12 O'Clock High

Captain Joe Gallagher aborts twice in a row bringing him to the attention of General Savage. Savage feels that Gallagher has a chip on his shoulder and is not pulling his weight and assigns him a new plane ""The Leper Colony "" . He tells Gallagher he is going to get a crew of malcontents, ""a co-pilot who is all thumbs, a navigator who can't find his feet, a bombardier who could not hit his plate with a fork"". Gallagher applies for a transfer, but Harvey delays it. Gallagher will have to turn them into a crew. Captain Gallagher is tough on his crew but they start to perform well and after 5 missions, Savage says they have earned the right to change the name. They all decide to keep it, but Gallagher's transfer has come through and he still wants out. Before he goes he wants in on a special 2 plane mission. Savage agrees and they complete the mission but Gallagher's airplane is hit and co-pilot Blake wounded. He can not abandon the aircraft so he gets it home safe. Savage promotes him to

Savage wants the 918th to try a new technique, bombing on the leader. Instead of each bombardier sighting his own target and then making his own bomb-run, the entire group would synchronize with the lead bombardier and when he drops, the whole Group drops. Both Generals' Crowe & Pritchard are opposed to the idea but Savage presses for it. His lead crew consists of Bishop, Zimmerman & Mellon. Mellon has been recommended for the DFC for a previous mission. When his best friend the Navigator was badly wounded, Mellon stayed at his post and made the bomb run anyway. The run was successful but the friend died. Mellon is shaken and on the next mission, the entire group misses and bombs a school. Unsure whether it was faulty equipment or his error, Mellon does not want to be lead bombardier any longer. Savage pushes Mellon and they go up again and successfully bomb the target.

Tom Lockridge is a copilot, on a mission the pilot is killed, and he takes over allowing the crew to bail out. His best friend Captain Wade Ritchie disobeys orders and flies cover with his B-17. Back on the ground Savage tells Ritchie he is going to charge him with disobeying an order for leaving formation. When Lockridge returns and finds this out he turns his back on the General. Savage tries to explain to Lockridge the concept of formation discipline, but he is only concerned about his friend. Ritchie draws a court martial and is reduced in rank to 1st Lieutenant. Savage speaks to Libby MacAndrews, Lockridge's girl and she and Savage both keep working on him. On the next mission Lieutenant Ritchie flies as copilot with Savage and they get hit, Lockridge now an aircraft commander realizes he can't break formation.

A straggling B-17 joins the formation and it turns out to be a captured plane flown by Germans. It strafes the lead plane flown by General Savage which is shot down. Later it is reported that Brigadier General Frank Savage the Group Commander has been killed and will be buried with full military honours by the Germans. Brigadier General Ed Britt from SHAEF HQ must decide who should take command of the 918. His candidates are the Deputy Group Commander Lieutenant Colonel Joe Gallagher, and the other two Squadron Commanders, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Bailey & Lieutenant Colonel Chick Heindorf. Gallagher is the temporary Group Commander. On the next mission Gallagher's crew shoots down a B-17 who does not acknowledge a signal thinking it is an infiltrator. It turns out to be a legitimate straggler with radio trouble and a wounded crew. When asked by General Britt, Gallagher says he would do the same thing again if the same situation occurred. Because he can make tough decisions, Gallagher

Maintenance problems plague the 918th. General Creighton from G-2 orders the 918th on a mission to drop a spy (Ilka Zradna) into occupied Poland. Aircraft Army 262 has to abort the mission, (Langaard & Hetz are killed) and only 3 crew (Komansky, Rodman, Booker) survive along with Ilka. Back at Group a furious Komansky slugs Podesta and both are busted to Private by Gallagher. General. Creighton informs Gallagher that 20 German saboteurs are known to be in England impersonating Allied airmen and they will be closing in once they can identify the entire Group and the leader. Podesta is later found murdered beside some sabotaged ammunition and it is learned that the saboteurs are on base. It turns out that Podesta was a CIC agent (as is T/4 Thibideaux). General. Creighton orders CIC Major Adams on base disguised as Master Sergeant Young. Gallagher orders a plane on the mission to drop Ilka. He then switches to the Piccadilly Lilly. Just before they take off, T/4 Hansen delivers coffee to

After a tough mission, Gallagher needs a new gunner. Corbett, a replacement has a perfect gunnery score (1000, Komansky only has 400). He takes over from the wounded Staff Sergeant Abbott as Left Waist gunner & joins Gallagher's crew on a practice mission. He spots the target first but his gun jams. The other gunners kid him and he does not join in the after hours fun at the Star & Bottle. Komansky adopts Corbett and helps him, they go to another pub and Corbett meets Gillian. On the next practice mission, Corbett spots a real German FW and shoots it down. He gets promoted to Sergeant but is upset by killing someone. He checks in to the hospital, confesses to being only 15 and runs away to see Gillian at the pub. He comes back to see Gallagher and sneaks aboard for the next mission. Hachensberg is the target. After the other gunners are hit Corbett takes over ands performs well. On the return Gallagher chews him out and says he will get court-martialed. After he is taken away Gallagher

The 918th Group has just finished 21 missions in the 30 days since May 1, 1944. They have been bombing for Operation Point, the lead up to Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. A 10 day leave is authorized then cancelled and instead they are assigned to fly the Overleaf missions, dropping leaflets all over the French coast. Everyone is exhausted from Gallagher on down. General Pritchard tells General Britt that they need all groups in the air. Britt explains he only has two flyable Groups left, 918th & 966th, he has used the 82nd to replace men & aircraft for the other Groups. Later at Wing, General Britt explains to Gallagher that this could be the ""real thing"". Gallagher says he has heard that before. Britt also tells Gallagher that the G-3 is moving up and the position could go to Gallagher if he wants it. On the first ""Overleaf"" mission to Youreville, they get hit by flak and Pat Barstow's ship gets shot down. Back on the ground, Lieutenant Col. Christy is upset over losing

A shuttle raid is planned by 8th Air Force commander Lieutenant General Harry Owen. Bombers will bomb Ergen Oil Works land in Poltava Russia, then hit Berlin on the way back. A straggling Russian Bomber joins the formation and does not give any recognition signals nor does it respond to Baladin's radio calls. The aircraft is shot down by Major Baladin flying Major Simpson's plane (against Gallagher's orders). Later we learn that the aircraft was piloted by a hero, Major Tobulkan & Captain Chernikov. General Voredenko wants to know who is responsible for this and says that until the man is caught no supplies will be issued. It is the system. Worried that Voredenko will have him shot, Baladin asks Donald ""Doc"" Kaiser for help.

The 918th is now temporarily part of the 15th Air Force. They fly to a base at Bellagio Foggia Italy commanded by Colonel Yates. Yates is a drunk. Sabotage led by Major Holtzer. Shull is killed.