The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944)

1943 and the allied bombing campaign is at its peak. The Memphis Belle is a B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber in the US 8th Air Force. Its crew have completed 24 missions - one more and they go home. A documentary film crew captured their 25th mission, from preparation on the ground onwards.Superb documentary, directed by William Wyler. Captures very accurately the day-to-day lives of US bomber crews in Europe, including the dangers and sacrifices made. Good detail of the mission itself.Great footage, shot specifically for the documentary. The lives of the documentary crew were also in danger...Narration is stirring and brings home the importance of the bombers' roles, as well as how endangered the crews' lives were. Very sobering and emotional.The documentary inspired the great 1990 feature film, Memphis Belle.

Documentary about the 25th and last bombing mission of a B17, the "Memphis Belle". The "Memphis Belle" took part in a great bombing raid on sub-pens in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. On their way they encountered heavy AA fire and interceptors.The 16 mm color film used did not include sound, and this was added later in Hollywood. The original crew, during their war bonds drive in the United States, made typical appropriate comments to each other while watching the silent movie in a studio. The result was difficult to distinguish from real combat recordings.Regarding Wilhelmshaven, two thirds of the town's buildings were destroyed during bombing by the Allies of World War II. That is pretty devastating. How much of that can be attributed to the Memphis Belle? While there is plenty of footage of World War II, this is an inside look that is rather atypical. A real crew in a real plane on a real mission. I find it especially interesting because one of the crew was from Green Bay, which is my general neighborhood.

Although not true too life... It is a great movie. If all "war Movies" showed the way it really was... no one will watch them. I feel the film is really about the HERROES that served aboard the Memphis Bell. Living to fly 25 complete missions was a feat upon itself. Along with films like this and "The Battle Of Britan" showed what was involved in doing their "jobs". In the "modern era" of war you do not see as much of the "human instinct of fight or flight". The pilots in World Wars I and II had to do battle by the seat of their pants and get to those battles by dead reckoning. More of a "THE ART OF WAR" as opposed to technical war (ie push button warfare) When a film is degraded by goofs and some impossible situations portrayed in that film, after all a movie is a work of "ART" and will never portray as it really was. In the film "The Longest Day" some people I talked to about say "it was done in B&W soo it was not that great".

The pilot was 24-year-old Captain Robert K. Morgan from Asheville, North Carolina who was an industrial engineer before joining the Army in 1941; the co-pilot, whom Captain Morgan insisted was "the other pilot', was 25-year-old Captain James A. Verinis from New Haven, Connecticut, who was a business administration student at the University of Connecticut before entering the service in July of 1941; Captain Vincent B. Evans, the 23-year-old bombadier was one of the two married members of the crew, and was a fleet-truck operator in his home town of Fort Worth, Texas before enlisting in January of 1942; Captain Charles B. Leighton, from East Lansing,Michigan and a chemistry student at Ohio Wesleyan before entering the service, was the navigator. The engineer and top turret gunner was Technical Sergeant Harold P.Loch, a 23-year-old stevedore from Green Bay, Wisconsin who joined the service in November of 1941; Technical Sergeant Robert J.Hanson, a construction worker from Washington state and the other married crew member, was the radio operator. The 19-year-old "baby" of the Memphis Belle crew was waist-gunner Staff Sergeant Casimer A. Nastal who was a washing machine repairman from Detroit, Michigan with two confirmed fighter kills to his credit who thought he had more "but never had time to watch whether they went down"; Staff Sergeant Cecil H. Scott, a pressman for a rubber company in Rahway, New Jersey was the ball turret gunner and, at 27, the oldest member of the crew. One of the three cameraman was First Lieutenant Harold J. Tannenbaum, from Binghamton,New York, a World War I veteran who remained in the Navy until 1927. He re-entered the service in July,1942 when he received his commission in the Army Air Force. He was killed in action,age 46,in April of 1944 and received a posthumous Purple Heart.