All language subtitles for The.Cold.Blue.2019.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG

Okay, we're here
with bud haedike

and we're rolling.

This is the song that I wrote
for my bomb group

and all the guys that made it
or didn't make it.

It's to the melody
of "I'll be seeing you."

J I'll be seeing you

on all the missions
that we flew j

j and also with
your good ole crew j

j the whole day through j

j enemy fighters and flak j

j the sound of loud ack, ack j

j and lucky we got back j

j to our ground crew
on that day we flew

j I'll be seeing you

at good old deopham green j

j in your sleek flying machine,

o, the one called mighty queen j

j I'm going to look for you
in skies of blue j

j and when your flights
are through j

j I'll be seeing you
in my dreams

and I'll be missing you j

thank you.

Well, I don't know,
the odds were all against ya.

It was more or less
like being in death row,

in a penitentiary,

waiting on your turn
and you knew it was coming.

You fly a real tough mission,

and you're so glad to get back,

and everybody says, "boy,

we made it through
that one, didn't we?"

And, then, next morning
they come in,

put their flashlight
in your face.

"All right, boys, get up,
you're going to be leaving.

We're going to be flying
in two hours.”

Now that's... that's tough.

I was 21 years old.

Yeah, and we felt like,
uh, we could live forever.

Don't get me wrong,

we still get
that tight feeling...

When we would see
bursting flak nearby.

When we see fighters, we still
get that feeling, but...

You can't make a living
that way.

All you could do
is make a dying.

Anybody that says
they weren't afraid

were full of crap

'cause you were always afraid
what was going to happen next,

particularly in flak.

You just... you just waited
for something

to go off around you.

And that's when the fighters
would come up.

One of the men in our crew
kept saying,

"I know I'm not gonna make it,"
et cetera, et cetera,

and you don't like to hear that.

And he was very concerned

because his wife was expecting
within a day or two.

And the next day,
they had him flying,

which they shouldn't have had,
and they took so many men

from our crew to fly with him,

and they never made it back.

They crashed into the channel.

And, incidentally, and this
isn't storytelling, but he...

He, uh...

He was killed the day
his son was born.

The war came,
and we went and did

what they told us to do.

That's the only thing I know.

The Japanese ruined my youth,

because I was 20 years old
or 19 years old.

Everything was wonderful,
and the Japanese,

in one fell swoop,
ended all of that.

And it lasted four years.

Well, I can see why they get
young fellows to fly to war,

or ground, or submarines,
and so forth.

When you're younger,
you feel you can do anything.

I think when you get older,
you get smarter.

There was
a 19-year-old navigator,

Jewish kid, sharp as a tack.

And I had some older boys.

My bombardier was 26 years old.

I was 22, 23.

Oldest man we had in the crew
was a Pennsylvania dutchman,

thirty-two years old.

We called him "pappy."

Thirty-two years old.

Our navigator was 26,

and everybody else was
anywhere from 22, 23.

I see... 1 can look back now
and see why young people

were in a war, not older people.

Older people got better sense.

Sometimes they say
that the older you get,

the more wiser you get.

There weren't too many,
I don't think, younger,

too much younger than me.

I flew every one
of my missions at 19.

The old man on our crew
was our waist gunner.

He was 25.

I'll tell you, when we got
into this thing,

you wanted to fly.

And, you know, you had
a great time training,

all that, but when
you get over there

and had got shot at
the first time,

you knew you were in
deep doo-doo.

And... and you really took life
seriously after that.

They said we was
gonna fly 30 missions.

You know,
they started out at 25.

Now they changed it to 30
when we got there.

And then we got 26 missions in,

and they give us a week off.

And we come back and they says,
"you're gonna fly 35,"

and that was kind of a shock.

Well, it seemed like I was
flying all the time.

There were 40 bomb groups.

Our bomb group had
a lot of people.

I don't know the logistics
of keeping the fuel

and the ammunition,
loading the bombs at night,

getting them ready
for the next day.

I don't know how they did it.

When you're in a position
like that,

there's no tomorrow.

You do everything
that you want to do,

that you can do,
when you feel like doing it,

and do it then

because you may not get
the chance to do it again.

Wouldn't be unusual,
they'd wake you up.

The first thing you'd do
would be go to the, uh,

the mess hall to eat.

The mess hall was all lit up
and everybody was laughing

and talking,
and usually they had

Berlin Lynn
or whatever her name was

on the radio broadcasting.

We hadn't been briefed yet.

We didn't know
where we was gonna go,

but this lady in Berlin knew
where we were gonna go,

and she says, "boys,
you've got a tough one today.

You're going to so-and-so
and so-and-so

and we'll be waiting on ya,"

and so they knew more
than we did.

Now, in the air force,
when we went to the kitchen

for breakfast
and we were getting, say, eggs,

we'd get powdered eggs.

That's what they had.

Once in a while
we would get fresh eggs.

You could get two over easy
and this was a treat.

But we knew after a while
that when you got fresh eggs,

it meant you were gonna have
a real tough mission.

So they gave you fresh eggs.

That's the story.

We don't want fresh eggs,
but we want fresh eggs.

When you're going
to get ready for a flight,

you go into the locker room.

And you wore long Johns.

And then you'd wear
the eod suit, put that on.

And we had gloves
that were attached to those.

You had to get your gloves
into those,

they came clear around
your ankles too.

And then you had
your flight suits.

Those were the things
that you just wore.

And you'd load back on a truck

and they'd take you to the area

where the debriefing rooms were.

So all the crews and everything
would be sitting there,

waiting, and they had
a sheet over the wall.

They'd pull the sheet back

and say, "our target today
is Germany.

The weather looks pretty good,
as near as we can tell.”

One thing always got me
about these briefings.

The catholic chaplain,

he was back in the corner
hearing confessions.

And giving out communions.

So he... he knew that
he was going someplace

he might not come back from.

That was one of the most
amazing things in a war,

the choreographing of putting
1,100 airplanes together

in formation to go over.

We'd all line up
on the perimeter strip

that comes around
to the end of the runway.

And the lead ship
would taxi around and line up.

And when he fired a flare
to take off,

that lead ship
went down the runway.

Next man pulled right up
behind him.

Thirty seconds, he moved.

Thirty seconds,
the third man moved.

Every 30 seconds a plane
was going down that runway.

That lead plane
never got off the ground

before that second plane
was already running.

Well, we just spin out there
on the end of the runway

and give it full throttle,

and you had to have
enough speed for it

to lift all that load up.

You had a full gas load,

you had all your ammunition
for the guns,

and you had the bomb load.

Of course,
while you're up there,

I could see the sun
coming up around earth.

And I thought that was
the most weird thing,

to see the sun coming up,

and it's dark on earth,
you know.

But you realized
what was happening to you.

And, then, next thing you know,

the sun come up, and you see
all these airplanes circling,

straining, so to speak,
to get up to the altitude

with a heavy load of bombs.

You had to form up
and you had to circle,

you was supposed to fly
till you got formed up

with your group.

And then there'd be
another bomb group over here.

And, one day, we come
within three or four inches

of whacking up
with another bomb group.

Well, on some of them,
where the young pilots

had come in as replacements,

if I was first man to take off,
we'd be up in the air,

say, 200, 300 feet climbing.

All of a sudden, "boom."

You see a bright flash,

a red flash
and stuff coming down.

You knew darn well
it was a mid-air collision.

And, uh, those were scary times,

as far as getting up.

Two b-17s, one came down

right on top of the other.

They all went to their death.

That's when I started smoking,
by the way.

Well, actually, I believe
that our officers

were closer to their crew

than they were
with other officers.

As a crew, most crews stuck
pretty well together.

We did a lot together.

I don't think
we would have appreciated

one new man joining us.

We knew what each man
was capable of doing.

Each man did his job good.

And no one complained.

We were family in the air.

You absolutely had to be,
we all had our duties.

We just wanted to stay together.

And we flew 25 missions
as a crew, all of us together.

You're a family.

Exactly, you have to be.

However, I can remember
one mission

when our flight engineer
came out smashed.

And I climbed all over him.

I said, "what is wrong with you?

We depend on one another.”

There was a lot of spit
and Polish by the officers

and that didn't happen.

Like you say,
we're a family of brothers.

And we didn't have time
for all that stuff.

But there's no saluting and...

And "yes, sir," "no, sir,"
all that.

Each guy was his own guy.

Well, of course,
each man would do his job,

and we all knew exactly
who was going to do what,

so to speak.

So I knew I had a good crew.

And, uh, we just got
along beautifully.

We had a crew chief
that took care of that plane

after we got it back
off a mission.

So the three of us
walked that plane,

looked at everything
on the ground,

asked him all the questions
we could think of.

If there was any little thing

that we thought we should pay
particular attention to,

for him to tell us.

You never flew the same plane
all the time.

It's just like your car
having an ouchy

and you take it in to firestone

or somewhere to get fixed.

They'd work overnight,
all night long,

trying to patch planes.

As soon as you gotin,

they would take care
of any damage.

They would get in the plane
and check the engines out,

start "em up and check 'em out.

And they would clean up
everything.

Tremendous workers.

They were... they were so good.

We came back in b-17s
with two engines,

with the tail fin shot up
and busted away...

With all kinds of holes
in the plane.

And in two days, that plane
was flying missions again.

We had an armorer on our crew,

and he'd be there
when they were,

most cases, not all cases,

sometimes the plane
would be loaded

before we ever got there.

The armor gunners took care
of all of that.

They bring 'em out
on big carriers

and, uh, it was a dangerous job.

We did not load the bombs.

No, but we did come out
and check.

They were all fused.

And they had fusing wires
stuck to the propeller.

These fusing wires
were hooked on the shackles

that the bombs are hung on.

And when they left the plane,
it would pull the wire out.

Now the bomb is alive.

If you've seen movies
and you hear bombs,

"shhh," going down,
that's this fuse spinning out.

Now the bomb is live
and once it hit,

of course, it detonates.

We had two missions
where I had to go back

in the bomb bay and put
the cotter pins back in

and that is a little hairy.

Why? Cause when you landed,

if you didn't,
the bombs were armed.

And if you had trouble,
of course, you'd detonate.

Well, we talked about
just about everything.

Our families, et cetera...

It didn't matter what it was.

We kept pretty much
a running conversation

between everybody.

It made the mission
go a little easier.

First thing you did,
as soon as we cleared

the coast of england,

everybody would test their guns.

Well, of course,
I can only speak for myself,

but when you're in
hostile territory,

and I was in a top turret,

so all of my vision was 360,

ninety degrees this way,
you know.

Contrails formed at the tail
of the ship.

The moisture in the air
and the ship flying through it

made the contrails,

and a lot of times
you wouldn't have them

because it depends on the amount

of moisture in the air.

Couldn't see
a prettier sight than that.

Kind of spellbound,
you know, spellbound.

A beautiful sight.

If you was watching
on the ground over in Germany,

they tell me
it took about 30 minutes

for "em all to come over.

They said on a clear day

that the Germans could see us
coming 50 miles out,

from the contrails.

And, unfortunately,
when that happened,

that wasn't too good

because they were ready for us.

In 1938, I was down in Chile,

and they flew a goodwill
tour down there.

I remember going out
with my father

and seeing these big planes.

And I said to my father someday
I'm gonna fly in one of those.

Little did I know.

The b-17 was not only
a beautiful ship,

but it flew like a dream.

It flew like
a overgrown Piper cub.

It flew nice and smooth.

Beautiful.

Took a lot of punishment.

The greatest airplane ever built

as far as I'm concerned.

They brought us back 35 times.

Sometimes in condition

that you would never
even think of trying

to fly an airplane...

Any other airplane.

That plane came back,

and that plane brought us back.

It was a marriage, I'll tell ya.

A lot of guys had named
their own planes,

and they had all kinds
of kooky names.

The original crews
had a lot of good painters.

And they had a lot of planes
that were decorated

and had logos on them and so on.

Vargas girls like petty girl...

Petty girls, vargas girls,
sexy girls,

there weren't too many
serious things.

I think to keep guys loose.

Well, on a warm day
it would be 20 below.

It... sometimes it got 60 below.

And oftentimes,
I had to take my oxygen mask

and crack the ice out of it,

and check if it would freeze
into the tube.

That was one of the worst parts
of the mission,

was the, uh, was the cold air.

The only time you didn't
feel it is when you were

fighting fighters
or going over the target.

Oh, at 30,000 feet,

I think the temperature drops

2 degrees every 1,000.

It'd be about 40 below
at that altitude.

In the cockpit,
a little bit of heat came off

a number three engine.

It came into the cockpit there
where the pilot and I sat,

and it was enough to kind of
keep your feet warm

and your hands.

Our ball turret gunner
had a gun problem.

His guns jammed and he took
his gloves off to work on it.

And both his hands
got frostbitten

and he didn't fly with us
for a month

till his hands healed up.

Well, it was so cold
on one mission

our co-pilot suffered
an anoxia situation

where he passed out

and his hand froze
to the plexiglas window.

And he had to amputate
the fingers of his hand

because it was so cold
that his hand, when he tried

to help himself,
froze to the plexiglas window.

Well, the British treated us
very nice.

In some cases, royally.

They call it
the friendly invasion,

'cause we flat invaded
that country.

England's a small country,
and we had it

absolutely covered up
with American soldiers.

And they tolerated us.

I was single then.

I could run around,
do whatever I wanted.

But I didn't feel uncomfortable

with the British people at all.

Once I got to be able
to understand the language,

because that english language

was a little different
than ours.

Very good people.

As you know,
at the beginning of the war,

they weren't too enamored
by the yanks coming over.

They said we were overpaid,

oversexed and over here.

I remember that.

Flak is German
88-millimeter Cannon shells.

Flak was responsible for more
planes being shot down

than enemy fighters.

And when you see flak,
black puffs of smoke...

That's after the shell,
of course, has exploded.

And it explodes, hypothetically,

into 200 pieces.

And it's powerful.

You don't know where the flak
is coming from.

You don't know if the next
burst is gonna hit you or not.

You never know where
the next one is gonna be

in a case like that,
and that's what scares you.

Well, it just looked like a big
thunderstorm, so to speak.

That's what it amounted to.

But you had to keep on flying.

God was on your side
when you didn't get hit.

The flak would vary so much.

The Germans
had pretty good radar.

They could judge your altitude,
your speed,

and your direction.

I think the worst that I ever
had over a castle, Germany,

I'll never forget that one.

It blew my windshield out,

and come into my face
at 160 miles an hour.

You look at that flak out there

and you swear you're not gonna
get through it.

The sky's almost black
with these things

busting all over the place.

It's amazing we did make it
through as much as we did.

Well, we had a dog and it looked

more like a pig than a dog,

but it was our mascot.

We had a stove in the middle
of the barracks

and we used to make sandwiches
on it and so forth.

If the dog was around we'd feed
him whatever we had left over.

He hung around the barracks
until we got back.

I don't know
if he had a name or not.

It was a faithful little dog.

But had a real wide nose.

Oh, you get superstitious.

I remember I had to put on
a clean pair of socks

the day I was shot down.

I'd been wearing
the same pair of socks.

Evidently, I think the pup
got one of my socks

and was chewing on it
and then hid it

and I couldn't find it
that morning.

I had to put on a clean pair
of socks.

That might have been
the reason I was shot down.

You either believe this or not,

but somewhere's around
the 10th or 12th mission,

I got to a point and I know
some of the other fellas

reached the same thing,

that they were feeling blasé.

They didn't get us up to here.

They ain't gonna get us here on.

I was somewhat superstitious.

I always felt god
would bring me home,

and I mean that sincerely.

However, I wasn't sure if
it would be in one piece.

I flew five days in a row,
five missions.

And I remember
by the fourth or fifth one

you really didn't care.

You were worn out.

You wanted to get away from it.

I saw a lot of them
break under pressure.

Come back and told
the flight surgeon,

"ll can't fly anymore,”
and they didn't.

Nobody pointed their finger
at them and ridiculed them.

Nobody.

Yes, the bomb run.

That was the worst,

'cause you had to
keep everything steady.

If you weren't on a bomb run
you could slide over

once in a while
and they'd think it'd miss ya.

But on a bomb run you just
had to sit there and take it.

Try to shrivel up, I guess.

Well, the lead ship does it all.

You just follow what he does.

The lead ship
and then the two on each side

and one down here and one
up here and around here.

I was flying up
right above the leader.

And when you're watching him,

and you see the bomb doors open,

then you open too,

and then you wait for him
to drop bombs,

and when he drops bombs,
then you drop.

We can't change our altitude,

and we can't change
our direction,

and we're what you call
sitting ducks at that moment.

It was rough, because any minute

you were going to get hit.

The bombs are dropped.

Bombs away and the first thing
you hear is,

"let's get the hell
out of here."

Well, we'd make a sharp turn

and the group follows the lead.

After a while, fighters tanks
started coming in,

and they didn't miss very often.

They'd be out 20, 30 miles,

and they'd come rush
straight at your level.

You couldn't hit anything with
those guns I had back there.

By the time you saw a guy
he was gone.

I mean, you see one coming,
he's gone.

You don't have much time
to shoot at 'em.

If you get off a burst or two,
you're lucky.

They go zoop.

He'll drop off, he'll fly down,

and then he'll line up on you.

Dut-dut-dut-dut-dut,
and then he'll peel off.

The co-pilot was hit pretty hard
when we were shot down,

a 20 millimeter shell popped

right above his head
and it knocked an eye out.

So it was high noon.

Me109 was back there
blasting at us.

And I heard the co-pilot,
he said,

"Jesus Christ,
number 4's on fire.

Get out.”

When that thing is spinning
and heading down,

you are glued to your seat.

You couldn't move
if you wanted to.

And you're lucky if you see
two or three guys bail out.

We would count the chutes and
usually, if we start to look

too long after a ship
that was going down,

the pilot would say,
"okay, guys, off.”

We didn't want to spend
too much time looking

at a plane going down
when we had,

you know, fighters in the area
and so forth.

The gunners and the others
that were watching all the time

would tell you,
"boy, I don't think

anybody got out of that one,
nobody got out,”

and then sometimes
you'd see chutes

coming out of them before
they blew up or anything.

And if you didn't have
your chute on,

and get out of there
in less than 30 seconds,

you gone.

You're gone.

And seven out of eleven
out of my crew

got out alive.

And one of them,
when he got on the ground,

they pitchforked him to death.

How can you kill
a human like that?

As we approach the field,
we set off flares.

Red flares means you have
wounded aboard.

Everybody else
gets out of the way

and the wounded comes in first.

To this day, I still see it
when I think of it.

I choke up.

I can't help it,
they were friends of mine.

They were good friends
and it hurt so bad.

Especially, we all felt
like what a waste.

With the job we had,
the chance of dying

was at least 50 percent.

Fifty percent chance of living,

fifty percent chance of dying.

You know a guy said,
"your name's on it."

Well, maybe it was.

But it was scary,

and I get very irritated

when I hear some
of these guys say,

"I wasn't scared one bit."

They're full of prunes.

I was scared every time.

I went out to a ship one time

when they were taking
a young fellow off,

and I thought I could help them.

The guy they were pulling out
of the ship...

He was calling for his mother.

In about late 1944,

the allies decided

to do away
with precision bombing.

We went to pattern bombing.

Unfortunately,
killed a lot of people

but brought the war to a close
about a year sooner.

The United States military
did not go out

to carpet bomb civilians
or anything.

They went out to bomb factories,

rail yards, refineries,

and places that had something
to do with the war.

I don't think that I feel bad
about that at all.

That's what we were
supposed to do.

But toward the end of the war,

the Germans would not give up.

Never thought a thing about it.

We didn't think about people
being down there.

That never crossed my mind

about a human being
being down there.

I never gave it a thought.

They're just Germans.

You know, and I never gave it
a thought.

For some reason,
I didn't hate them.

If I had a fighter plane
come within shooting distance,

my thought was,
this kid probably wanted

to live as bad as you did.

I really didn't have
any hate for them.

I'm just scared of them.

Never gave it a thought.

I honestly never gave it
a thought.

I just felt this way.

They're gonna do it to us.

We better do it to them
before they do it to us.

And that's the way I felt
and I couldn't help it.

Bring any thoughts seeing that?

Oh I, I drifted off
into several thoughts.

Most of them you know, uh,

were bad thoughts
when you look at a mission,

and see what took place
on that mission.

And your mind drifts back
to those times, you know.

We had a lot
of mid-air collisions.

Some guys would get mixed up,
pilots, and they'd start flying

the wrong direction, so on.

But uh, the scary part
of our mission

is just getting through
all of that.

Did it get easier or harder
as you flew more missions?

I just, like I said,
I was scared to death.

But uh,
those were not good days.

There was no radio communication
at all.

We had the intercom
going all the time though,

checking the men
with the oxygen masks on,

make sure their oxygen
was flowing right.

Especially the tail gunner,

he was laying back there
by himself so much.

You get very close to the men
and everything,

and they're all young kids.

They're all dead now, I'm sure.

When you're that high up,

everything on the ground
looks like a little toy.

If you see a truck or something

it really looks small.

It was hard
but you had to do it.

We had to get rid of Hitler
and so we did it.

You guys know that some bombs

went through the wings of b-17s?

I always wondered,
"how in the world?"

They were out of position
in the formation.

God's been good to me.

First of all,
he's given me 70 years

with that lady over there,

and we have a wonderful family.

We had six kids,

and we have 20 grandkids,

22 great grandkids.

So, we've been
a very blessed family.

I didn't say I want 'em all
at the house at once.

What do you think
about the good war

and you're the greatest
generation?

Well, um, I'm beginning
to believe it.

Does that make sense to ya?

I don't know,
you kinda grew up 10 years

when you went into that thing.

And uh, when I came back home

I didn't feel like
the same man anymore.

What do you say
to people who say,

"John, you're a hero,
you're a hero.”

I say, "okay
you're probably right."

I don't know what else to say.

I wasn't one of them
hero heroes,

the guys that
finished their tour

and signed up for another one.

I wasn't them kinda heroes.

I want it clearly known,

I do not profess myself
to be a hero.

I was the pilot.

The heroes are buried in
england, Germany, and France.

The boys that didn't make it.

They're the heroes.

I was just a normal pilot.

This is called
"pattern bombing."

Well, no offense but you guys
aren't getting any younger.

Why do you think it's important

that people know
what you guys did?

Well, for one thing,

we don't want it
to happen again.

In fact or in fancy,

we just don't want it
to happen again,

for my grandson,
my granddaughters

and their husbands.

I don't wanna see them
have to face what we did.

I cannot say it
much more eloquently.

It was a hazardous profession.

Okay, up at altitude,
and of course,

bombs away and all,
and you got this on.

I think fear more than anything,

you'd perspire and sweat.

And you got this on.

Ice would form
and you'd take a deep breath,

and break the ice out
of the oxygen mask,

and then put it back on.

This is bud trying to get down
on the floor.

This is the Mae west.

Remember I told you
about the oxygen?

I mean the co2 cylinder?

This is it.

There it is, co2 cylinder.

This was before underarm
deodorant, hair spray.

I think this was the birth
of aerosol containers.

And if guys bailed out,

they didn't want it
totally inflated

couple of hundred feet up
because if they hit the water

they could break their backs.

So it wasn't that easy,
I never did it.

This is a throat mic.

This is how I talk to Erik.

And this plugged in.

And as I showed you
on the helmet,

this is how I heard,

so we had
our communication system.

But, bud, to be clear,
this should've been returned

to the government in 1945.

Come and get 'em, baby!

Well, this...
What we just did with you

might be the credit roll
to our movie.

So, you have any messages
for people

that have just watched
this movie?

Well, I'm just so glad
that people in America

or anywhere can get an idea

of what 19 and 20 and
21-year-old kids went through.

And as I tell kids
when I get done with my talk,

"I'm going to ask you guys
a favor now."

"What's that, bud?"

When you go home tonight,

you say a prayer of thanks
to god

for those 28,000 guys
that gave their lives

so that you got the life
you got today.

Thank you for your service, bud.

Not at all, not at all.