Does the name of the most famous airplane to fly out of the flak-riddled skies of World War II ring a Memphis Belle?
Sure, military historians generally acknowledge that the B-29 bomber the Enola Gay had a more singular moment in dropping the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, but for prevailing in aerial combat and an impact that goes beyond the military and into the American social and pop cultural pantheon, it is tough to top the old B-17 bomber called the Memphis Belle.
After all, any airplane that stars in two Hollywood movies deserves our attention, and the plane becomes the “belle” of the ball again this weekend when the survivors from its original 1942-’43 crew head to its namesake city to salute the plane and the indomitable legend that surrounds it like a flak vest 55 years later.
“Oh my, I’m looking forward to this reunion in a big, big way,” said retired Col. Robert Morgan of Asheville, N.C., pilot of the Memphis Belle. “When we crawl up in that cockpit again, there’s going to be a lot of memories, a lot of laughter and a lot of tears.
“We’re all getting on in years and are living all over the country now, so that makes this reunion very, very special. Being able to climb in that airplane just one more time is fantastic.
“It’ll be `just like old times’ . . . except, of course, this time nobody will be shooting at us.”
In 1942-’43, Morgan led a total of 14 airmen serving in 10 positions aboard the Memphis Belle on a series of successful raids over Nazi-occupied Europe. Just seven men, including him, are still alive and five are making the reunion trip.
Today, the Memphis Belle B-17 guards the east bank of the Mississippi River on an outcropping called Mud Island.
From November 1942 through mid-May 1943, the Memphis Belle etched its reputation as a “plane of destiny” in the 8th Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Corps.
“Their first mission made history (in November 1942 in Brest, France). The Memphis Belle was the second B-17 down the runway but became the first B-17 of the 91st Bomb Group to cross into enemy territory when the lead airplane had to turn back,” said Brent Perkins, president of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association and the aircraft’s unofficial historian and caretaker.
In the aircraft’s six-month combat career, nine engines, the main wings, both landing gear, two tails–one that had been blown off and one burned off–were replaced, Perkins said.
“The Memphis Belle became the very first bomber to finish the required 25 missions and return to the United States–it was not the first to finish 25, but it was the first to finish and return (stateside),” he said.
Surviving 25 missions over occupied Europe in 1942-’43 was hardly a given. The Memphis Belle was the lead plane on 300- to 400-craft bombing formations.
“Our first two missions were high-altitude bombing missions, then on the third, it was decided that we would `surprise’ the Germans with a low-level attack,” recalled Morgan, the pilot. “You know, we would skim the surface until we got to the target, stay below the attention of German fighters and radar, pop up to a couple of thousand feet, drop our bombs and get out.
“The target was the submarine pens at St. Nazaire (on the French coast). In fact, most of our early bombing missions were on submarine yards because we had to stop German U-boat packs from sinking Allied shipping between North America and England.
“Anyway, it didn’t fool anybody. We got hammered. Our squadron got shot up badly–just ripped to pieces on that one. “We counted 62 holes in the plane when we got back,” said Morgan, who had to land at Exeter, a base closer to the coast rather than Bassingbourn, because one engine was out and the plane was out of gas.
On the Memphis Belle’s fifth mission, some 300 German fighters its formation in Romilly-sur-Seine, France, in one of the war’s more intense aerial battles. On other missions, the Belle returned to its base at Bassingbourn with no ammunition. But it wound up with eight “kills” of German fighters.
On one mission, the Belle was flying in clouds so a German Junkers-88 fighter-bomber had entered the formation and was hovering about 50 yards from above the top turret gun position manned by Harold Loch.
“I’ve shots ducks at distances longer than that,” said Loch, now 78 of Green Bay and an avid hunter.
With Loch’s radio call to Morgan, the Belle was able to steer out of harm’s way before the Junkers-88 could turn its guns.
Loch recalls film director William Wyler, a major in the 8th Air Force’s film unit who was researching a documentary, taking Loch’s place in the gun turret.
“A Messerschmitt dove on us and I can still see tracers lighting up on both sides of me but I never got hit,” Loch recalled.
Another time, Wyler was leaning out a port window, trying to film aerial combat with Loch hanging on to him for dear life.
“Major, I hope you got your film because I think it’s time for us to start shooting back,” Loch suggested.
Wyler’s acclaimed 1943 film, “Memphis Belle–A Wartime Documentary,” which was in theaters nationwide, and the airplane-and-crew’s cross-country War Bond Tour (a three-month tour stopping in 25 major cities to promote patriotism), the Belle’s status was seemingly secure.
But, like a comet, the Memphis Belle streaked across the public’s consciousness and disappeared.
After the War Bond Tour, the plane was restored from its war wounds at Boeing Aircraft in Seattle, then flown to MacDill Field in Tampa, where it served out the war as a training plane.
After the war, the Memphis Belle found itself at Altus Army Air Field near the Oklahoma-Texas panhandle border. The Belle was weeks away from being cut up as surplus scrap, when a Tennessee visitor recognized it and called the mayor of Memphis, which procured it for $350.
“The airplane was `procured.’ It was never purchased, but it was procured for $350 by Memphis from the Reconstruction Finance Corp., which was charged with disposing of these airplanes,” said Perkins of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association.
“So the airplane came here and they flew it for the last time July 17, 1946, less than 4 years old.”
The Memphis Belle and its legend continue to play to worldwide acclaim: The plane’s Web site receives 27,000 visits annually and the online “guest book” includes greetings in every language.
“Well, there were 12,731 B-17s built, there are now only 40 airframes left, and 12, maybe 13 that still fly, and this is the most prominent B-17 of them all, and my research is beginning to indicate that this is the most famous aircraft to fly during the Second World War,” Perkins said.
“I feel kind of humble saying that, but more people recognize the Memphis Belle name than they do the Enola Gay. People actually have come down here and asked if this is the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb.
“Beyond that, it’s regarded as among the top five aircraft ever built. And as far as the U.S. Air Force Museum inventory, of which there are 1,700 airplanes, this is in the top three.”
Pilot Morgan has spent more than a half-century trying to figure out why a day doesn’t go by in which he’s not asked to sign autographs and have his picture taken with strangers.
“I’m 79 years old now and I’ve lived a long and full life–a lot fuller than most, probably,” said Morgan, who isn’t exaggerating when you consider that before the Memphis Belle left England in 1943, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth went to Bassingbourn to meet with Morgan and his crew.
Last year, the Queen Mum received Morgan at her summer manse and recalled their first meeting 55 years earlier.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think about why the Memphis Belle continues to have this mystique, this grip and it goes well beyond the fact that they made a couple of movies about it,” Morgan said. ” First, for the crew, it’s a much more personal thing for us. This plane really was the `lucky ship’ that brought us safely home to our families.
“But beyond that, I’ve never seen America more together as a people with a sense of purpose than it was during WW II. In many ways, in all of our history, that was also our finest hour.
“Remember the War Bond Tour, where we flew around the country visiting defense plants? That wasn’t for us. That was for them–the people, the workers who built the tanks and planes. A war was on and America was desperate for heroes, and we filled that role for the country.
“The Memphis Belle represents America at her finest, at her best, at her proudest and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. That’s what people want to touch, even today. Hey, in my book that airplane is America.”
MEMPHIS BELLE
BOEING B-17 FLYING FORTRESS
The Memphis Belle was part of the 8th Air Force (part of the Army Air Corps), 91st Bomb Group based at Bassingbourn, England. It flew 25 successful missions from November 1942 through May 1943. Hollywood film director William Wyler flew five missions with crew for documentary.
– Wing span: 103 feet 9 inches
– Length: 74 feet 9 inches
– Height: 19 feet 1 inch
– Weight: 65,500 pounds
– Speed: 160 m.p.h. at 25,000 feet
– Fuel: 2,520 gallons
– Oil: 147.6 gallons
– Range: 2,800 miles at 152 m.p.h. at 10,000 feet
– Bomb load: 8,000 pounds
– Armaments: Thirteen 50-caliber machine guns
– Ceiling: 37,500 feet
– Original cost: $314,109
– Procurement cost: $350
– Units built: 12,731
– Built at: Boeing Aircraft, Seattle, July 2, 1942
– Named for: Margaret Polk of Memphis and a Joan Blondell character in the film `Lady For a Night.’
– The Crew: 14 airmen for 10 positions in 1942-43
Pilot: Capt. Robert K. Morgan
Co-pilot: Capt. Jim Verinis
Bombardier: Capt. Vincent B. Evans
Navigator: Capt. Charles B. Leighton
Top turret gunners: Tech. Sgt. Leviticus “Levi” Dillon; Tech. Sgt. Eugene Adkins; Tech. Sgt. Harold P. Loch
Radio operator: Tech. Sgt. Robert J. Hanson
Left waist gunner: Staff Sgt. Clarence E. Winchell
Right waist gunners: Staff Sgt. E. Scott Miller; Staff Sgt. Casimir A. “Tony” Nastal
Ball turret gunner: Staff Sgt. Cecil H. Scott
Tail gunner: Staff Sgt. John P. Quinlan
Crew chief: Master Sgt. Joseph M. Giambrone
Crew mascot: Stuka the dog, London
MISSION INDELIBLE
According to the 91st Bomb Group official history, aircraft logs and the U.S. War Department (now the Department of Defense), these are the missions flown in 1942 and 1943 by the Memphis Belle B-17 Bomber: %%
Mission Date Location Target
1 Nov. 7, 1942 Brest, France Submarine pens
2 Nov. 9, 1942 St. Nazaire, France Submarine pens
3 Nov. 17, 1942 St. Nazaire, France Submarine pens
4 Dec. 6, 1942 Lille, France Locomotive works
5 Dec. 20, 1942 Romilly-sur-Seine, France Air field
6 Dec. 30, 1942 Lorient, France Submarine pens
7 Jan. 3, 1943 St. Nazaire, France Submarine pens
8 Jan. 13, 1943 Lille, France Locomotive works
9 Jan. 23, 1943 Lorient, France Submarine pens
10 * Feb. 4, 1943 Emden, Germany Industrial site
11 Feb. 14, 1943 Hamm, Germany Railroad center
12 Feb. 16, 1943 St. Nazaire, France Submarine pens
13 March 6, 1943 Lorient, France Submarine pens
14 March 12, 1943 Rouen, France Railway yards
15 March 13, 1943 Abbeville, France Air field
16 March 22, 1943 Wilhelmshaven, Germany Naval base
17 March 28, 1943 Rouen, France Railroad center
18 March 31, 1943 Rotterdam, Holland Shipyards
19 April 16, 1943 Lorient, France Submarine pens
20 April 17, 1943 Bremen, Germany Airplane factory
21 May 1, 1943 St. Nazaire, France Submarine pens
22 May 13, 1943 Meaulte, France Plane repair works
23 May 14, 1943 Kiel, Germany Shipyards
24 May 15, 1943 Helgoland, Germany Naval yards
25 ** May 17, 1943 Lorient, France Submarine pens
26 May 19, 1943 Kiel, Germany Shipyards
%% * On mission No. 10 to Emden, Germany, the regular crew flew the B-17 bomber the Jersey Bounce while the Memphis Belle was being repaired.
** Most of the crew completed their 25th combat mission following the May 17, 1943 bombing raid on Lorient, France. Mission No. 26 was flown by another crew, thus giving the airframe the Memphis Belle 25 complete combat missions as well.
