War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. host, James Early. Hello and welcome back to Key Battles of American History.

This is your host, James Early, as always.

And we are now going to discuss part three of Masters of the Year.

I'm here with my old buddy, Sean McIver.

Sean, ready to do another one?

Yeah, let's do it.

Let's get in the air.

All right.

Episode 3 is one of the highest rated episodes among the fans, and it is gut-wrenching,

as you will soon see.

But before we jump into it, I would like to recap the last episode.

We were shown a lot of different things in part two.

We saw what life was like at Thorpe Babitz when the men were not up in the air, fighting the Germans.

We saw how Colonel Chick Harding took over as the commander of the 100th bomb group.

And then we saw the raid on Norway. We saw how

Harry Crosby kind of comes into his own as a navigator. He does a good job of getting the guys

...