Memphis Belle - 3/22/13

[CoastieJohn]

The record keeping at the time period was sketchy at best. The Belle and HA were the first two. Some base records show the Belle first, others show HA, aircraft log books differ as well. THe Belle flew most of her missions with Robert Morgan at the controls and the main bulk of the men flew their missions with him. Now there were missions that they flew in other planes due to the Belle being down for combat repairs. She was pretty well shot up over her 25 missions. Jim Verenis the co-pilot flew the first five missions on the Belle, rotated into his own aircraft, then came back for the 25th on the Belle. They original crew finished their 25th in their original aircraft. While in combat no crew member was ever lost on the Belle. The back story of the Belle made it more appealing over HA, and it was selected to come home for the warbond tour. Regardless of which one did 25 first, the Belle is a national treasure. Her restoraation is first class, and while it is taking longer, it is being done right. Any combat repairs or damage done during WWII is being left in place. There is a bulk head in the radio room with a few holes in it. That is from flack damage recieved on one of her missions. THe Belle's restoration in my opinion will be the new bar to reach for B-17 restorations.

Pretty good stuff. I see what looks like a disagreement between Morgan and the other sources as to who (Morgan or Anderson) actually flew the 25th mission. It's somewhat confusing trying to keep track of the who did what and when.

25th mission......19 May 1943* - Kiel (flown by Lt. Anderson) [Note 3]

Note 3 - All references except Morgan show this as the 25th mission of the Memphis Belle (by Anderson). Morgan states that all flights of the Memphis Belle after 15 May were local only, for the purpose of "touchup shots" to complete editing of the movie.[13] [Morgan and Powers 2001, p. 215]

For what it's worth to the historical story of these two B-17's, here's what I found out about the "Hell's Angel". The first link is a pdf link with some nice pics.

http://www.303rdbg.com/missionreports/ha-vs-mb.pdf


This is from: http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsh ... sp?id=2472

BOEING B-17F-25-BO "HELL’S ANGELS"
Boeing B-17F-25-BO "Hell's Angels" after squadron signatures were added. (U.S. Air Force photo)





During World War II, combat aircraft with significant accomplishments were sometimes pulled from front line service and flown back to the United States to conduct War Bond Tours. Hell's Angels, a B-17F-25-BO (S/N 41-24577) of the 358th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, was one of the first aircraft to participate in a War Bond Tour.

It was common for people building aircraft to "sign" aircraft at significant spots in the production run (i.e. 5,000th aircraft built). The members of the 358th Bomb Squadron got the idea to sign the Hell's Angels before it left for the States. The idea caught on and other squadrons signed their aircraft before sending them back to the United States. In addition to being the first 8th Air Force B-17 to complete 25 combat missions, Hell's Angels completed 48 missions without ever turning back from its assigned target.

Was the "Hell's Angel" scrapped or is it still out there? That would something to get both of these B-17's (MG and HA) together somewhere. [Edit Added: Hells Angels was returned to USA after 48th mission Dec 13, 1943. Scrapped Aug 14, 1945.]

[Fouga23]

Why does everyone write "hell's" as "heck's"?

*edit* Ah, seems the forum censor software automatically changes it

[CoastieJohn]

Why does everyone write "heck's" as "heck's"?

*edit* Ah, seems the forum censor software automatically changes it

The PC censor software auto-corrects it....what the heck!

[Chris Brame]

You just have to work your way around it; for example, type one of these and subtract 100: He11

Or you can use a graphic:
He (works for speaking in polite company as well)

[mustangdriver]

That 303rd BG site is a little biased at best. For example they make it out as if the Belle crew was sort of a random crew thrown together and returned to the states. That is not so. The Belle crew that went home to the states is the same Belle crew that took her over. With the exception of Jim Verinis, the crew all stuck pretty much together with the exception of sickness or wounds. Morgan stuck with the Belle unless it was down for mtc. Also the Belles final mission was May 17th, while that site claims the 19th. The HA date has been published as 13th, 15th, and the 19th. Either way these two aircraft are historic. It would have been awesome to have them both, but we still have the Belle.

[Steve Nelson]

Interestingly, when the Belle will be painted she'll be as she appeared on her 23rd mission, as that is the best-documented photographically (most of the documentary footage was shot on that mission.) That means that she won't have the crew names all over her as we're used to seeing in the PR photos taken after mission 25. The remnants of nose art currently on the aircraft will be removed when she finally goes to the paint shop..it's a rather crude rendition left over from her restoration in the early 80s (all the original paint was stripped off at that time..the original nose art couldn't be saved, as by then it was covered by several layers of paint added during her years on outdoor display.)

I'm really looking forward to seeing her finished. I'm just hoping they don't end up painting her all green inside. B-17s actually left the factory with the interiors mostly bare metal (I understand the need to paint operating warbirds of course, but a static museum aircraft should be restored to original specs.)

SN