Dispelling the Myths again - Part thirteen

 That ultimatum - and just who DID own the aircraft?
 

How could Colonel Uppstrom make such an ultimatum? Surely the aircraft belonged to the city of Memphis? At the time, many Memphians and members of the media believed that the Air Force had no right to lay claim the Memphis Belle. The US Government had sold thousands of surplus planes when the war was over. The plane would undoubtedly have been melted down with all the others if Mayor Walter Chandler had not gone to Washington and ‘bought’ it for $350. One would assume that the Federal Government - and therefore the Air Force - had no legal claim on the aircraft. But that was not the case.   

Above and below: TANG strip the aircraft of years of paint...

 The aircraft out at Memphis VOTEC

     It was not generally known that in the summer of 1977, when the National Guard required the plane to move off the Guard’s grounds, the American Legion did not feel that it could continue its custody of the aircraft. The Legion’s commander, William T. Jamison, wrote a letter to the Air Force, saying the Legion ‘...wished to relinquish control of the B-17 bomber known as the Memphis Belle.’ Then-Mayor Wyeth Chandler, stepson of former Mayor Walter Chandler, also wrote a letter to Ned Robinson, Chief of the Aircraft Disposition Office at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz. who was responsible for keeping track of the location of military aircraft. Chandler stated: ‘The City of Memphis wishes to relinquish any claim to the B-17 bomber known as the Memphis Belle. The city does this so that the B-17 can be put on permanent loan to the Memphis Belle Memorial Association, Inc., for display in a suitable museum in our city’. Ned Robinson explained that this was necessary because records of the aircraft’s ‘donation’ were destroyed in a 1962 fire at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio. ‘What we are doing is just getting the title straight to the aircraft and putting it in military hands’. Robinson continued, stating that the Air Force would take control of the bomber ‘...to insure that the airplane is kept in good order’

 

 

Advertsing the CAF Airsho, fundraising for the Belle

    So was the the aircraft turned over to the Air Force or to the MBMA? Chandler’s letter suggests that he turned it over to the MBMA, but Robinson’s comments suggests it was now in the hands of the Air Force, However, if it is believed that Chandler’s letter was intended to give the plane back to the Air Force, then why did it make no effort at the time to take custody of the machine? The 1962 fire removed a lot of evidence, but the fact was that nine years passed before Colonel Uppstrom’s ultimatum. The matter was investigated, and it was discovered that not only was there doubt if the aircraft now belonged to the Air Force or to the MBMA, there was serious doubts as to whether Mayor Chandler did in fact ‘buy’ the aircraft in the first place!

 Talking to the public and raising funds for the Belle

    The Memphis Belle Memorial Association was reorganized again. Several members who had fought the battle for a long time, convened a meeting of the board of directors. George T. Lewis, Chancery Court Judge, called for an election of new officers. The old officers had had their chance. It was time to let someone else fight the final battle. Frank Donofrio was restored as president of the Association.

 

 CAF airsho, raising funds for the Belle

    One man who provided a turning point for the new Association was Fred Smith, dynamic president of Federal Express, a major new industry that Smith had created from scratch, providing a nationwide aviation network of overnight package and freight delivery. Smith announced that he was donating $100,000. His next contribution was to use his powers of persuasion with Boeing executives in Seattle, Washington. It had not been the first time that Boeing executives had heard about the project. Colonel Immanuel J. Klette, last commander of the 91st Bomb Group, had already approached them and laid the groundwork.

    Harry Friedman remembers the incident: “Fred Smith was buying some planes from Boeing for his business. He suggested to the Boeing people that they ought to contribute $100,000 to the Memphis Belle project. After all, it was Boeing which had built the plane. They donated the $100,000.” 

   The ABC-TV Network joined the campaign effort by volunteering to do a segment about the Memphis Belle on their popular 20/20 news magazine program, which is broadcast nationwide. Anchorman Hugh Downs showed scenes from the old Memphis Belle  film and described the plight of the plane. This brought in hundreds of letters with donations from the show’s audience.The aircraft underwent a program of Restoration - some was cosmetic, some much more detailed. Then on September 11 1986 came the last flight. Everyone thought that the last flight the Memphis Belle made occurred when Bob Little brought the aircraft in for its final landing at Memphis Airport on July 17 1946 - but it seems that the aircraft never read that story!

 Bob Morgan and Hugh Downs inside the aircraft.

    Charles ‘Chuck’ Shelly, an instructor at the Vo-Tech School takes up the story: ‘We had the Belle staked to the ground with tie-down stakes driven five feet into the ground about thirty feet from our hangar. It was a bit stormy and had just started to rain. I decided to close the hangar door. I pushed the button and the door started to close when the power went out. The door never came all the way down. I was just standing there with my students when suddenly the Memphis Belle took off. Believe me, she was completely off the ground. She had pulled those tie-down stakes right out of the ground. There was an seven foot high aircraft servicing platform between the Belle and our building, and she cleared that without even knocking it over. The aircraft came to rest with one wing protruding into the building. If that door had closed when I wanted it to, the wing would’ve crashed into it. As it was, the wing just brushed the ground and was soon repaired. At least sixty students saw it happen, so did John Steinriede, another instructor - it seems she wanted to feel the wind beneath her wings one last time’.     

 Dr Harry Friedman by the nose hatch door.

     Memphians, who had so long waited for something to happen, could hardly believe their ears when on July 31, 1986, they were told that the Memphis Belle Restoration and Museum Fund Drive had gone over the top. Frank Donofrio, the man at the head of the project said of the time, ‘...My biggest problem was to keep everyone headed in the same direction!’ 

     The Tennessee Air National Guard became involved again, along with help from the 97th Bomb Wing at Blytheville Air Force Base, and another serious restoration program and re-painting began.

Mud Island
The weekend of May 16/17 1987 would be THE weekend - it was an obvious choice, it was the anniversary of the day in 1943 when Robert K. Morgan and five members of his crew had completed their designated quota of 25 combat missions. Perhaps Frank Donofrio and the Memphis Belle Memorial Association could be forgiven, for after such a long, struggle to provide what they thought would be the final home for the Memphis Belle, it was understandable that they wanted to make the dedication of that home the most grand of occasions.

    The theme selected for the weekend was simply ‘Home At Last’. The eight surviving members of the crew that had brought the plane home in triumph in 1943 would, of course, be invited. Seven of the crew; Bob Morgan, Jim Verinis, Charles Leighton, Bill Winchell, Bob Hanson, Cass Nastal and Harold Loch accepted. It had been hoped that J. P. Quinlan, the feisty tail gunner, would be coming, too, but he had been having health problems, and his doctor advised against it. Norma Scott, widow of Cecil Scott, who had died of a heart attack, would come to represent him. Peggy Evans, sister of bombardier Vince Evans, who died in a plane crash in California in 1980, would represent her brother. Margaret Polk, the other Memphis belle, would also be there with a place of honor reserved for her.

    Come the Sunday and thousands of Memphis citizens and visitors from out of town jammed the monorail cars to Mud Island, where the aircraft was enthroned in the new museum. Thousands more walked across the pedestrian bridge to the island or crowded the river bluffs on the Memphis side from where they could look down on the ceremony.

    In brilliant May sunshine citizens heard the speeches and the introductions of various notables. Mayor Hackett spoke what was in the hearts of thousands of proud Memphians when he told his listeners about the long fight to save the Memphis Belle and how the ceremonies that day were an expression of appreciation to all the men who had fought in World War Two. ‘...the spirit in which they served their country lives on in Memphis’.

One of the many highlights of the weekend was when Harry Friedman read a letter from General Ira C. Eaker, who commanded the Eighth Air Force in England during the war. Now 91 and with impaired health. General Eaker was unable to attend but he sent a letter to Morgan and his crew. Morgan admitted later: ‘Tears came into my eyes when that letter from General Eaker was read. This was a very emotional moment of my life’.

 

Then, amidst all the hullaballo a murmur went through the crowd - then people began looking skywards and shouting, ‘Here they come!’ There was the rumble as if of distant thunder - it was the sound of 28 Wright-Cyclone engines, as the largest formation of B-17s seen in America since World War Two - and they were heading their way, swooping down low over the great river.

    It was a majestic moment. A prideful moment. For some who had waited so many years, who had suffered so many disappointments, this was the moment for their own tears of joy. For their own lump in the throat. Could there be more? Indeed there was. The bomb bay doors of one of the planes opened and down came a shower of flower petals. Thousands and thousands of them. The plane’s bombardier had done his work well, for the petals were falling over the heads of the thousands waiting below. No bombs now, only soft petals floating gently to earth as symbols of peace and the fulfilment of a dream. As for the Memphis Belle, she sat under the falling petals and the eyes of thousands of cheering citizens, now entitled to her own time of peace. It seemed the Memphis Belle had indeed come home at last.

    It was here that the aircraft remained until late 2002 when the MBMA were forced to move again. But it was not just ‘on display’ - the MBMA already had laid in place an ongoing program of scheduled maintenance, corrosion control, and continued acquisition of missing parts and equipment at the same time as running a whole range of fundraising and educational efforts. But they were fighting a losing battle against the elements and the very structure it was enclosed within. For a number of years the MBMA were searching around for a new home - they discovered it at the nearby US Navy airfield of Millington, to the north of the city.