We are all aware of the story of the Memphis Belle, the B17 that completed 25 missions over occupied Europe and the part played by the Captain, Bob Morgan in being the first pilot to also complete 25 missions.
However a recent article in a British paper noted that it well known by several military scholars that another B17 “The Hell’s Angels” may well have completed the 25 missions earlier but the top brass thought the name was too vulgar for a popular publicity campaign that was to begin after the 25th mission. Plus the Belle’s crew didn’t fly all there missions in the Belle as sometimes the Belle was grounded for repairs. Also the first pilot to complete 25 missions wasn’t Morgan but Jim Vernis who completed 25 missions 2 weeks earlier in a bomber called the “Connecticut Yankee”
Can anyone throw any light on the B17 “The Hells Angels”, in terms of it’s BG, and crew etc.
Andy
Memphis Belle query
This site tells a lot about Hell's Angels, including giving mission dates:
http://www.303rdbga.com/h-ha-mb.html
This has a picture of it with its crew:
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/~jhargrov/
http://www.303rdbga.com/h-ha-mb.html
This has a picture of it with its crew:
http://www.fcs.uga.edu/~jhargrov/
I don't know anything about Hell's Angels, but I think I know a bit about the Belle. It's misleading to say that the Memphis Belle crew were the first to complete their 25 missions. I know that the top turret gunner was definately not a member of the original crew. And the waist gunner in the film who is said to have 2 confirmed fighters to his credit only flew with the Belle once, on that very last mission.
In the 8th AF a bomber did not belong to any particular crew. Crews were assigned whatever was available. Usually a pilot who had completed 25 missions would have flown in at least 3 or 4 different planes on combat missions. Good examples of this are in "Combat Crew" by John Cromer- an engineer/gunner in the 381st BG, "Wing and a Prayer" by Harry Crosby in the 100th BG, and "Lucky Bastard Club" by Eugene Fletcher. More often than not a crew would fly the same plane for most of the missions, but if that plane got damaged they would simply be assigned a different plane for the next raid. For example, Fletcher flew something like 25 missions in one plane, 7 in another, and the remainder of missions in others.
The crew very rarely remained together throughout the TOD. If a crewman was wounded, a replacement filled in for him on the next mission. Aircrew were sent home when they completed the required number of missions individually, not as an entire crew. A pilot who had 25 missions would go home and if the rest of the crew still had only 24 missions they got another pilot. Based on this it would be truly extraordinary for any crew to make it thru all their missions together in the same plane. Oh yeah, the bombs on the side of the planes denoting completed missions had nothing to do with the crew. A rookie crew might be sent up in a plane that had completed 50+ missions.
Maybe someone who knows more about the crew of the Memphis Belle can help me out. Out of the 10 men portrayed in the film made by Wyler, how many were actually from the original crew, and how many were actually on their 25th mission? Though I have no evidence, what I believe is that maybe 5 or 6 of the original crew had managed to stay together and were indeed on their final mission, and that the remainder of the crew was made up of other airmen from other crews who had already completed 24 missions. Thus a crew is formed with everybody ready to fly on his last mission and then be sent home as the first intact crew to complete the big 2-5. Just my theory tho
THanks and Regards,
-Mike
In the 8th AF a bomber did not belong to any particular crew. Crews were assigned whatever was available. Usually a pilot who had completed 25 missions would have flown in at least 3 or 4 different planes on combat missions. Good examples of this are in "Combat Crew" by John Cromer- an engineer/gunner in the 381st BG, "Wing and a Prayer" by Harry Crosby in the 100th BG, and "Lucky Bastard Club" by Eugene Fletcher. More often than not a crew would fly the same plane for most of the missions, but if that plane got damaged they would simply be assigned a different plane for the next raid. For example, Fletcher flew something like 25 missions in one plane, 7 in another, and the remainder of missions in others.
The crew very rarely remained together throughout the TOD. If a crewman was wounded, a replacement filled in for him on the next mission. Aircrew were sent home when they completed the required number of missions individually, not as an entire crew. A pilot who had 25 missions would go home and if the rest of the crew still had only 24 missions they got another pilot. Based on this it would be truly extraordinary for any crew to make it thru all their missions together in the same plane. Oh yeah, the bombs on the side of the planes denoting completed missions had nothing to do with the crew. A rookie crew might be sent up in a plane that had completed 50+ missions.
Maybe someone who knows more about the crew of the Memphis Belle can help me out. Out of the 10 men portrayed in the film made by Wyler, how many were actually from the original crew, and how many were actually on their 25th mission? Though I have no evidence, what I believe is that maybe 5 or 6 of the original crew had managed to stay together and were indeed on their final mission, and that the remainder of the crew was made up of other airmen from other crews who had already completed 24 missions. Thus a crew is formed with everybody ready to fly on his last mission and then be sent home as the first intact crew to complete the big 2-5. Just my theory tho
THanks and Regards,
-Mike