12 O'Clock High — Season 1, Episode 27: The Mission
Drama, War & Politics • 44 min • 3 seasons, 78 episodes • ★ 7.2/10
Episode synopsis
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
About 12 O'Clock High
This series chronicles the adventures--in the air and on the ground--of the men of the 918th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. First commanded by irascible General Frank Savage--and later by Colonel Joe Gallagher, the son of a Pentagon General--the Group is stationed in England, and flies long-range bombing missions into German-held Europe.