Famous WWII Bomber – Memphis Belle

When it comes to World War II, there is no shortage of brave and amazing stories of how ordinary men defied the odds and achieved legendary status. Easy Company’s famous Band of Brothers, the infamous true story of the real “Dirty Dozen,” the Tuskegee Airmen, the Doolittle Raid, and of course, the Memphis Belle, to name a few.

If you were drafted as an airman in the Army Air Corps during World War II before the formation of the U.S. Air Force, you were probably under 25 and had an acceptable average life expectancy of nearly four flying missions over Europe fighting Nazi Germany. If you were lucky enough to be part of a B-17 Flying Fortress crew, that number rose to an average of eleven missions, less than half the usual scheduled missions.

25 bombings was the golden number for US bombardiers in World War II. Once you landed after that last bombing, you returned to the US in your plane to travel the country as a hero selling war bonds, but very few made it to the 25th bombing. In fact, the crew of the Memphis Belle had little trouble until the 24th bombing, and the legend was born with that final bombing in 1943.

If you’ve seen the movie, you know that despite the unimaginable circumstances, the crew survived. Some would even say it was fortunate that the crew didn’t suffer a single loss. When they returned to the U.S. to participate in the war bond drive, the plane was inevitably used for training purposes, but almost immediately after America won World War II, it was shipped off to the junkyard to be looted and scrapped, falling into disrepair in a field in southwest Oklahoma.

It’s amazing that a generation could just leave such a rich history behind, but as we’ve seen over time, after a war people will do just about anything to put such a controversial event behind them in a timely manner. World War II was a justified brutal campaign against unimaginable evil. It was peacetime and the world was trying to move on. Out with the old, in with the new.

Altus Air Force Base – then called Altus Army Air Field – became the resting place of the famous Memphis Belle B-17. It was being siding with hundreds of others, all waiting to be scrapped for aluminum, copper, instruments, etc., when an astute Memphis airman spotted it in the junkyard and contacted the mayor of Memphis in late 1945. After a few phone calls, the City of Memphis purchased the plane from Altus AAF for $350.

Souvenir hunters had already stripped the plane of instruments and small totems, but a crew was able to reassemble it from salvaged parts just in time to fly it home to Memphis. It remained on display there until 2005, when it was transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Ohio, where it now rests, 100% restored.

Even though Oklahoma plays only a small role in the very long and storied history of the Memphis Belle, it is astonishing how close we came to losing her in the name of recycling.