CENT POUR SANG – The History of the 100th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force, 1943–1945

The history of the 100th Bombardment Group of the 8th Air Force during the Second World War

They flew their first missions from England in the spring of 1943. They flew their Flying Fortresses almost daily over occupied Europe to destroy the war machine of Nazi Germany.

Their bravery and the appalling losses they suffered earned them the nickname Bloody Hundredth. Navigator Harry H. Crosby — who inspired one of the characters in the series Masters of the Air produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg — arrived with the very first crews and left with the very last.

After overcoming his fear and gaining in skill and confidence, he was promoted to group lead navigator, surviving thirty-two missions, some of which involved as many as two thousand aircraft. In his war memoirs, full of humour and action, he takes us into the hearts and minds of these airmen — a band of youngsters, half fearless, half oblivious, hurled into the maelstrom of the air war.

Harry H. Crosby

A doctor who held degrees from the University of Iowa and Stanford University, Harry H. Crosby served as Director of the Rhetoric Department at the University of Iowa, Chair of the Rhetoric Department at Boston University, and Director of the Writing Center at Harvard University. He contributed to the development of the Air Force Academy curriculum in the 1950s and served as an educational advisor to the Pakistani Air Force College from 1960 to 1962.

During his retirement, he edited the 100th Bombardment Group newsletter, Splasher Six, and was actively involved in local politics and civic activities. He passed away on 28 July 2010, at the age of 91.

Harry H. Crosby had enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on 13 December 1941, just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Having failed his pilot examinations, he was assigned as a navigator on the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress with the 100th Bombardment Group of the 8th Air Force. He would join the European Theatre and the base at Thorpe Abbotts (Station 139) after 17 months of training.

Uncertain of his skills as a navigator and prone to chronic airsickness, his first flight nearly ended in disaster. Yet over the course of his missions he would become one of the most skilled and experienced navigators in the U.S. Army Air Forces, moving in the highest military circles of the air war in Europe. His journey inspired the eponymous character in the miniseries Masters of the Air, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.