Yes, it happened! Masters of the Air‘s stalwart — and married — narrator, Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle) embarked on a wartime affair with none other than sexy subaltern Sandra Wesgate (Bel Powley)! The very thing I wanted to happen in Masters of the Air last week happened this week, in Masters of the Air Episode 7 “Part Seven.” Of course, other things also happened in this week’s installment of Masters of the Air on Apple TV+: The Great Escape played out in the background of Buck (Austin Butler) and Bucky’s (Callum Turner) POW camp, Rosie (Nate Mann) made the heroic decision to stay with the Bloody Hundredth after completing his twenty-fifth mission, and trauma weighed down on everyone. However, I was most thrilled to see confirmation that Crosby and Sandra took advantage of their scintillating chemistry and became World War II-era “friends with benefits.”
It’s not simply that I am a horndog rooting for more romance on television; I really think that Crosby’s affair with Sandra in Masters of the Air highlights something that is often forgotten about the Greatest Generation. Simply, they were human, too.
Masters of the Air tells the true stories of the 100th Bomb Group during World War II. The United States Air Force unit was nicknamed the “Bloody Hundredth” because of its wildly high casualty rates. Recent episodes of Apple TV+’s show have reckoned with the emotional trauma felt by the group’s few survivors. We’ve followed Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal to the “Flak House,” seen Major Jack Kidd (Edward Ashley) turn to booze, and learned that Crosby has been calling on Sandra for his escape.
He explains in Masters of the Air Episode 7 that he told himself that he just wanted someone to “drink and laugh with,” but then he kept calling her. We see a scene of them hooking up in a hotel room, a rare moment of respite from the incessant horror of the war.
Later on in the episode, we see Crosby and Sandra on what can best be described as a date. She’s carelessly licking pastry cream off of her fingers while Crosby tries his best to get Sandra to reveal what top secret work she’s been doing for the British military. She deflects by inviting him to bed.
What I appreciated about this subplot is it added some nuance to Crosby’s character, and by extension, all of the Masters of the Air characters. Masters of the Air is based on true stories of incomprehensible heroism in the face of evil. We should be dazzled by the bravery shown by all of the characters. It’s easy to think that the Greatest Generation was so great because they were just built better than other generations; what makes them great, though, is they, too, were just ordinary human beings doing their best. They were just as susceptible to foibles as people are today.
Case in point: Crosby’s affair. We know that the real Harry Crosby was happily married to his wife Jean for decades after the war. If the show is depicting him indulging in a wartime fling, it’s not framed as some cruel, womanizing act. Rather, Croz is a traumatized young man clinging to the only person offering him any comfort during this harrowing moment in history.
When we remember that the men and women who fought in World War II were real people with everyday hopes, dreams, mistakes, and passions, it makes their sacrifices seem all the more impressive, not less. Crosby’s affair shows that he’s just a guy. Sandra’s just a girl. They just so happened to also be on the front lines fighting evil during World War II.
