Dispelling the Myths again part fifteen

 

Conclusion? - there will never be one!

Right up to the last days of his life, Bob Morgan toured the aviation lecture circuit, showing a copy of the movie made by William Wyler, a movie originally made to be shown to the people ‘back home’ while World War Two was still being fought. Bob Morgan talked to community clubs, school groups, Air Force Reserves and so on. When asked in 1986 why he did it, Bob replied: ‘I still like to do this because the kids have no idea what it was really like over there in 1942 and 1943. Most of them get a bang out of the movie and enjoy it. But sometimes you get a different kind of reaction. One day, after I had shown it to a high school group, one of the students, a girl, came up to me and said, 'Mr. Morgan, that film is just a lot of propaganda.' I didn't know what to say’.

    It was clear as Bob Morgan told us this story that ‘the man who piloted the Memphis Belle’, consciously or otherwise, had been deeply and lastingly wounded by that high-school girl's reaction. Was this what the Memphis Belle had come to stand for? Perhaps the William Wyler film had been Army Air Force propaganda and Hollywood hype. Perhaps the War Department, the sponsors of the film, had even intended it that way. They had wanted to tell the American people, the parents, the wives and the girlfriends of the boys flying those planes in combat, just what those self-same boys were going through. What it was like. What the airmen were doing in the name of their country, so far from Mom’s Apple Pie. To Bob Morgan though, the film was much more than that. Indeed, as we have seen, Bob Morgan was ever the opportunist and self-promoter, but the film had become a major part of his life. Something he had lived through that time so many years ago, and re-lived every time he showed it. He could remember with pride the Memphis Belle, his crew, and the fact they all came home - alive.

Throughout June, July and August of 1943 the bond tour was both a welcome distraction and counterpoint to the bad news coming from England that bought General Arnold and the Army Air Force time - time to evolve the Eighth Air Force from being what Arnold himself had called ‘...that piddling little force’ into something more akin to ‘The Mighty Eighth’ - a phrase subsequently beloved by historians and the common man alike. Such was the success of that tour, such was the popularity of those ‘Men of the Eighth’ - brought directly about by the Memphis Belle and her crew on that Bond Tour - that no politician dared to criticise them or to be seen to put obstacles in the way of what they stood for!

  Inexorably linked to the whole Memphis Belle story is William Wyler’s movie. This had been ‘in production’ since he completed filming in late May 1943, yet it was not released until mid-April 1944. There are a number of things that are very strange about that whole episode, not least the myriad of errors in the 91st BG logs and the dates applied to the photographs as we have already seen - there are just too many that are just too ‘consistent’ to be anything but deliberate. As I have shown,  without doubt those logs and photographs are wildly and consistently in error with the Royal records in London but at least we have been able to locate one USAAF document - Wyler’s Secret Field Report dated 8 June 1943 to Lt. Col. Bierne Lay Jr - that confirms the May 26th date of the Royal visit.

    Wyler had previously worked magic by winning over the American public with his film ‘Mrs Minever’, produced by MGM in 1942 with Greer Garson in the leading role. Under the influence of the American Office of War Information, the film attempted to undermine Hollywood's pre-war depiction of England as a glamorous bastion of social privilege, anachronistic habits and snobbery in favour of more democratic, modern images. It showed the Miniver family undergoing the erosion of class barriers taking place through pressures of wartime. The film exceeded all expectations, grossing $5,358,000 in North America and $3,520,000 abroad. In Britain, it was named the top box office attraction of 1942.

    Perhaps here is a reason for why ‘the Memphis Belle’ took so long to release. The American Office of War Information had success with Mrs Miniver, so perhaps they thought that Wyler could work his magic again with ‘Memphis Belle’? Perhaps the American public could be ‘prepared’ through Wyler’s film for the forthcoming ‘Operation Overlord’?

 My lifetime membership card to the MBMA

    In August 1943, the Combined Chiefs of Staff had approved the general tactical plan for the invasion, dubbed ‘Overlord’. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of the European theater since February 1944, was responsible for carrying off this bold gambit. The Allies' main strategy, in Eisenhower's words, was to ‘...land amphibious and airborne forces on the Normandy coast between Le Havre and the Cotentin Peninsula and, with the successful establishment of a beachhead with adequate ports, to drive along the lines of the Loire and the Seine rivers into the heart of France, destroying the German strength and freeing France.

So, just what was - or is - the real legacy of 41-24485 Memphis Belle? Is it, as that girl who approached Bob Morgan said ‘...just a lot of propaganda?’ Is it about the petty arguments as to whether the aircraft and crew did or did not make those officially credited twenty-five missions before all the others? Or have the passing years allowed the whole story to become such an aviation icon that the whole world feels that they can and should own a piece of it - turning the truth into legends that have become nothing more than a commercial vehicle to be used by all and sundry to make either financial or political capital? And am I , as an author, just as guilty as the rest?

 Perhaps a good indication as to this level of financial attachment that eventually grew up around the whole Memphis Belle phenomenon can be seen in a quote from Bob Morgan’s sixth wife after a flood damaged a storage unit on Swannanoa River Road in Asheville less than four months after he passed away - a unit that contained, in her own estimation, mementoes valued somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 that, it seems, were not insured. ‘This memorabilia was to be my income’ she told the media. As I said when I heard; ‘it seems kind of tawdry somehow’. 

    During the years of restoration at Dayton, much appeared in print within the aviation press around the world - mainly originating from the National Museum of the United States Air Force - that gave the impression that they came along as the sole ‘knight in shining armor’ to save the American icon by ‘grabbing the aircraft back from the MBMA in order to save it’. To quote General Metcalf in a letter to the 91st Bomb Group Association: ‘The condition of the airframe is worse than we expected and the vandalism much worse than originally thought. Most of the detail parts that make a restoration complete have been vandalized, stolen, lost or souvenired by parties that had access to the Belle over the years. As you know. the Belle was, for most of its life, displayed in uncontrolled locations. So not only do we have to undo the ravages of weather, but must also acquire and replace all of the parts taken over the years. Essentially, the Belle is a hollow shell. Additionally, we will have to redo or replace some really inept repairs made over the years - not a pretty picture’. 

    This ‘knight in shining armor’ impression was further strenghened by sympathetic editorial comments in the Press and Media brought about by these NMUSAF Press Releases. However, as we have seen in this blog,  the ‘... vandalized, stolen, lost or souvenired’ was initially done by the Air Force itself when they themselves removed many items back in the late 1940s for use as training aids. Local contemporary newspapers clearly reveal that this process of deterioration started by the Air Force continued right throughout the 1950s, 1960s and well into the 1970s with only occasional attempts at cosmetic restorations made when the aircraft was left outside on the pedestal. Without doubt Mayor Walter Chandler saved the aircraft from the smelter; the American Legion Post and Air National Guard in the city gave it a home and made valiant attempts using their own limited resources to keep the aircraft in an as presentable condition as possible while it was kept outside in a far from suitable environment. At the same time assorted local politicians made occasional lukewarm attempts to find the aircraft an indoor home when it suited their own vested interest to be seen to be doing something.

    The MBMA put the aircraft under cover from 1987 to 2002, although they were aware that this ‘cover’ was far from suitable. Even the Smithsonian Institution showed interest - and yet for at least thirty-two years the United States Air Force stood by and did nothing. Finally, 41-24485 Memphis Belle went to the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio for restoration - a facility that freely admitted that given their small number of staff, it would be a process that was expected to take a decade. This is considerably longer than it would have taken the MBMA with their thirty-plus FAA-airframe qualified volunteers who put to good rapid use the aviation-industry-supplied equipment in the facility at Millington. These FedEx volunteers had already completed a considerable amount of restoration work using the latest long-term preservation and conservation techniques following a three-to-five year timeline.  For a number of years the attitude shown by some at the NMUSAF and others soured relations with those who had worked so hard on the aircraft. However, people moved on, time healed the wounds and slowly the working relationship recovered. Without doubt the workers at Wright Field did an incredible restoration job returning the aircraft back to stock military configuration.  

 

And now - my opinion!

 Even with all the lies, mistruths, deceit, political machinations and just plain bullshit - which started back in 1943, and which I fear is going to go on and on ad infinitum - this could become an ongoing post every six months or so! 

I am certain that those who don't know what they don't know and do not really care about doing in-depth research, but are incredibly vocal in spouting off their theories and ideas to all and sundry; and then get greatly offended if someone tries to correct them will continue to spout off their inanities!  So many these days are not interested in digging deeply or doing much reading but prefer instead to take or rehash their information from poorly researched stuff on social media. They will continue to want to grab the reflected glory of being a 'next gen' and make grandiose statements about the activities of real or perceived 'family members'. 

Where much of the material in this blog originated.... after much research!

Nevertheless, the underlying truth is reported in this blog, and this is something that each and every descendant of all those people can be immensely proud of - for this is the real legacy of the Memphis Belle.  

     

    Bring all of this together - the War Bond Tour and the William Wyler movie - and this then, is without doubt the direct and lasting legacy of those men and women who built, serviced, supported and who flew 41-24485 into combat. They enabled the aircraft and crew which toured the USA to keep the American public on the side of the Army Air Force during those dark days of 1943 when ‘good news’ was such a scarcity - and through William Wyler’s movie they prepared the American public for the coming invasion of Europe in 1944.

  So say these words loud and proud - and let them resound long, loud and clear into the future - those returning ten men and little Scottie dog aboard that single aircraft kept a nation supporting its Eighth Air
Force in the European Theater of Operations. They solely were the spark, the trigger, the catalyst that allowed the build-up to defeat Adolf Hitler and nazism. Through William Wyler’s movie, they also put the American nation in a positive frame of mind for the invasion of Europe.