The Cold Blue

source: 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.

Frankly, I often just listen to many docs as the background while commuting or doing chores. This movie disallows you to do that, both for the respect and empathy for guys and for the video and information load the movie is charged with. Atomizing the endevour in chapters is very useful as they get embedded into memory. Fume tales from engines warning Nazis 50 miles ahead the formation is approaching. The code of Americans flying in daylight (why? never gets explained here but you could find an explanation elsewhere) while Brits did it at night. FLAK mortal danger. Red flares on airfield approach signalling there is a wounded serviceman aboard. Frostbite as flying fortresses have not been pressurized. And ever increasing number of missions which sends you back to Catch 22. In a somewhat weird way, this two great movies - Cold Blue and Catch-22 - get intrinsically intertwined.

Not quite as good as the recent WWI documentary, but very well done!!!

Was not as Great as D-Day The Untold Stories 2019 Historical Facts Was still the U.S. Army Air Corps until became the U.S. Air Force 18 September 1947 AFTER World War 2. They were still U.S. Army Soldiers not U.S. Air Force "Airmen". Due to the 1918 Spanish Influenza that killed most from ages 9 to 40 most of those Drafted at the beginning of World War 2 were "OLD" men. Like the High School Teacher depicted by Saving Private Ryan. There were Many World War 1 Veterans that fought during World War 2 (The Big Red One 1980). After most of the "Old Men" were killed in Combat during the Beginning of World War 2, after the Teens became 18 to 21, the U.S. started "Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel" as to how so many 17 to 24 year Olds ended up on the 1944 Beaches of Normandy and NOT the U.S. Army Air Corps 1942-1943 (average Age 24 to 26). Unfortunately, most "Leaders" still had the idea of NO Strategy and Tactics, and were sending as many as possible in Human Wave Charges just like World War 1's "Trench Warfare" against many Machineguns. The same is what happened with the U.S. Army Air Corps, "Massive Bombing Raids" as a "Duck Shoot" for the Enemy Anti Aircraft Guns, kind of like the World War 1 Human Wave Charges. "High Altitude Bombing" was very inaccurate, required many aircraft to repeatedly do many missions over and over until target destroyed. During High Altitude Bombing "Runs" the Pilot and Co Pilot were Required to maintain a straight line flight, altitude, and speed, making them very easy to get shot down as seen for many Miles away because they were flying so high. During the 1942 Doolittle Raid the B-25 flying Low Level Bombing, were very accurate as there was no "Bomb Glide Slope Angle", No Windage, No Lead Time, nor any other Factors that would cause the Bombs to miss the assigned Targets. Because the Doolittle Bombers were flying so low by the time the Enemy saw them coming over the Horizon the U.S. Bombers were already miles behind the Enemy Anti Aircraft.

In 1944, director William Wyler flew with the crew of the Memphis Belle, a B-17 crew who flew over 30 bombing missions over Nazi Germany, on their final mission. Wyler and his crew filmed the final flight and the Memphis Belle's journey home in his documentary The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress. Years later, Erik Nelson took the fading 16mm film and remastered it. He traveled the country and interviewed the last survivors of the 8th Air Force who flew B-17's over Germany during World War II. I caught this film at the American Film Institute Film Festival in Los Angeles last week. It was Veterans Day and the crowd was filled with an air of respect. The film recalls a youthfulness that, more often than not, died on foreign soil. Nelson and his crew remastered the colors and converted the 16mm footage to 4K so that the the film could be viewed in 16:9 widescreen. The original documentary footage had no sound, so Nelson flew on actual B-17s to capture authentic audio. The final product spins a tale that truly captures the fear and inhumanity witnessed by B-17 veterans. The throaty turbines rumble over the air while deep flack shreds both wing and wingman. The veteran interviewees' voices ring true. There is power in their voice despite the fragility of their age. These men truly were the greatest generation. Their tales will soon be all that survives.

The Cold Blue is not a remake or restoration of William Wyler's original Memphis Belle film from 1943; it's a documentary about the people not the aircraft, and is about the price they paid. It includes some German footage and shows some of the terrible consequences of war on the ground and in the air. Wyler's original 16mm colour footage has been remastered in 4K HD and they have added a sound track, voice-overs and specially recorded Foley. Although it was a simpler process, the result is much more convincing than Peter Jackson's colourisation of archive film from the First World War. I was particularly struck by a couple of airmen who were sporting black eyes and by the black bursts of flak that resembled mushrooms or sinister octopuses. The film doesn't fly straight and level from A to B, but weaves traditional documentary tropes of rostrum work, voice overs, talking heads and the original film into chapters, and it's edited to feel like the viewer is watching archived clips. The 'making of' section and the before and after restoration comparisons were interesting but I'm not sure the section on Richard Thompson's music added to the film. However, scenes showing veterans viewing the restored footage, which were used to spark their recollections, reassures the viewer that the filmmakers got it right. Refreshingly, The Cold Blue acknowledges that the United States Army Air Force engaged in area bombing. The film is also not scared of allowing the veterans' testimony to contradict each other. While one veteran says he was never scared, another claimed that everyone was frightened and anyone who says any different is deluded.

Everyone who enjoys freedom should Thank the men/women who served in WWII on & off the battlefield. These are the great people who served their country to stop the Axis powers from taking over the world. So many where lost, never to return to their families we owe them so much for sacrificing everything for so many who cherish their freedom. God Bless all service personnel who have served to preserve the greatest country, America.

The US used dangerous daylight precision bombing in Europe. There was literally ZERO carpet bombing by the Army Air corps in Europe. In a very very few cases, making up less than 0.25% of bombs dropped, city centers were bombed in specific places where war making infrastructure was absolutely and definitively present in the city centers Berlin and Frankfurt). In Japan as even Japanese war historians note, every city had war making work and small factories in the city centers. Hiroshima and Nagasaki for example were major war production and troop marshalling cities. BYW the Soviets killed WAY more civilians with artillery fired indiscriminately into city centers as they advanced westward than the Us killed with all is bombers'. US aerial bombings in Europe and especially the pacific saved ten times more lives than they took

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.