I was not going to go into great detail as to the events leading up to the placing of the aircraft on the pedestal at the Armory, but assorted idiotic claims and comments made have forced me to put the record straight. I suspect that many will not bother reading it, but, it needs placing out in the public domain in the vain hope that someone takes notice!
Back in the summer of 1943, as the Memphis Belle and her crew were making their triumphal tour of the USA with the cheers of the populace ringing out to make heroes of the young airmen, Mayor Walter Chandler of Memphis contacted the War Department and asked if the aircraft could be sent to Memphis as a permanent war memorial. They refused, stating that the war was still going on and the Memphis Belle was a warplane and was needed. They said that the plane would be overhauled after the tour and sent back to war with another crew and, perhaps, another name. Then, as we have seen, it was assigned to MacDill Field near Tampa, Florida.
With the outbreak of peace in 1945, the Army Air Force no longer wanted the aircraft, and so it was flown to Altus for storage and eventual scrapping. Mayor Chandler allowed no time to be wasted once the war was over. On August 25th, just eleven days after the end of the war in the Pacific, Chandler made his next move to obtain the aircraft for Memphis. While the Memphis Belle and her fame were fresh in everyone’s mind, Chandler petitioned the War Department once more to let his city have the famous plane. His announced plan was to have a permanent hangar built for the aircraft at Memphis Municipal Airport, where the public could visit it.
With this a new phase in the life of the aircraft began. We move from mainly direct Army Air Force documentation to a mishmash of governmental and civic paperwork along with folder after folder containing two types of newspaper reporting - events that were reported as being expected to happen and reports of events that had already happened. Local or Federal documents are considered reasonably accurate, as are newspapers reporting what had already happened, but when they start reporting what may happen, we consider that as highly speculative!
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) seemed willing to let Memphis have the aircraft, but months dragged by as Chandler continued to write letters, negotiating and working out the details. As usual, the wheels of governmental bureaucracy turned slowly. Even then, obstacles were placed in the way. A Civil Aeronautics Administration inspector reported that the aircraft was not airworthy enough to fly to Memphis.
In February 1946, it was reported by J. A. Biles of the Ada Okla. Evening News that the Memphis Belle was residing - along with some 2,600 other aircraft - in an aircraft graveyard in Altus, Oklahoma, with a price tag of $13,750 hanging from its wings.
Following the newspaper report from Biles, repeated in the local papers, Mayor Chandler was quoted as saying, ‘The plane is there at Altus, and they will sell it to us for $350. Only three things are wrong with
the Flying Fortress. The oil pressure of the No. 3 engine is too high. The emergency hydraulic system won’t operate, and the throttle is not exactly synchronized’. The Mayor did not explain the low price set for the city. Instead, Chandler said he was ‘...looking into the matter to determine if we could locate a suitable place for it.
If purchased by the city...’ he continued, it ‘...would have to be put under the jurisdiction of the Park Commission and someplace found to house it. All of us would like to have this famous ship that bears the name of Memphis. I hope some way can be worked out so that we may own it’.
famous and muchautographed B-24 Liberator ‘Five Grand’. [via Harry Friedman]
Mayor Chandler said he had not talked to John Vesey, chairman of the Park Commission, about the Memphis Belle. Vesey said, however. that he was interested in the famous old ship and he would look into the matter to see if it could be brought to the city and housed adequately. He pointed out that at present the Park Commission had no place it could house the ship. He said he doubted that the plane could be housed in the Memphis Museum and that ‘... it probably could be put in the Shelby County building now used by Second Army Headquarters when that building is returned to the Park Commission’. Vesey made it clear though that he was only thinking out loud. He reminded reporters that the Shelby County building was ‘...to become the entrance to the new arena, and hundreds of thousands of people would see the plane each year’.
On February 13th 1946, Mayor Chandler revealed that a well-wisher had personally offered to finance the purchase of the aircraft and the costs in returning it to Memphis; ‘The offer was made by William Bell of 1876 Overton Park, but the City Commission decided the plane was a historic asset to be shared by every citizen and the cost would be paid by the city. We are returning the check for $350, the purchase price which Mr Bell sent to us’.
Although this one day’s reporting clearly states that the benefactor was ’a real estate developer Mr Bell’, all subsequent reports state it was an ‘anonymous supporter’.Later research reveals his full identity as William Alton Bell, of Apartment One, 1876 Overton Park Avenue.
Then stories started to appear in the newspapers that the RFC was threatening to throw the Memphis Belle in with the other planes being sent to the scrap yards. Would she end up in an aluminum smelter?
Maybe this was a scare tactic to get things moving. In any case, on March 3rd, 1946, Mayor Chandler duly announced that he would abandon his campaign by mail and would go to Washington to undertake talks with what was then the War Assets Corporation.
Things began to move. On March 8th, 1946, Mayor Chandler was able to report from Washington that he had purchased the Memphis Belle for the City of Memphis for $350 - it had cost the U.S. Government $314,109 when delivered by Boeing in 1942.
THIS SHOOTS DOWN THE BS THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS 'GIVEN' TO ANYONE BY THE AIR FORCE!
As stories about the final purchase appeared in the newspapers, pilots and crewmen began volunteering for the honor of going to Altus and flying the famous plane home. In fact, so many volunteered that finally a committee, headed by Downing Pryor, had to be appointed to select the crew. To make as many men as possible happy, the committee called for a command pilot in addition to a pilot.
Then someone suggested Bob Morgan - after all, wasn’t he the man who had given the plane its Memphis connection by naming it the Memphis Belle? Without that name and the famed romance with Memphian Margaret Polk, there would have been no excuse for bringing the plane to Memphis!
That started the ‘who was to be the pilot’ discussion all over again. Mayor Chandler contacted Morgan in Asheville, North Carolina. On June 19th, on the third anniversary of the aircraft’s triumphant return to Memphis to begin the national tour, Mayor Chandler announced that the original pilot would indeed fly the Memphis Belle home on July 2nd. Nevertheless, the problems continued. Morgan met with Mayor Chandler, Captain Robert Taylor , Chairman of the American Legion Aviation Committee and Colonel Fred Hook of the Air Reserve Association, along with Major Downing Pryor and Captain’ Ham’ Morrison, who were to be his co-pilots.
On returning to Ashville, Morgan sent a telegram to Mayor Chandler: ‘Upon returning, I find there are so many things that urgently need taking care of it is impossible for me to leave now. You know that I wanted to do this more than anything I can think of, but business comes first. It would be impossible for me to fly the Belle until July 29th. I know you are anxious to have this mission accomplished. Therefore, would suggest you have another pilot fly the ship if you cannot wait. Thanks again to all my friends for offering me this opportunity. It is too bad that things are so unstable at the moment. Best regards’.
So, on July 13th, 1946, Mayor Chandler was forced to announce that he regretted that ‘Colonel Morgan could not make the trip but there have been so many delays that further postponement could not be possible. as the War Assets Administration has been calling on the City of Memphis to take possession
of the Memphis Belle’.
Bob Little and the returning crew, pose for photographs with staff from the RFC facility at Altus, and members of the Memphis Belle Girl Scout Troop also from Altus. It is quite possible that some in this picture are stillalive - Iwould love to contact them!
It was then announced that Captain Robert E. Little, the man originally picked by the committee, would do the piloting. Little had plenty of experience flying B-17s, although his war service had been in the Pacific, rather than Europe. He had flown 73 missions against Japan and was now a pilot for Chicago and Southern Airlines, making regular flights to Memphis.
On July 16th, Captain Little and his crew boarded an Army Douglas C-47 transport belonging to the 4th Ferrying Group at Memphis, piloted by Captain Joseph P. Vecharelli and Major Millard A Webb and flew to Altus. They didn’t need a full crew of ten since nobody was needed to man the guns. The guns had been removed anyway. The crew of seven men who made the trip, other than Little, were all Air Force Reserves. They were Captain Robert. L. Taylor, navigator; Sergeant Percy Roberts, Jr., flight engineer; Technical Sergeant Charles Crowe, flight engineer; Lieutenant James Gowdy, second navigator; Captain Hamp Morrison, co-pilot, and Stuart Griffin, radio operator. Upon arrival they checked the Memphis Belle over completely.
They were met by Burl Brumley, president of the Altus Chamber of Commerce, John Badger Chairman of the Chamber’s Aviation Committee and Blackwood Saunders, Superintendent of the War Assets Administration. Later that day the met with Altus Mayor Fred Mains who presented them with a letter to deliver to Mayor Chandler: ‘It is with a sad heart that we commit the Memphis Belle to your care. Expert mechanics have checked her daily and attendants have cleaned her regularly for a long time, for many thousands have come from all part of the country to see this famous ship. We took pride in having her at her best’.
Bob Little: The old gal gave us some trouble with the spark plugs, but Crowe and Roberts worked on the engines to make sure they got us to Memphis. The people at Altus asked if we wanted to make a test flight, but I told them no - when we get up there we are going all the way!’. The next day they took off.
There were still some problems, according to aviation editor Robert Gray of Memphis’ morning newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, who was on the flight. The plane lifted off the runway but then the landing gear refused to retract. The crew had to use the emergency hand crank. Bob Little again: ‘When we tried to raise the gear it wouldn’t come up. So Percy [Roberts] got into the bomb bay and cranked it us as far as he could’.
Percy Roberts, Jr: ‘I was cranking the hell out of that thing and got the gear up about half way and it wouldn’t go any more. So we came all the way to Memphis with the gear part down. On the way Little asked me if I wanted to fly it for a while. I told him sure, and it was not long before we had climbed a few hundred feet. He told me to look out at the left wing - then to look at the other. I was in a pretty good turn and did not even know it! Wasn’t the prettiest thing, but I flew the Memphis Belle for about fifteen minutes’.
Then there was the matter of an in-flight fire. Percy Roberts again: ‘Just west of Texarkana we smelt something burning and could not find it. We looked all over the aircraft until we discovered that someone had placed an oily rag over one of the electrical inverters. They get pretty hot in flight and the rag had started smouldering, sending some smoke up’.
Over Little Rock, Arkansas, the radio refused to work correctly - they could receive but not transmit. When they arrived over Memphis, Bob Little overflew the Tower and waggled his wings - a procedure to announce that their radio was out.
Percy Roberts went back to the bomb bay and started to crank down the gear - but there was another problem - the down and locked indicators would not light up. ‘She could have settled on to her belly as we put the tires on the runway. There was a bunch of fire trucks all over the place. I guess they thought we were going to have some real trouble when we landed’ Roberts climbed into the ball turret to see if he could visually confirm they were ‘down and locked’. As Gray later put it, Little ‘...greased her in’ for a perfect landing and the Memphis Belle was home at last.
On arrival at 2.55pm, the aircraft and its ferry crew were met by Mayor Chandler, Commissioner Miller and over two hundred devotees waiting for them outside the airlines terminal building. Mayor Chandler read out the letter from Altus Mayor Mains. Mayor Chandler said that the aircraft would be parked on the Fourth Ferrying Group ramp and in their care until after the Army Air Forces day on August 1st, and would later be ‘...put on display at the Fairgrounds in a fireproof building with the aircraft itself enclosed in glass. All the trophies accompanying the plane and all the photographs that could be accumulated of her mounted on the walls of the proposed building. Special care will be taken to protect against souvenir hunters’. He went on to say that he had plans for ‘...writing to the Army Air Forces to use if it is possible for us to have the types of guns used on the plane in combat replaced so that the ship will have her exact appearance as a fighting unit. Under Army Regulations, all the guns had to be removed but I believe the War Department will let us have duplicates of each of the firing pieces which the ship carried on her famous missions. I also hope to recover records taken from the flight log before the plane was stored at Altus’.
No comments:
Post a Comment