As much as I love Buck and Bucky and their storyline, I'll never forgive MotA for downplaying the importance and friendship of Rosie and Crosby
As someone who went into the show, having already read the Masters of the Air book by Donald L. Miller, this was undoubtedly my biggest disappointment.
From the Hollywood and marketing standpoint, it was an understandable move to grant the vast majority of the screentime and attention to Buck and Bucky since the screenwriters deliberately wrote them to be an appealing, inspiring duo — at the cost of staying true to portraying the real John Egan and Gale Cleven — but also (and mainly) because the actors they casted for their roles were the most well-established and popular ones out of the cast.
HOWEVER, if you make your research, if you go into the Masters of the Air book, with the knowledge of the show only, thinking you'll read about no one but Buck and Bucky, then I have to gravely disappoint you because you'll have the shock of your life.
Not only is the book only partially about the 100th Bomb Group (it more or less covers aviation during WW2 as a whole, with the American bombers, in general, being the main link Miller followed), but because it's a truthful, non-fictious representation of history, it depicts the things as they really were.
The author wrote the book with the help of veterans, and while yes, he cooperated with Robert Rosenthal the most — hence could showcase his experiences and thoughts the most vividly — he was also in frequent contact with Gale Cleven himself.
Gale Cleven and Robert Rosenthal
I know that it might not have looked like that in the show, but Buck and Bucky spent only a few months in Thorpe Abbotts before they ended up in the Stalag Luft III — they both arrived in May 1943 and were captured in October of that same year.
And while yes, they gave the Bomb Group its personality, as Crosby later stated in his book:
"Jack Kidd, John Bennett, and Tom Jeffrey showed us how to win a war. Bucky Cleven and Buck Egan gave the 100th its personality. Bob Rosenthal helped us want to win the war. When Rosie started on his third tour, many flyers volunteered for their second. They wanted to be like Rosie."
...it was men like Kidd (also awfully overlooked and miscasted in the show, don't even get me started on that one), Bennett, Jeffrey, Rosie, and Crosby who truly made it work and who had just as precious bonds with each other, formed by the war.
From your right — Rosie, Crosby, Kidd, Colonel Harding, Bennett.
Crosby literally wrote an entire chapter about Rosie in his autobiography, and offered so much interesting insight into their camaraderie and cooperation in it — the book is called A Wing and a Prayer.
Rosie and Crosby are in the back of the Jeep in this photo
"All I knew was that I liked him very much. We laughed a lot together."
"With Rosie, life was fun. […] Rosie made a difference. He wasn't much of a soldier. Instead of returning a salute, he smiled and waved."
"On the orders of Colonel Jeff, Rosie and I intensified lead crew training. […] Readjusting to my new life in which I flew almost every day with Rosie and the lead crews... […] Rosie and I had to show him how to fly as command pilot with lead crews, and I had to show him the importance of the lead navigator."
"As openings developed, many of the best and brightest ground officers of the squadrons were promoted to Group HQ jobs and moved into the WAAF site, where Rosie, Blake, and I lived. Here, the talk, and the friendship, and the dumb, ribald, practical jokes made life a delight."
"On February 3 — it seemed so sudden because we didn't expect it — Rosie went down again. It was his fifty-second mission. […] Gloom on the base, like when the two Buckys went down. An enlisted man in Group Ops told me, "Sir, Major Rosenthal is a legend here. We all feel bad." Rosie, the Indomitable, was gone. The 100th hurt. […] On March 1, wonderful news. We got a phone call from Rosie."
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