Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress

The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress is a 1944 documentary film which provides an account ostensibly of the final bombing mission of the Memphis Belle, whose aircrew was the first in the U.S. Eighth Air Force to complete 25 missions as a crew over Germany and German-occupied Europe.

The dramatic 16mm color film of actual battles was made by cinematographer First Lieutenant Harold J. Tannenbaum. The film was directed by Major William Wyler, narrated by Eugene Kern, and had scenes at its Bassingbourn base photographed by Hollywood cinematographer Captain William H. Clothier. It was made under the auspices of the First Motion Picture Unit, a branch of the United States Army Air Forces (to which future US President Ronald Reagan also belonged). The film actually depicted the next to last mission of the crew (see below) on May 15, 1943, and was made as a morale-building inspiration for the Home Front by showing the everyday courage of the men who manned these planes.

The crew on the mission filmed included:

* Captain Robert K. Morgan (pilot)
* Captain James A. Verinis (co-pilot)
* Captain Vincent B. Evans (bombardier)
* Captain Charles B. Leighton (navigator)
* Technical Sergeant Robert J. Hanson (radio operator)
* Technical Sergeant Harold P. Loch (engineer and top turret gunner)
* Staff Sergeant Casimer A. Nastal (waist gunner)
* Staff Sergeant Clarence E. Winchell (waist gunner)
* Staff Sergeant Cecil H. Scott (ball turret gunner)
* Staff Sergeant John P. Quinlan (tail gunner)

Morgan's crew had not flown all of its missions together. Captain Verinis had originally been Morgan's co-pilot at the beginning of their combat tour but had become a "first pilot" (aircraft commander) in his own right on December 30, 1942, flying 19 missions as commander of a replacement B-17 he named Connecticut Yankee after his home state. Nor was Morgan's crew the one originally selected by Wyler for filming. He had been following Captain Oscar O'Neill (whose plane was named Invasion 2nd) of the 401st Bomb Squadron until O'Neill's B-17 and five others were shot down over Bremen, Germany, on April 17, 1943. Morgan was then selected and his crew re-united by the Eighth Air Force to complete its tour together and to return to the United States for a war bond drive.

In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original version "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

A fictionalized version of the story was made in 1990, produced by David Puttnam in England.