Really cool detective work. I love the overlays using the stitched together images from the documentary overlaid on current Google satellite images.

https://www.popularmechanics.c...documentary-mystery/

One of the most famous wartime documentaries of all time, Memphis Belle, purports to show the final mission of the B-17 heavy bomber. Historians have known for some time that the film was stitched together from footage of several missions, but they've always wondered: Did the documentary actually show footage from the B-17's final mission over Wilhelmshaven, Germany? A new investigation finally reveals the answer.

During World War II, the Allied bombing campaign to cripple Germany’s war machine exerted terrible losses on both sides. The Eighth Air Force, which flew B-17 bombers into the heart of German-controlled Europe, suffered 47,483 casualties. Over 440,000 bomber sorties, the “Mighty Eight” dropped 697,000 tons of bombs and was awarded 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, and 442,000 Air Medals.

B-17 bomber missions were exceptionally dangerous. While most soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen were considered in the war for the duration, bomber crews were allowed to retire from frontline missions after 25 missions. The Army Air Force, citing the “physical and mental strain on the crew,” considered bomber crewmen who racked up 25 missions as having fulfilled their tour of duty.

In 1944, the U.S. government released Memphis Belle, about the third bomber to reach the 25-mission mark. The video was purportedly made during the bomber’s final mission: flying over the German port of Wilhelmshaven on the Baltic coast. But for years, people believed the documentary was actually stitched together from several missions, and not Wilhelmshaven.

So the open source investigation group Bellingcat looked at footage from the documentary, creating composite image sets of footage of the ground. Bellingcat then compared the sets to satellite imagery readily available via Google Earth. The group's conclusion: While the film used footage of a number of other targets struck by Memphis Belle, including Saint Nazaire and Lorient, it does, in fact, show the mission over Wilhelmshaven.

Full length documentary available on Youtube:


Click this link to see the detective work and the stitched together images from the documentary:
https://www.bellingcat.com/res...-memphis-belle-case/

Fascinating. Thanks.

My grandfather was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 that made it to 30+ missions (I am not certain that all 30+ was with the same crew or plane).

He was an amazing man.

He kept notes during missions (not permitted at all). He justified it by taking old toothpaste tubes and rolling the notes up and sticking them inside the tubes. He figured, if he was shot down and the notes survived, then Jerry deserved the information they may gleen if they were smart enough to look (he would take an entire shaving kit, but left it unzipped so everything would go flying without it looking out of place... the toothpaste tube).

I have those notes and a couple of pictures.

quote:

Originally posted by bozman:
My grandfather was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 that made it to 30+ missions (I am not certain that all 30+ was with the same crew or plane).

He was an amazing man.

He kept notes during missions (not permitted at all). He justified it by taking old toothpaste tubes and rolling the notes up and sticking them inside the tubes. He figured, if he was shot down and the notes survived, then Jerry deserved the information they may gleen if they were smart enough to look (he would take an entire shaving kit, but left it unzipped so everything would go flying without it looking out of place... the toothpaste tube).

I have those notes and a couple of pictures.

Very cool! I'm hoping that for the sake of history, someday you'd be willing to publish those online or elsewhere. I'd love to read them!!!

I can dig them out in the next couple of days and scan them...

Just not sure where to post so that they can be read but not used for unauthorized purposes.

If someone knows how to do this, I will.

quote:

My grandfather was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 that made it to 30+ missions (I am not certain that all 30+ was with the same crew or plane).

^^^^^^^^^^
I remember as a kid having to memorize The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell. Here:
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

If you can, go visit the Belle at the USAF Museum in Dayton. Fantastic restoration and well worth the trip.

One of the great things I got to do before my grandfather died, I was able to purchase him a flight on a B-17 that was at the local airport in Tiffin, Ohio.

Cannot remember the name on the plane, but I have some pictures of it somewhere I think.

I was in college and broke as shit, but I was able to scrape together the money. I was not able to participate due to a lack of funds for myself.

I think the FAA has now stopped most of those flights due to a crash or some in flight injuries or something of that nature. I would have to search the web as to what the issue was at the time when they made the changes.

The Collings Foundation's B-17 "Nine-O-Nine" crashed upon take off, I think, last November, killing many on board, crew members and paying customers. The FAA report on the crash was highly critical of the pilot who also doubled as the "safety officer."

This led to grounding temporarily of all Collings aircrafts. I don't know if the grounding has been lifted yet.

My Uncle Bob washed out of flight school and was made a Bombardier in the Mighty 8th. His B17 was named The Purple Shaft. They got shot up during a raid and were forced to crash land in neutral Switzerland. The Swiss interred the crew and officers stayed in a hotel having much more freedom. They wound up having drinks with Luftwaffe fighter pilots on leave at the local bars. My Uncle got tired of situation and escaped back to England. What a guy!

I had a cousin serve as bombardier aboard a B-17. He died when the plane crashed upon landing in England. The flag presented to the family proudly hangs in my front room.

Lock N Load

Michael
USMC Ret

William Wyler, or Major William Wyler, who made the film, did so at considerable risk to his life and health. From Wyler’s Wikipedia page:

quote:

Between 1942 and 1945 Wyler volunteered to serve as a major in the United States Army Air Forces and directed a pair of documentaries: The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), about a Boeing B-17 and its U.S. Army Air Force crew;[34] and Thunderbolt! (1947), highlighting a P-47 fighter-bomber squadron in the Mediterranean. Wyler filmed The Memphis Belle at great personal risk, flying over enemy territory on actual bombing missions in 1943; on one flight, Wyler lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Wyler's associate, cinematographer Harold J. Tannenbaum, a First Lieutenant, was shot down and perished during the filming.[35] Director Steven Spielberg describes Wyler's filming of Memphis Belle in the 2017 Netflix series, Five Came Back.[36]
Working on Thunderbolt! Wyler was exposed to such loud noise that he passed out. When he awoke, he found he was deaf in one ear.[5] Partial hearing with the aid of a hearing aid eventually came back years later.[37] Wyler returned from the War a disabled veteran.[38]
Returning from the War and unsure whether he could work again, Wyler turned to a subject that he knew well[38] and directed a film which captured the mood of the nation as it turned to peace after the war, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).[39] This story of the homecoming of three veterans from World War II dramatized the problems of returning veterans in their adjustment back to civilian life. Arguably his most personal film, Best Years drew on Wyler's own experience returning home to his family after three years on the front. The Best Years of Our Lives won the Academy Award for Best Director (Wyler's second) and Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as seven other Academy Awards.

FYI - "From June 1943 to March 19,1944 the tour of duty was 25 missions. From March 19,1944-July 1944 it was 30 missions and from July 1944 to the end of the war it was 35." https://100thbg.com/index.php?...n-history&Itemid=141

RAF tour was 50, and some crews and individuals flew multiple tours.

55,500 KIA, 8500 WIA, 9800 POW. Loss rate of 44.5%

Both commands, RAF and USAAF had some of the worst survival rates in the whole conflict. Only people that had it worse were the U-Boat crewmen, who had a loss rate of 75% of personnel during the war.