Any list of WWII movies would be incomplete without The Great Dictator.

My first job back in the 80's was at a company that made sock knitting machines. There was a machine shop and that was my primary area. There was an older guy - in his 60's but his hair was still brown. Nobody talked to him much because he was "religious". I was a manager and most of my conversations with him were work related. I don't remember how we got on the topic (prolly cuz I was reading the books) but WWII came up. He looked at me matter-of-factly and said he had been in the 101st. Jumped pre D-day. I am sure my mouth was hanging open. I talked to him almost an hour that day as he spoke of his experience. One of the details that stands out clearly - almost 30 years later is how to shoot a Thompson Sub Machine Gun. If you are right handed, you aim just outside the left of the guy's knee/thigh and pull the trigger. As the recoil / muzzle blast causes the barrel to rise, it tends to skew to the right with a right handed shooter. That way the bullets stitch right up the torso. I never thought of Spence the same way again. Nobody knew - and had never bothered to talk to him.....

In the category of "they don't make 'em like the used to..." here's a log book of a navigator that flew B-17 missions in 1944. Fascinating reading.

B-17F Flight Log (5 Sept 1943 - 21 Feb 1944)

Wow! thanks for the link, Rick. It's always more interesting to hear firsthand accounts than 'official' versions of events, lot's of tragic stories in there and incredible insight into an airman's life during the 2nd WW.

I read 3/4 of it over lunch. A very interesting read from a very important perspective.

Thanks for the link.

+1 on that Rick. Fascinating read. A good friend's father was a tail and belly gunner on a Lancaster. He only talked about his experiences a few times when he was really, really drunk.

It certainly takes a close look of the day to day life they endured.

Way back years ago whenever I went through airframe & powerplant mechanics school we had a couple of instructors who were pilots and flew during WWII, one in particular was a B-17 pilot who was shot down over Germany and spent the last year and a half of the war as a POW. The story of how their fuel tanks got ruptured by flak over the bombing target and the last several minutes of trying to baby every drop of fuel back towards England until it completely ran out and then trying to glide every inch they could until they had to finally bail out was embedded in my mind while reading through this log wondering if any of the parachutes he described was of this particular man.

Fascinating indeed.

It's very possible they were mentioned in that log, though not specifically named.

Wow, what a fascinating read. Thank you for sharing that, Rick. I truly enjoyed it. I can't fathom going through the same thing that the men and women of the Armed Forces did at that time, but reading examples like this certainly helps me imagine it and see it through their eyes.

Jack, I watched "Sahara" and loved it! I kept thinking how miserably hot it must have been inside that tank. Ugh! Oh, enjoyed seeing Lloyd Bridges in the movie!

Rick, I've got "Katyn" next up in my queue.