This War Department technicolor film from World War Two was filmed with real pilots based in England flying the famous B-17 Flying Fortress “Memphis Belle”. It puts the faces of real people to the amazing story of the sacrifices made by the heroic B-17 crew members during the war, who risked their lives with each bombing mission flown over Germany.
The Memphis Belle’s bombing targets would include munitions factories, fuel depots, ship yards, rail lines, and tank, gun, and aircraft factories, all of which were heavily fortified in anticipation of the Allies bombing runs. The B-17s would fly in very tight formation over enemy lines, and be at maximum altitude for protection against flack and enemy fighters. The B-17s would still be inflicted with significant damage and often the case a good number of aircraft would not return from such raids.
This historic film runs some 40 minutes and tells the story from crew briefing at 0800, bombs being loaded, aircraft serviced by ground crews, to departure over the English countryside, climb to altitude over the English channel, and crossing the enemy coastline of mainland Europe, and then proceeding to the target zones whilst climbing to maximum service altitudes. All this was met with massive defence responses from ground guns and the Luftwaffe fighters that were sent to dispatch the some of the B-17s to an untimely end. Ultimately, the lucky USAF B-17 Flying Fortress bombers would limp back to their bases in England, many having taken severe damages from ground fire or enemy fighters, with crew members’ tales of bravery that live on as legends to this very day.
