You may have watched the Hollywood film Memphis Belle,
A good film that tells the story of the crew of the USA 8th Bomber command B17 that would be the first crew to survive 25 bomb missions, the first crew to do so in a devastating stats of Air war...
Young men came to the UK from the United States and flew from bases here in England to deep into Nazi Europe on some of the most dangerous bombing missions of WW2...
On youtube i came across the REAL film of the story of the Memphis Belle crew; 324 Sqn, 91st heavy bombardment group on their 25th Bombing mission...
The film is an amazing bit of real WW2 footage that puts into perspective the job those brave young US aircrews who came to our country and were based here did...
While the RAF bombed Germany at night, the USAAF bombed deep into Germany in daylight with no fighter escort...
Facsinating wee bit of film there Bruce - a great find so thanks for sharing it. The first few minutes really put into perspective how close to rural life these airfields were back then and also reminded me of a scene in the movie where one of the aircrew helps a local who is harvesting wheat at the side of the runway........
ReplyDeleteYou can see how the airfields were tightly packed into available flat land. The arrival of the USAAF must have been like another world arriving to the people in those quiet rural villages and farms...
ReplyDeleteI have a few other films like this to post up Al,