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

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

After loosing his best friend Joe Farrell, Savage goes on leave ordered by General Crowe. He goes to Inverness by train then to the Isle of Dunfergus aboard the Glencoe Lass. On the train he meets a Wren officer, Ann Macrae, who is going home on leave. After several unfortunate disagreements, Frank and Ann start to get along and finally fall in love. Savage learns that she has terminal cancer and not long to live. There is nothing he can do and she dies.

A flight instructor goes to war.

Savage wants the 918th to try a new technique, bombing on the leader. Instead of each bombardier sighting his own target and then making his own bomb-run, the entire group would synchronize with the lead bombardier and when he drops, the whole Group drops. Both Generals' Crowe & Pritchard are opposed to the idea but Savage presses for it. His lead crew consists of Bishop, Zimmerman & Mellon. Mellon has been recommended for the DFC for a previous mission. When his best friend the Navigator was badly wounded, Mellon stayed at his post and made the bomb run anyway. The run was successful but the friend died. Mellon is shaken and on the next mission, the entire group misses and bombs a school. Unsure whether it was faulty equipment or his error, Mellon does not want to be lead bombardier any longer. Savage pushes Mellon and they go up again and successfully bomb the target.

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.

Captain Joe Gallagher aborts twice in a row bringing him to the attention of General Savage. Savage feels that Gallagher has a chip on his shoulder and is not pulling his weight and assigns him a new plane ""The Leper Colony "" . He tells Gallagher he is going to get a crew of malcontents, ""a co-pilot who is all thumbs, a navigator who can't find his feet, a bombardier who could not hit his plate with a fork"". Gallagher applies for a transfer, but Harvey delays it. Gallagher will have to turn them into a crew. Captain Gallagher is tough on his crew but they start to perform well and after 5 missions, Savage says they have earned the right to change the name. They all decide to keep it, but Gallagher's transfer has come through and he still wants out. Before he goes he wants in on a special 2 plane mission. Savage agrees and they complete the mission but Gallagher's airplane is hit and co-pilot Blake wounded. He can not abandon the aircraft so he gets it home safe. Savage promotes him to

Senator Clay Johnson wants to shut down the long range bombing program because of high aircraft & manpower losses. Savage argues that they just need adequate fire power and long range fighter support. Since the P-51 mustang is not yet deployed, they lack long range fighter cover. Savage wants to bomb Hamburg or Kiel using aircraft armed with 50 mm guns instead of 20 mm guns. Grounded by bad weather, Savage gets a visit from the Vicar of Archbury who asks him why he has denied permission for Eddie Pryor & April Barret to get married. Perplexed Savage says he has no such request, then speaks to Pryor who confesses he is scared of the commitment. The weather clears and on the next mission Pryor gets trapped in the Ball Turret by damage. Savage turns the mission over to Major Roberts and then he & Mewlay land the damaged plane with Pryor still trapped. The mission is a success - no casualties. Pryor marries April Barrett.

Before a big mission, Savage is injured with a piece of shrapnel by his heart and consigned to the hospital. He meets a gunner from Major Cobb's crew Sergeant Aaronson who has just seen his best friend Saul Barstein die and he looses his will to live. He and Savage form a bond. To save Savage, Dr. Kaiser calls in his mentor Dr Simon Lewis a cardiologist to operate. The aircraft carrying Lewis crashes and Lewis is killed, forcing Kaiser to operate - successfully along with a blood donation from Aaronson. Savage & Aaronson help each other recover. The big mission is to the Ruhr Valley, after which Aaronson & Ivy get married.

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

Mission to bomb Mannheim. Major Gus Denver has returned to flight duty. On a previous mission he suffered a breakdown after the death of his first crew. Brigadier General Hoagland has just been assigned from the States. He is now the acting Wing Commander in the absence of General. Stoneman, but the job he really wants is 918th Group Commander. He tells Savage that he is out to get him. Major Denver overhears this. Hoagland flies with Savage on a mission to Einhoven and on the way back the plane is hit by flak and two engines go out; Savage orders everyone to bail out. The engines start up again, only Hoagland makes it out and he is strafed by fighters and killed. There is an enquiry, and Major Denver asks to speak with the IG thinking that Savage engineered Hoagland's death. Denver puts himself on the sick list, but Savage gets him back to duty. On the next mission, Denver's entire crew is killed, and he is going to bail out knowing he will be killed by the same fighter, Savage talks

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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.

Crowe assigns Colonel Royce as Deputy Group Commander. On his arrival he goes out to meet ""Lorelei"" piloted by Lieutenant Josephs and finds all the crew dead. Royce takes over the plane with a new crew calls her Four Leaf Clover II. On the first mission, Royce's (Red Badger 1) controls freeze up, He leads the next mission (Blue Jay Leader) and the bomb release malfunctions. Each time the plane is checked they can find nothing wrong. Leaving Royce to lead the next mission, Savage goes to London to a SHAEF meeting and runs into Carol Royce. He Returns to base to find that the mission was flown by Major Cobb and that Royce is on sick call. The replacement pilot of the Lorelei, Captain Wayne Parsons was killed in a bizarre accident when a piece of the engine housing flies off and kills him. On the next mission, Royce leads (Red Dog Leader) and Lorelei again malfunctions, he aborts and on the way home orders the crew to bail out, the plane keeps on going and Frank and Joe Cobb take the Picc

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

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

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.

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Colonel Harry Connelly is up for the Medal of Honor for the pinpoint bombing of a Radar station without hitting the church next door in Italy. Connelly has done 43 skip bombing missions in Europe and the Pacific. In Adelberg the Germans have a group of scientists working on the Atomic Bomb. All around them they have placed POW's including high ranking officers. Connelly is currently doing Transitional Training in London and is called on do one last precision bombing mission. Connelly & Gallagher decide on a plan. One man mission in a B-25 will bomb the target while the rest of the Group acts a diversion. In training Connelly misses the target twice then hits it 6 times dead on. On the mission the pond Connelly was using as his IP is missing, he drops on wrong house killing some Allied officers. Axis Sally broadcasts the news, Connelly cracks, hits Gallagher. General Britt orders Gallagher to ""get that building"" by saturation bombing which will kill the POWs as well. On the second missi

Captain Dula, a pilot who is flying as Navigator, Harvey flies as co-pilot wounded. Gallagher wounded, Dula takes over, argues with Komansky, Komansky saves Harvey from bleeding to death charged with mutiny. Komansky talks with Jeanne who gives him a letter from Jimmy Sinclair saying that Dula abandoned the crew.

Commodore Leon Crompton is the leader of USN Task Force 10. His job is to find and sink Wolf Pack Laika , 8 German u-boats operating off the Azores. The 918th is assigned under Gallagher as the Hunter portion of the team and Compton's ships will be the killers. Gallagher assigns 9 B-17's , Cromptons force is 4 DD's, 1 CVE Flights of three searching, Gallagher's get attacked. Two bombers are shot down. On the next mission Gallagher carries bombs, carrier sunk bombers sink subs. He gets shot down, picked up by Destroyer. Gallagher is wounded and goes home on Crompton's new flag ship.

The 918th draws a particularly tough mission, an aircraft plant in Rhone Valley, 120 miles beyond fighter support range, surrounded by 500 anti-aircraft batteries and at the bombers maximum fuel range. At least 3 squadrons of fighters will be waiting for the bombers and they will not have a lot of fuel for evasive action. Fog rolls in and they stand down for 3 days, the tension of waiting is driving the men crazy. Tom Lockridge has flown 24 missions and has been hospitalized with hepatitis. He and Sergeant Rutherford are the only members of the original crew, all the others completed there tours or were killed. Major Kaiser wants to keep Lockridge is hospital a little while longer but Lockridge wants to get his tour over with.

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

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.

The RAF(& USAAF) is getting pounded by very concentrated flak over Weisbaden, the latest Squadron has been wiped out. General Britt visits Gallagher to tell him that RAF Air Vice Marshal Kingsford is out for Gallagher's head, the target must be destroyed or Britt will replace Gallagher. On the next mission the 918th looses 11 aircraft out of 21. It turns out that there is a radar directed Fire Control Station in the area. A team of 8 British commandoes, led by Major Mallory will parachute in and blow it up. After dropping the commandoes, Gallagher's B-17 is shot down, his co-pilot is killed, and only he and Komansky meet up with the commando unit. One of the commandoes, Pte. Cane is badly wounded by a German patrol and is left behind with an ""interrogation pill"" which is really an ""L(eathal) pill"". Mallory makes it clear to Gallagher that he and Komansky are unwelcome ""glamour flyboys"". Mallory, his remaining 6 commandoes, Gallagher & Komansky head to the home of Kurt von Heurtzel a Ge