“The Bloody Hundredth” is a documentary commemoration of the real-life airmen whose exploits fighting the air war in Europe during World War II inspired Apple TV’s fine “Masters of the Air” series.

We meet some of the survivors of that conflict and the bomber group whose grievous losses earned it the nickname, “The Bloody Hundredth” — bombardiers, navigators such as Harry Crosby and pilots like “Rosie” Rosenthal and Tuskegee Airman fighter pilot Richard Macon are joined by academic historians, “Masters of the Air” author Donald L. Miller, as well as filmmaker/historian Steven Spielberg in retelling the story of their service and sacrifice.

Filmmakers Laurent Bouzerau and Mark Herzog use archival combat footage, generous helpings of newsreels of the day — including an Army Air Force recruiting film hosted by pilot and movie star Jimmy Stewart — and radio recordings of speeches and newscasts to set the scene and take us back to the darkest days of the war and the grim business of daylight bombing German targets in durable and heavily-armed but still ironically-named B-17 Flying Fortresses.

We get a taste of the training they went through and the awful things they endured in combat or in POW camps if they were shot down and captured.

“You look on your left and on your right,” one Eight Air Force airman remembers their commanding officers telling them at an assembly. “Only one of you is coming back.”

“We were going overseas to die.”

And many did, with no other bomber group sustaining the losses The 100th endured. Some of this, we’re made to realize, was attributable to the “hard luck” that dogged the unit — bad weather foiling elaborately-planned raids, the luck of the draw in assignments.

The closest the documentary gets to passing judgement on other reasons is the suggestion that the early leaders of the group, “Buck” Cleven and “Bucky” Egan, played by Austin Butler and Callum Turner in “Masters of the Air,” were “reckless” and “cocky.”

As the tide of the air war turned and more disciplined Col. Thomas Jeffrey (interviewed here) took over, their losses fell off dramatically.

“The Bloody Hundredth” doesn’t cover much that’s new in its remembrance of this unit and the nature of the Western Europe air war. But it makes a fine companion piece to the series and the “real” Rosie,” Crosby and Richard Macon underscore its accuracy with their memories of the fight and their experience of it.

Rating: unrated, PG worthy

Cast: Harry Crosby, Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal, John “Lucky” Luckadoo, Richard Macon, Thomas Jeffrey, Donald L. Miller, Steven Spielberg and many others, narrated by Tom Hanks.

Credits: Directed by Laurent Bouzereau and Mark Herzog. An Apple TV+ release.

Running time: 1:03