Dispelling the Myths again Part Five

 Returning 'intact crew'? I dont think so! 

The combat period of 41-24485 Memphis Belle  has, in the main, remarkably few legends attached to it, apart from right at the very end - then things get REALLY complicated and this is where things get mis-quoted. As the same time as the 'errors' regarding the royal visit was taking place, other 'discrepencies' were taking place.

Firstly there is the oft-quoted legend that the entire '25 missions' were flown with the same crew - or that the same crew that went out, returned with the aircraft. Well, that's wrong for starters!

 

The above is from the Operations Order 209 dated September 24th 1942, sending eight aircraft and their crews from the Zone of the Interior (USA) to the United Kingdom. Compare that to the split list shown below.

To cover the missions that either Robert Morgan or the Memphis Belle flew, it is necessary to look at a total of thirty-one raids. For completeness, I have included in the list every mission that the Memphis Belle or Bob Morgan flew or was scheduled to fly but aborted for whatever reason. In a number of instances, Morgan’s Individual Flight Record shows that sometimes he was not ‘Pilot’, but ‘Command Pilot’. These occurrences have been marked accordingly. Missions that neither the aircraft nor Morgan was not slated to fly have not been recorded.

    The documentation recording the missions flown by the 91st BG is ‘inconsistent’. What follows is a compilation of data taken from contemporary primary source documentation. Much of what has been used is from official records, including the ‘Operations/Field’ orders telexed out to Colonel Stanley Wray from the 1st Combat Wing or ‘COMBOMWIGONE’ and his reply giving post-mission analysis. We have also made use of crew post-mission Interrogation Reports where available, but there remains doubt when a Group Commander flew with a crew on early missions wether that was as co-pilot or as ‘supermumery crew’ with a co-pilot in place as has been recorded on later missions. Some use has been made of ‘unofficial’ paperwork such as personal diaries kept at the time.
 

    I am well aware of inconsistencies in the documentation, especially on the number of aircraft the 91st BG dispatched on each mission. The number of aircraft flown on each mission varies, depending on which record is used. Aircraft were known to develop technical problems at the very last minute, so standby machines were substituted - the recording paperwork does not always reflect this. It has proved impossible to arrive at the correct overall figure. Within these lists, there is also confusion with some individual aircraft letters - some aircraft were assigned more than one letter during their service careers with the 91st, and it has also proved impossible to decipher which was in use by a specific aircraft for any given date, so we have recorded both.

 

The split table below has been compiled from these different  sources.

The above chart covers crewmen thought to have flown in the regular crew positions of the four B-17Fs featured in this chapter. It does not cover supernumery or additional crew members on any of the flights listed. It is known however that a number of additional ‘crew’ were carried on numerous missions.Those identified as being on board are as follows: 1/23/43 - Sgt Merkle carried as additional Nose Gunner. 2/27/43 - Hayley Aycock carried as Nose Gunner. 3/13/43 - Hayley Aycock carried as Group Commander. 4/16/43 - William Wyler (presumably filming) and Hayley Aycock carried as Group Commander. 4/5/43 - Captain Elliott carried as passenger.

 Over the years, there has been doubt cast as to whether the Memphis Belle actually flew the last mission listed. It is claimed by some that, following the Lorient mission on May 17, orders came down from General Ira Eaker to General Wray to ground the Memphis Belle from any further combat missions due to the importance of the already planned ‘26th Mission’ - the War Bond Tour of the USA.

    Certainly, over the years, Bob Morgan always claimed that HE was flying 41-24485 on the 19th, shooting extra footage for the documentary - indeed, Morgan claimed William Wyler was on board. Morgan also said his own logbooks could and would prove it. However, despite making repeated requests over the years to see them, those log books never came to light for whatever reason. Later it was claimed that these priceless documents had been lost to a flood.

Bob Morgan always claimed that this picture was taken on May 17 1943, the day he
completed his 25th mission. He said it was taken after the mission for publicity purposes. 

That may well be the case; however, one thing to notice is that the waist gunner’s hatch is closed, not a
normal occurance just after a mission. Behind the crew running towards the camera is the
groundcrew, headed by Joe Giambrone, recognisable by his flat cap and second from the
left.

    Perkins takes a slightly different view, playing devil’s advocate whilst leaning towards Morgan’s viewpoint. He states that Morgan ‘remembers’ that although the briefing documents show #845 DF:A as having Anderson and his crew aboard, sometime between briefing and take-off, the aircraft was swapped for the spare machine but the documents were not altered.

    If Perkins and Morgan are correct, then it is of vital importance. If Bob Morgan and Brent Perkins are to be believed, and 41-24485 did NOT fly this mission, then the arithmetic adds up to twenty-four officially credited missions and thus, the aircraft did not complete its required officially credited twenty-fifth, and so the whole ‘return’, the War Bond Tour and subsequent decades on display have all been fraudulent. Surely that could not be the case?    

 

A picture that is often described as being the Memphis Belle crew after their last mission. But we have never been happy with that statement- here is why. Firstly, it is clearly winter; Bob Morgan is wearing heavy gloves, and the light is just not spring-like. However, the signatures are a clear give-away. Front row, second from the left is Eugene Atkins. Gene only flew six missions with Morgan aboard the Memphis Belle, all in December 1942 and January 1943!

     A search through as many of the 91st Bomb Group records as we can lay our hands on has failed to locate any order - from General Eaker or anyone else for that matter - grounding the Memphis Belle. There is an order from General Eaker himself dated June 1st 1943, ordering ‘...one specially selected crew which has completed its operational tour to be allowed to return to the United States flying its aeroplane which has also completed 25 missions’. The 324th Log also shows during the mission de-brief after the mission for May 19th that Anderson was flying ship #485 - as does the Interrogation Report.

    To throw even more confusion into the pot initially, but at the same time offer some later clarification, the matter of ‘the other pilot’ Jim Verinis appearing in the William Wyler movie needs to be taken into account.
    Jim only flew in the Memphis Belle as co-pilot on a few of the early missions, in a period BEFORE Wyler started filming - the rest of the time he was sitting in the left-hand seat as First Pilot aboard Connecticut Yankee.

     However, there are numerous shots of Jim in the right-hand seat of a B-17 in the finished movie. This strongly suggests that these scenes were filmed outside the combat environment of an actual mission. In itself, there is nothing wrong with that, but it does add credence to the possibility that Morgan/Wyler/Verinis did extra filming away from actual missions. This suggests that these scenes could have been shot aboard a B-17 other than the Memphis Belle on May 19th - and that Bob Morgan simply ‘remembered it wrongly’.

As the end of the tour grew near, the aircraft and it's crew started to gain attention from the great and the good. Sir Stafford Cripps, the British Leader of the House of Commons in Parliament, visited Bassingbourn and is seen here with Colonel Wray and Brigadier General Hansell The date must be after Mission 23 by the number of bomb symbols painted on the nose of the Memphis Belle, and there lies another mystery. The 91st Bomb Group diary records the event as taking place on May 8th, a date when the aircraft had only flown twenty missions.

 

Here Sir Stafford, Cripps General Armstrong and Colonel Wray walk away from the Memphis Belle. Bob Morgan is by the wing.

The best evidence that Morgan was definitely wrong about the May 19th mission can be found in three documents - his own Individual Flight Record for the month of May, the Maintenence Log for ship #41-24485 and finally, the Interrogation Report taken immediately after Anderson’s flight to Kiel and back. 

 

The two documents which seem to prove that the Memphis Belle did fly in the hands of Lt Anderson on May 19th 1943 - a nine hour mission. Bob Morgan’s own flight record shows he only flew just under three hours the same day.

Morgan’s flight record for May 19th shows a flight time of 2 hours 50 minutes, with two landings taking place. However, for the same day the Maintenance Log for the Memphis Belle shows just a single flight taking place, a couple of technical ‘snags’ reported after a flight time of nine hours, with ‘Lt Anderson’ as the pilot. Thus the Maintenance log and Interrogation Report cross-correlate - and seriously conflict with Bob Morgan’s own memory. When one looks in detail at the timings, it is clear that it is impossible that both events could have taken place on the same day using the same aircraft - there just is not time! Filming could not have taken place before the mission occurred - and there was simply not time to fix the snags and turn the aircraft around for a nearly three hour flight in daylight afterwards!

So, 41-24485 the Memphis Belle DID fly in combat that day - but was that 24 completed missions, or as later documents say twenty-five officially credited missions?

 

Continued in  Dispelling the Myths Again!      Part Six