67 years ago today

[mustangdriver]

The B-17 "Memphis Belle" flew it's 25th and final mission. Records are pretty rough from that time period, so no one is sure exactly which date, this week, but it is thought the 17th was the 25th mission. The B-17 HeII's Angels and another unnamed B-24 all finished their tour around the same dates, no one 100% sure about the dates. No ones records match one another from the crews to the unit. Does anyone know anything about the B-24 that was in the running?

[gary1954]

Would Morgan's loog book reflect the date of the last flight of the Belle? I should think it would. Does anyone know where his artifacts like his log book are? Just a thought

[mustangdriver]

Linda Morgan has his original log books. She loans them to different museums from time to time, and the NMUSAF will have them on display when the Belle is completed. The problem with Memphis Belle and heII's Angels is that while the crews flew most of their missions together in the same plane, from time to time they did have to use other aircraft, or the crew might have flown missions as a fill in crew member. So you have a date that the crew of the Memphis Belle flew their 25th mission which is thought to be may 17th, but the Memphis Belle had been down for repairs after damage from flack and fighters through out their tour, so it was only the Belle's 24th mission. She would go on to fly a few more missions with another crew, before she was reunited with her crew again and sent stateside. Records were jsut not that complete then, and the same goes for HeII's Angels. There really is no 100% completely accurate date for the 25th missions of these aircraft. Basically May 13th-19th is the timeframe for the Belle and her crew. The Memphis Belle was selected to be sent home because of the story. So the Memphis belle was the first B-17 to fly it's 25th mission and return home. We are extremely luck that this B-17 survives today. A real combat vet. During the war she had a new tail, two new wings, new landing gear, as well as many other patches and holes that are being preserved in the restoration. She shot down 7 enemy fighters, and led the bomb group on several missions, and even led the whole bomb wing a few times.