
Of all our WWII documentaries, Pistol Packin’ Mama, the Missions of a B-17, has been the most popular. It has been favorably compared to Twelve O’clock High, a great film, and my favorite WWII film, among many great WWII films.
Here’s hoping that the HBO/Spielberg/Hanks team does as well for the B-17s and its crews as they did for the infantry on Band of Brothers and the Marines in The Pacific.
They deserve it.
Jeff Hohman
Producer
]]>He was one of two members of the Monument’s Men team killed during the war. He was shot while driving a jeep on the way to save a statue. Hit by bullets and killed instantly, his body was thrown across the jeep knocking his fellow soldier to the floor, saving his life. Huchthausen had dreams of building big buildings and, ironically, the newspaper article shows a drawing of his depicting a large monument he drew as part of a competition. He was awarded the Bronze Star.
I never tire of discovering the small individual stories, the individual acts, that make up the big picture of the war.
On one of the networks this past week, they were interviewing an 88 year old gentleman who was part of the art recovery effort. He was asked what he was proud of with his service. Paraphrasing, he was proud that where others were intent on destroying, they were intent on saving. Some of the artwork he saved were pictures drawn by his grandfather.
]]>He had sought out Gus Mencow, the navigator of PPM, who, in his interview, movingly describes the loss of a plane and crew from their group as we see film of a plane filling with smoke, bursting into flame and falling towards the earth. The son is wondering if the doomed plane in the clip might have been his father’s. Gus thought it might have been. We are going to dig back into our film archives, try to locate the piece of film in question, and provide our source of the film to the son so that he can continue his research into his father’s WWII experience. By the way, the crewman in question safely bailed out, was taken prisoner, and returned home after the war to take up his life and raise a family.
On another note, we're working on a new documentary film project, titled No More Gallant a Deed. Its subject is the remarkable story of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Regiment during the U.S. Civil War. The 1st Minnesota was the first regiment pledged to the Union when Lincoln called for soldiers in April of 1861. It can be argued that, but for their actions during a fifteen minute battle late during the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, that the Confederates would likely have won at Gettysburg and, thereby, perhaps the war itself.
During that brief scrap, which was ordered by General Winfield Scott Hancock in an effort to buy five minutes time enabling reinforcements to plug a threatening gap in the Union line, the 1st took, on that sultry July 2nd afternoon in 1863, the single highest percentage of casualties of any unit in a single action in the history of American warfare before or since – 262 men charged down a gentle slope and just 42 walked off the field, the rest were killed or wounded.
Like the WWII documentaries in our American Hero Series, which use the personal testimony of individuals soldiers framed against a backdrop of visual imagery to explore the experience of combat, No More Gallant a Deed will use the testimony of the men of the 1st, as found in their diaries and wonderful letters, as well as letters from the home front, to create a deeply personal story of the Civil War soldier’s experience.
The men of the 1st will be our talking heads; they will bear their own witness to their achievements. We hope that by successfully telling their story, we will, in effect, tell the story of all those who fought on both sides of our most uncivil conflict. Since, as we discovered by interviewing so many WWII vets, the experience of combat – the fear, the physical discomfort, the bonds between soldiers – is similar for soldiers everywhere, regardless of the uniform they wear, the causes for which they fight, and the technologies they use.
Go to our website, www.firstminnesotafilms.org, to learn more about the project and the history of this storied regiment.
Also be sure to visit and 'Like' the Facebook pages for both the American Hero Series and for First Minnesota Films.
]]>When it came to finding a story about the Marine Corp we knew the following: we wanted to do the story of an island battle in the South Pacific that was a tough, but not generally known. This was important because we wanted the story to be fresh and not burdened with the preconceptions a "famous" island battle would have for the audience.
So, in late 1990 we made a trip to Washington, D.C. to meet with a Marine historian name Ben Frank. Sitting across the desk from him, we laid out our criteria. He said there is one island whose battle story we should tell - the Battle of Peleliu. We said, "What? We've never heard of Peleliu." Ben, a veteran of Peleliu himself, went on to describe it to our amazement.
When he finished, we asked him who we should contact to find the five men to interview. He thumbed through his Rolodex, found a card, wrote the info down on a 3x5 card and pushed it across the desk to us. On it was written the name Eugene Sledge and a phone number. He told us to call Gene and he would take care of the rest. Gene did and in May 1991 Gene, Jay de l'Eau, R. V. Burgin, Bill Leyden, and Roy Kelly came to Minneapolis to be interviewed.
After we finished the film late 1991 we premiered it at a 1st Marine Division reunion in San Diego. Over a three day period we showed it to ever growing audiences. In a packed, hot, sweaty meeting room in the hotel, as the last screening of the film began, as the first shot in the film came up showing a shot up, bleeding Marine, who for all the world looked dead, a tremulous voice from the front of the room said, "Oh, my God! That's me!" Needless to say, the response was electric. Looking around the hushed room as the film played out, I realized I was in the presence of quiet, unsung heroes. They would never describe themselves as such because they all felt those who made the ultimate sacrifice were the heroes. But knowing what I know now, that survival in combat is as much a function of just plain luck as anything else, it means that facing the fight is the measure of heroism.
Bill Semans, co-producer of the AHS, and I are just starting production on a new film titled No More Gallant a Deed on the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Regiment during the American Civil War. As our research moves forward, as we begin to find the soldiers voices who will tell this remarkable story for us, one realizes again that each soldier in combat faces the same human demons and emotions that all soldiers have faced in wars fought long ago or wars being fought today. The technologies and the theories change, but the battles fought inside the soldier are the same and they are basic and they are transformative.
]]>And this week we are proud to launch a newly redesigned website with a much better store powered by Shopify and PayPal.
Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. We always look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for stopping by!
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