VIDEO HERE (40:46 minutes)
Friday, February 16, 2024
Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress
In May 1943, the crew of the Memphis Belle completed their 25th and final mission. With them on this mission was filmmaker William Wyler. Wyler and his film crew had been documenting this experiences of the B-17 crews in the air war over Europe. Their footage, which gives an unflinching, up close look at the aerial combat that these men saw in WWII, was used for a documentary film that was released to the public in 1944.
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Makes be proud to be an American.
ReplyDeleteThat was excellent. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteYes, it sure was.
DeleteWilliam Wyler directed Ben Hur, The Big Country, Roman Holliday and The Best Years of Our Lives. He was a very famous director, and I had no knowledge of his work during WWII. It's a trip to think of he and his crew flying along on the final mission of the Memphis Belle.
Also, director John Ford was on Midway with a film crew during the battle: The Battle of Midway
DeleteAnd John Huston was on Adak during the Aleutian campaign and flew on combat missions against Japanese-held Kiska. His cameraman flew on 9 missions in 6 days.
Crews and personnel would get swapped around so when the crew had their 25 missions in the AirCraft, Memphis belle, had 1 or 2 missions to go to get her 25. On one of those, my dad with several of his crew flew a mission ( may 14 or 17, 43). on may 21 the 324th squadron( without Memphis Belle) had 3 of its 6 planes, on a bombing mission to willemhaven, shot down before they reached the target. My dad, in the ball turret of one of the surviving planes saw most of his crew go down in flames. In early 1943 the life span of airmen averaged 10 missions. If you managed to survive the first 5 you were more likely to get your 25 in. I think the 91st Bomb Group lost more people and planes than any other unit.
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