♪ [music] ♪ - [Narrator] This is a battle front. A
battle front like no other in the long history of mankind's wars.
This is an air front. ♪ [music] ♪ The working day begins as it will end with
the ground crews as much a part of the fortress as her wings. If you're a
mechanic, you've got your own bomber. You get attached to it. But you know
when your ship goes out on a mission, you may never see it again. So, you do
your work as well as it can be done, perfectly. Because you wouldn't want
anything to go wrong that would be your fault. ♪ [music] ♪ Today the bombs will be taken from these
bomb dumps somewhere in England and delivered to specific points in
Wilhelmshaven, Germany. ♪ [music] ♪ To deliver them is the job of the eighth bomber command.
Just a hauling job, yet one of the most difficult and complicated
of military operations. ♪ [music] ♪ General purpose demolition bombs, impact
velocity as high as 750 miles an hour. Pierce five inches of armor
plate, destroy a factory. Briefing at 08:00. Pilots, bombardiers
and navigators take their places. The group commander, Colonel Stanley
Wray, steps up to the target map, and for the first time, you
learn where you're going. Sometimes, your face turns white when you
find out. Sometimes, the feeling you won't come back tightens your insides. Not so
long ago, you were sitting like this in a college or high school classroom, not
listening too hard, perhaps even a little sleepy, but you listen here. And as you listen, you don't have
time to think of yourself, fear fades, you concentrate on the mission,
type of formation, assembly point, zero hour, route to target, weather,
enemy fighters, enemy flak, route back home. If forced down
in enemy territory, destroy equipment. If taken prisoner, give no information,
name, rank and serial number. That's all. ♪ [music] ♪ These are the passengers with one-way
tickets, and this is the crew of the Memphis Belle, 324th squadron, 91st heavy
bombardment group. Just one plane and one crew in one squadron, in one group of one
wing of one Air Force out of 15 United States Army Air Forces. "Well fellas, we've never had an easy ride
over there, yet. And today won't be any different. No escort except
unfriendly so keep your eyes peeled. Don't get excited and yell when
you're talking on the intercom. Save your ammunition and make you shots
count. And let me know what goes on back there, Quinlan." "Yes, sir." "Stay on the ball gang, and she'll
bring us back like she's always done. Okay? Let's go." They have completed 24 missions, in
this, the toughest theater of air war. The big league of sky fighting.
Their experience is priceless. And so, if the Memphis Belle comes back
this afternoon, they will be sent to bring the vital lessons they have learned to
thousands of air crew men in training at home. Home is America. ♪ [music] ♪ [plane engines] This is a battlefront, like no other in
this or any war. No monster armies, no booming cannon. Only the
roaring engine sound of the bombers, pounding through the quiet English
countryside. This is an air front. [plane engines] The wheels of the Memphis Belle leave
the soil of England for the 25th time. The friendly soil of England, with its
ordered farms and rural hamlets. Its country estates surrounded by
formal gardens and well-kept parks. The England these Americans knew only from
the classics they had to read in school. The England of the towns and cities whose
people have defended their island's freedom for over a thousand years. But today, their countryside has changed.
Today, their island has been converted into a gigantic bomber field. A super
aircraft carrier, anchored off the shores of fortress Europe, with hangars and
machine shocks, with hundreds of dispersal points, perimeter tracks, and concrete
runways. This is England in its fifth year of war. And this is the new battle front, the air
front, from which we seek out the enemy. Not his infantry or his artillery, not his
panzer divisions, but the greater menace. The industrial heart of his nation. The
foundation on which the Nazi empire and its army stand. The power behind
the German lust for conquest. The steel mills and refineries, shipyards
and submarine pens, factories, ammunition plants. Pinpoints on
the map of Europe which mean rubber, guns, ball bearings, shells, engines,
planes, tanks, targets. Targets to be destroyed. And these are the destroyers,
each with a belly full of bombs, and ten men, like the crew of the Memphis
Belle. Pilot Captain Robert Morgan, industrial engineer from Asheville, North
Carolina. He's flown this ship across the Atlantic. The other pilot, Captain Jim
Verinis, business administration student at the University of Connecticut. Radio
operator and gunner, Sergeant Bob Hanson, construction worker from Spokane,
Washington. Navigator, Captain Chuck Leighton, chemistry student at Ohio
Wesleyan. Engineer and top turret Gunner, Sergeant Harold Loch, from Green Bay,
Wisconsin. He used to be a stevedore. Besides keeping the Belle in order,
he covers the sky above. Tail gunner, Sergeant John Quinlan of Yonkers,
New York, clerk for a carpet company, but he quit December 8th, 1941.
Ball turret gunner, Sergeant Cecil Scott. Pressman for a rubber company
in Rahway, New Jersey. "Pilot to crew, 10,000. Put on oxygen."
They're climbing higher now. 300 feet a minute. The strain on the
planes and on the men is mounting. The rest of the crew, bombardier, Captain
Vincent Evans. Operated a fleet of trucks in Fort Worth, Texas. Waist gunners,
on the right, Sergeant Bill Winchell, chemist for a paint company in Chicago.
And on the left, Sergeant Tony Nastal. He used to repair washing machines
in Detroit, when he was a kid. Now he's 19 and has two
Nazi fighters confirmed. It takes all of a pilot's strength to keep
a 30-ton fortress in tight formation, but the formation is the bomber's
best defense against enemy fighters. The planes are deployed to uncover
every gun, stepped up and down. Echelon to the right and left. Arranged to
overcome the danger of gunners firing into friendly ships, arranged so concentrated
combs of fire from the caliber 50 machine guns, cover the sky for 1,000
yards in every direction. The friendly coast of England slips by
below. It doesn't look like much now, but in a few hours, when you come back,
if you come back, this will be the most beautiful view in the world. Higher and higher, climbing to reach
your best operational altitude, 25,000 feet, five miles straight up. So
high you can't be seen from the ground with a naked eye. So high, that
after one minute without oxygen, you lose consciousness.
After 20 minutes, you're dead. From now to the target, you go about
your routine duties, plot your course, check your equipment, and wait, and
think. Higher and colder. Temperature, 40 degrees below zero. Take off your glove
and you lose some fingers. You look out at the strange world
beyond, reflections in Plexiglas, like nothing you ever saw
before outside of a dream. Higher and higher, into the lifeless
stratosphere, until the exhaust of the engines mixing with the cold thin air
condenses, and streams the heavens with vapor trails. To the men in the ships,
they're far from beautiful, for they point like beckoning fingers to
the formation. Signposts in the sky for the enemy to spot us. For these bombers to accomplish
their mission, a plan is needed. Carefully worked out, timed to the minute.
The job is to bomb Wilhelmshaven, effectively and economically. The enemy is
strong, skillful, determined to stop us. Here are his defenses, air drones,
well-dispersed. Each plane indicates a stapo, or squadron of fighters. Heavy
anti-aircraft, highly trained and accurate, all along the coast, and
defending his vital installations. Radar to warn him of our coming. Here is our plan to divide his defenses
and weaken his opposition. At 13:30 hours, shortly after take-off,
six groups of planes will be heading toward the enemy coast from six
directions. The blue force, 100 B-24 Liberator 4-engine bombers. The white
force, 300 B-17 Flying Fortresses. The green force, 300 B-17s, with an escort
of six squadrons of P-47 Thunderbolts. A force of B-26 Marauders, twin-engine
medium bombers with six squadrons of RAF Spitfires escorting. Almost 1,000
planes and over 8,000 men in the air. The enemy alerts all its air drones.
But which is our main force? What are our targets? Where should the
Nazi controllers send their fighters? It's our job to make them
guess, and guess wrong. A half hour later at 14:00 hours, the blue
force will be heading east across the North Sea, with the white force following.
These enemy fighters are tied down, waiting to meet them, you will not
be able to attack the green force. These fighters must come up to attack the
green force, and thus will be no threat to the blue and white forces. The B-26s and Spitfires will
bomb and strafe a key rail junction, diverting these six stapum, and
preventing the enemy from concentrating too many fighters on the green force,
which is scheduled to bomb an aircraft factory at Hanover. At 14:30 hours, the blue force will
threaten this entire coastal area of northwestern Germany. Which target
will it be? Flensburg? The Kiel Canal? Or will it turn suddenly and bomb
Hamburg? Vegesack? Or Emden? Actually, it carries no bombs at all. It's
a decoy, and keeps the fighters from the northern area busy, while the white force,
the main effort, heads for the submarine pens of Wilhelmshaven. At 15:00 hrs, while the white force is
over its target, only a fraction of the available German fighter strength of the
area can intercept it because of the blue force diversion and the simultaneous
bombing of Hanover by the green force. This is the plan of battle for today. Drawn up by the combined operations planning committee, and approved
by the commanding general. The white force, lead group, low squadron.
We've crossed the invisible line of enemy radar. The hun is expecting us. Steel helmets go on, watchful eyes strain. Tight formations are held tighter still. Tense gunners more alert because here it comes, the enemy coast. From up here it looks the same as any
other. Houses, roads, green fields, factories, waterways. But they are the
houses and fields of those who invade and oppress. They are the factories and roads
of the people who twice in one generation have flooded the world with suffering.
Suffering in such quantities the history of the human race has never known. Brought torment and anguish into countless American homes, gold stars and
telegrams from the War Department. The first flak, just harmless looking
silent puffs of smoke. Only each puff is a shell exploding, throwing shrapnel
around the sky. Exactly the range, accurate flak by radio prediction. Five
miles down Nazi anti-aircraft batteries have calculated the altitude, speed, and
course. Where will the next one hit? You try not to be there. The docks and submarine pens of
Wilhelmshaven, approach to the target starts, no smoke screen can protect it. Now, the enemy knows the path of your approach, and walls that path with a flak
barrage, but you fly right through it. Flak, so thick you can get out, and walk
on it. [explosion sound] Morgan changes course every 15 seconds, evasive action to
confuse the flak batteries. Bomb site set for correct altitude
and speed. Bomb bay doors open, the bombing run begins. Pilot to bombardier, "Okay, Vin, you've
got it." Now, Evans flies the Memphis Belle, controlling it through the bomb
site, and now we are most vulnerable. Committed to our bombing run,
we can't dodge flak or fighters. Here's the first. [gunfire] Top turret fires
at it. Evans must ignore the battle. Cross-hairs lined up on target,
adjustments the wind drift made. [gunfire] Two more fighters diving from 9:00.
Flak now has the range, too. They've hit this fort, but he
keeps on his bombing run. [explosion sound] As lead bombardier, Evans' aim must be
good. Every other ship in the group will drop its bombs when he drops his. Now, one pointer on the bomb site moves toward another stationary pointer. The instant
they touch, bombs will release. They touch, bombs away. The first half of the mission is over,
the easy half. Now, to get home. The flak stops. That means fighters out
there somewhere. A [unknown] lurking behind that cloud, or hiding up in the sun
where the glare blinds you, and you can't see them,
waiting to dive down on you. Fighters at 6:00. This is what
a gunner sees, a speck in the sky. That's a fighter, and then a blink.
That means he's firing at you, 2,300 rounds a minute. [gunfire] In a running
battle, one of the most important instruments is the interphone. [gunfire] - There's four of them, 1:00 high. - They're coming around, watch them. [gunfire] - Two fighters, 6:00 up, coming
in. Diving at you, chief. - B-17 in trouble, our 2:00 watching. - Got an engine on fire. [gunfire] - There's two more diving
through the 94th. - Three planes 9:00 coming around.
Keep your eye on them, boys. [gunfire] - Coming around at 10:00. - Watch them, Chuck,
keep your eyes open. - Yeah. - They're breaking at 11:00.
Breaking at 11:00. - I got them. [gunfire] - Coming around
underneath at 10:00. - I also have two at 2:00. - Watch him, Scotty. - I got my sights on him. - Check that B-17, Chuck, 3:00. - Motor's smoking. Fighter at
10:30, coming around. - Those 10:30 up or lower? [gunfire] - B-17 out of control at 3:00. - Come on, you guys, get out
of that plane. Bail out. - You guys want me to
coming out of the bomb bay. - Yeah, I see him. - There's a tail gunner coming out. - Watch out for fighters. - Keep your eye on Bill. - See any parachutes, Quinlan? - Two parachutes open, Chief. - Fighter at 9:00. - Big men still not B-17? - Come on the rest of
you guys, get out of there. - So far, just three more shoots. - Flak, 11:00. - Fighters, 6:00. - PT-109 at 3:00. - Keep after them, Winchell. - I see them. I'm on him. - Come on, you son of a -- [gunfire] - I got him. - Quinlan, confirm that fighter. - He got him, chief. Look, he's bailing
out! - Damn it, don't yell on that intercom. - Fighters 10:00 - Watch those two at 12:00, Vin. They're
coming in. - They're coming in, Scotty. - Get that ball turret on him. [gunfire] - Save the ammunition as much as possible. [gunfire] - Watch that fighter coming in at 3:00. - He's coming in in a half-roll.
Pull her up, chief. Pull her up, hurry. [gunfire] - This fortress is hurt. Engine on fire,
losing air speed and altitude, drifting into the flak, alone and
helpless, a straggler. In a minute, Nazi fighters will swarm in like buzzards
for the kill. You can watch but you can't go down to help. You keep your formation. Here, too the mission is being flown.
Nonetheless real for being in the minds and hearts of these men behind. Ask
anybody who's been to a field in England or anywhere else our bombers are based.
And he will tell you there's drama here, too. Waiting, to see who is coming back. To watch them, you might not realize
how tense these ground crews are. But they are tense. And plenty worried. In Air Force talk, this waiting is known as sweating out the mission. These men know
the flight plan. Their watchers told them when the bombers were running into enemy
flak, when they were over the target, when they left the enemy coast. And now,
their watchers tell them the bombers should be nearing the field. Every ear
strains for the first sound of the engines. And then somebody hears them, and somebody
sees the first faint specks in the distant sky. Every face turns to see, and count. The watchers try to tread the numbers on the ships. These planes have priority
to land first. The colored flares mean wounded aboard. In the hospital window, these
watching men know what that means. They know what it feels like to
lie on a bouncing fortress floor, for hundreds of miles, through the
frozen stratosphere, in great pain, with the other men in your crew fighting
to keep you alive, until they hit the field. The field, home. It'll be okay
then because there will be medical care, the best. As soon as the
wheels of your plane stop rolling. ♪ [music] ♪ Head wound, concussion, 20 millimeter
cannon shell exploded in his radio compartment. Shock, internal
injuries. He'll be all right, though. Flak burst scattered flying shrapnel.
He's full of steel splinters. This pilot's leg is not a pretty sight.
Neither are the docks at Wilhelmshaven. These men will all get the Purple Heart.
And this man, too, posthumously. ♪ [music] ♪ A transfusion, riding the plane. This gunner's too weak to be moved. The new life-giving blood flowing into his
veins might be the blood of a high school girl in Des Moines, a miner in
Alabama, a movie star in Hollywood, or it might be your blood.
Whose ever it is, thanks. Thirty-six planes left this field this
morning. Now six more arrive, that makes 20 home. And this one's
21. More wounded aboard. [flight sounds] Twenty-two, coming in with his left
inboard engine dead. Twenty-three, with a feathered prop on his left outboard
engine. Twenty-four, Southern Comfort, with a chunk of tail gone. Twenty-five,
they flew home on their luck. Twenty-six, not a scratch. The control tower learns that two more
landed at a British field to the South. One a crash landing, crew safe.
That makes 28, 29. A rough landing, but her pilot's badly hurt. It's a wonder
he brought her back at all. Twenty-nine planes back so far. Twenty-nine out of 36. Our losses were heavy, but the enemies'
were far heavier. We destroyed a German aircraft factory, a rail junction,
submarine pens, docks and harbor installations. That's specific known damage. But who can
tell the number of German torpedoes that will not be fired, the number of our
convoys that will get through now. The soldiers' and seamen's lives that will
be saved. Or the battles that will be won instead of lost, because of what
these bombers and airmen did today? ♪ [music] ♪ Pilot and tail gunner. They can laugh now.
Fire on the inboard engine did this. Flames streak back and burn the
stabilizer, too. Another crew luck brought back. ♪ [music] ♪ There's old Belle. A pretty good airplane
when it took off. Lost its nose, lost its navigator, bombardier wounded,
top turret gunner and pilot hit, hydraulic system shot out, no brakes, no
flaps, but old Belle came back. ♪ [music] ♪ Now, among the returned crew members,
talk flows like a river. Talking out every detail of the mission. These are the faces
of combat, faces of Americans who have watched their comrades die, faces
that can never forget the enemy. And they're in no mood to
have their picture taken. In the control tower, Colonel Wray,
the group's CO is still watching, and waiting. And then he spots
the last flight. Three more planes. And one of them is the ship everyone's
been pulling for. ♪ [music] ♪ The Memphis Belle. The last few miles of this trip have
been a joy ride. The strain is over. They can leave their guns now. Now they
know they're going to go home. To Spokane, Green Bay, Asheville,
Detroit, Chicago, Fort Worth, and Yonkers. ♪ [music] ♪ The Belle comes in for her landing, but
first Morgan buzzes the field, cuts the grass with the giant fortress.
It's against the rules, but this is a special occasion. [flight sounds] ♪ [music] ♪ The wheels of the Memphis Belle come back
to the soil of England for the 25th time. ♪ [music] ♪ This is a day they will never forget. ♪ [music] ♪ Another great day soon after, Brigadier General Hansell visited the
field, and presented the Distinguished Flying Cross to every member of the crew. And then, there was another day. ♪ [music] ♪ ♪ [music] ♪ Their majesties, the King
and Queen of England. ♪ [music] ♪ Johnny Quinlan never thought anything like
this would happen to him when he left Yonkers. ♪ [music] ♪ The ground crew were a little
self-conscious about being dressed in fatigues, but the Queen
thought they were very nice. ♪ [music] ♪ Finally, two more visitors came. General
Eaker, commanding the eighth Air Force, and General Devers, U.S. Commander of the
European Theater. The Belle crew received them in flying clothes, as General Eaker
read the order for what he called their 26th and most important mission.
"Return to America to train new crews, and to tell the people what we're doing
here. To thank them for their help and support, and tell them to keep it up, so
we can keep it up. So we can bomb the enemy again, and again, and again, until
he has had enough. And then we can all come home." ♪ [music] ♪ [airplane sounds] ♪ [music] ♪ To the men of the eighth Air Force, who
are now flying deep into Germany, bringing destruction to targets almost
1,000 miles from their bases, destruction like this. And who have never
once been turned back by the enemy. To those men, this film
is gratefully dedicated. ♪ [music] ♪
