Memphis Belle

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The Memphis Belle on her way back to the USA (June 9, 1943)
Left front side of the Memphis Belle
The pin-up picture template for the Memphis Belle ("Beauty from Memphis"), which was painted on the aircraft as nose art by Corporal Tony Starcer, was created by George Petty and was published in April 1941 as a centerfold girl at Esquire .

Memphis Belle ( "Beauty from Memphis") is the nickname of a famous Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , by the United States in World War II over Europe was used. It is a B-17F-10-BO with USAAF serial number 41-24485.

The namesake was Margaret Polk, the then girlfriend of the pilot Captain Robert K. Morgan.

Notoriety

The machine was one of the first bombers in the US 8th Air Fleet to complete its Tour of Duty (25 sorties). The first bomber to reach this mark was the Hell's Angels (registration number: 41-24577) of the 303rd Bombardment Group on May 13, 1943, six days before the Memphis Belle. But since the Memphis Belle was the first to return to her native USA, she and the team earned the honors and attention of the media and the public. The celebrated crew members had also completed 25 missions, but not exclusively on the Memphis Belle.

history

The Memphis Belle was delivered to the 91st Bombardment Group at Dow Air Force Base in Maine in September 1942 and relocated to Scotland on September 30 and to Bassingbourn, near Cambridge on October 14, 1942 . From there she carried out 25 missions with changing crew over the next few months.

Crew of the Memphis Belle on June 7, 1943

Stakes of the Memphis Belle

  1. on November 7, 1942 - Submarine bunker near Brest , France
  2. November 9, 1942 - Submarine bunker near St. Nazaire , France
  3. on November 17, 1942 - Submarine bunker near St. Nazaire, France
  4. December 6, 1942 - Locomotive factory near Lille , France
  5. on December 20, 1942 - Airfield near Romilly-sur-Seine , France
  6. December 30, 1942 - Submarine bunker near Lorient , France
  7. January 3, 1943 - Submarine bunker near St. Nazaire, France
  8. on January 13, 1943 - marshalling yard near Lille, France
  9. January 23, 1943 - Submarine bunker near Lorient, France
  10. on February 14, 1943 - Railway Center near Hamm , Germany
  11. February 16, 1943 - Submarine bunker near St. Nazaire, France
  12. March 6, 1943 - Submarine bunker near Lorient, France
  13. on March 12, 1943 - Station near Rouen , France
  14. on March 13, 1943 - Abbeville Airfield , France
  15. on March 22, 1943 - naval base near Wilhelmshaven , Germany (content of the documentation from 1944)
  16. March 28, 1943 - Railway Center near Rouen, France
  17. on March 31, 1943 - Port of Rotterdam , Netherlands
  18. April 16, 1943 - Submarine bunker near Lorient, France
  19. on April 17, 1943 - Aircraft factory (Focke-Wulf) near Bremen , Germany
  20. May 1, 1943 - Submarine bunker near St. Nazaire, France
  21. May 13, 1943 - Aircraft factory near Méaulte , France
  22. on May 14, 1943 - Port of Kiel , Germany
  23. on May 15, 1943 - naval facilities and airfields on Helgoland , Germany (alternative destination for Wilhelmshaven)
  24. on May 17, 1943 - Submarine bunker near Lorient, France
  25. on May 19, 1943 - engine factory in Kiel, Germany

Whereabouts

Memphis Belle during restoration work, 2003

After its 25th deployment, the plane was sent on a war bond promotion tour of the United States. At the end of the war, the city of Memphis purchased the machine for US $ 350 and shipped it to Memphis in July 1946.

From 1949 to 1987 it was exhibited there in the open air. As the condition worsened due to the weather and vandalism, the aircraft was exhibited by the local Memphis Belle Memorial Association from 1987 in a covered, but open pavilion on the island of Mud Island in the Mississippi River .

The inadequacy of the location, which is still exposed to the weather, led to the planning of a museum, but the efforts ultimately failed due to the financing of the costs.

Since October 2005, the aircraft has been in the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where it was restored. On May 17, 2018, the machine was presented to the public in a celebration and has since been on view in the museum.

Movies

documentation

Documentary The Memphis Belle - A Story of a Flying Fortress (German: The Beauty of Memphis - A Story of a Flying Fortress), 1944

The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress is a 1944 documentation created by the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Corps and directed by William Wyler of the alleged 25th mission of the Memphis Belle . It should show the everyday life of a bomber crew. In fact, the film shows the attack on the Wilhelmshaven docks on February 26, 1943, in which the Memphis Belle was not involved. The recordings during the attack were made on board the B-17 Flying Fortress Jersey Bounce of the 91st Bombardment Group. The documentation was supplemented, among other things, by recordings made during later missions of the Memphis Belle .

motion pictures

The Memphis Belle became known again through the feature film of the same name from 1990. a. Matthew Modine , Eric Stoltz , Harry Connick, Jr. , Billy Zane, and Sean Astin . For the filming, the story was modified, so the last real goal was the 25th mission of the Memphis Belle factories in Kiel and not in Bremen . In the film, the Memphis Belle starts with 24 other B-17s as part of its 25th mission to Bremen.

For the shooting, an earlier fire-fighting aircraft , a B-17G-85-DL (USAAF serial number 44-83546 / civil aircraft registration N3703G) was converted into a B-17F, comparable to the Memphis Belle. It is still shown today in this film version as the Memphis Belle at aviation events. Its current home airport is Floyd Bennett Field , New York , NY .

Web links

Commons : Memphis Belle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Morgan and Ron Powers: The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle . Penguin Putnam, New York 2001, ISBN 0-451-20594-4 , pp. 177-178 .