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

The first U.S.A.A.F. heavy bomber to complete 25 combat missions and return to the U.S.A. to help sell war bonds. At this stage of the war no Allied fighter could be with the bombers all the way on the longer bombing raids. Directed by William Wyler who was a major in the Army Air Force from 1942-45. He made this film at great risk flying on bombing missions over enemy territory himself. He passed out on one flight from lack of oxygen. He lost his associate & cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum who died when a B-17 he was in was shot down. When the flight crew are informed of this particular mission you will see that over 1,000 planes are taking part on raids on six different targets in an attempt to confuse the enemy as to what was the main target. Today the Memphis Belle is at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. William Wyler also directed Thunderbolt and in his long career he won 3 Academy Awards for Best Director....Mrs. Miniver (1942), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and the great epic Ben-Hur (1959). This is at The Moving Images section of The Internet Archive with Creative Commons license...CCO 1.0 Universal. I tweaked the picture and sound hoping to make it better.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• B-17
• Flying-Fortress
• bomb
• destruction
• air-raid
• bomber
• explosion
• WW2
• Target
• Air-War
• Flak
• Messerschmidt
• Boeing
• England
• attack
• Wilhelmshaven
• Germany
• weapons
• world