but but.

the. this is the battlefront a battlefront like no other the long history of mankind's wars. this is an air. for. an.

and. for the working day begins as it will end the ground crews as a part of the fortress, as a wing. if you're a mechanic you've got your own bomber, you get to it. but you know, when your ship goes out on a mission, you may never see it again. so you do your work as well as can be done perfectly because you wouldn't want anything go wrong. that would be your fault fault. you know. the day the bombs be taken from these bomb dumps in england and deliver to specific points in wilhelmshaven, germany germany. to deliver them is the job the

eighth bomber command just, the hauling job at one of the most difficult and complicated of military operations. yeah. although. general purpose bombs impact velocity as high as 750 miles an hour, pierced five inches of armor plate. destroy a factory. briefing at 800 pilots bombardiers and navigators take their places. the group commander, colonel stanley ray, steps up to the target. and for the first time, you learn you're going. sometimes your face turns white

when find out. sometimes the it won't come back tightens your insides. not so long ago you were sitting like this in a college or high school classroom not listening to hard, perhaps even a little sleepy. but you listen here and as you listen, you don't have time to think of yourself fear fades. you concentrate on the mission type information assembly point zero hour route to target whether enemy fighters or enemy black route home if forced down an enemy territory destroy equipment if taken prisoner give no information name and serial number, that's all and we're.

in. these are the passengers with one way tickets and this is the crew of the memphis belle 324 squadron 91st heavy bombardment group just one plane and one crew and one squadron in. one group of one wing of one air force out 15 united states army air forces. well, fellows we've never had an easy ride over there yet, and today won't be any. no escort except. so keep your eyes peeled. don't get excited. and yeah, you're talking on the intercom. save your ammunition and make your shots count. let me know what goes on back. quinlan. yes, sir. stay on the ball gang and she'll bring us back like she's always done. okay, let's go.

they have completed 24 missions in this. the toughest theater of our war. the big league of sky fighting. their experience is and so the memphis belle comes back this afternoon they will be sent to bring the lessons they have learned. 2000 arms of aircrew men training at home. home is america. this is a battlefront like no other and or any war. no monster armies, no booming cannon, only the roaring engine sound of the bombers pounding

through the quiet english countryside. this is an air front.

the wheels of the memphis belle leave the soil. england for the 25th time, the friendly soil. england, with its ordered and rural hamlets, its country, a state surrounded by gardens and well-kept parks the england. these americans knew only from the classics they had to read school. the england of the towns and cities whose people have defended their islands freedom for over a thousand years. but today the countryside has changed. today their island has been converted into a gigantic bomber field, a super aircraft carrier anchored off the shores of fortress with hangars and machine shops with hundreds of dispersal points, perimeter tracks and concrete.

this is england in its fifth year of war. and this is the new battlefront. the air front from we seek out the enemy, not his infantry or his artillery, not his panzer divisions, but greater menace. the industry heart of his nation, the on which the nazi empire and its army stand, the power behind the german lust for conquest the steel mills, refineries, shipyards and pens, factories and munitions plants pinpoints on the map of europe, which mean rubber guns, ball bearings shells, engines, planes tanks, targets, targets to be destroyed. and these are the destroyers each with a belly full of bombs. and ten men like the crew of the memphis belle pilot, captain robert morgan, industrial

engineer from asheville north carolina. he's flown this across the atlantic. the other pilot, captain jim berenice, business administration student at the university, connecticut radio operator gunnery sergeant bob hanson, construction work up from spokane, washington navigator captain chuck layton, chemistry student at ohio wesleyan engineering top turret gunner sergeant harald luck from green bay, wisconsin, used to be a stevedore. besides keeping the billing order, he covers the sky above tail gunner. sergeant john quinlan of yonkers, new york, looking for a cop and company. but he. december eight, 1941, all turret gunner sergeant cecil scott pressman for a rubber company in rahway new jersey. pilot crew 10,000 put on oxygen they're climbing now 300 feet a minute strain on the planes and

on the men is mounting. the rest of the crew bombardier captain vincent operated a fleet of trucks in worth, texas waist. on the right, sergeant bill winston for a paint company in chicago. and on the left, sergeant tony nice town used to repair washing machines in detroit when he was a kid. now 19, and has two nazi fighters confirmed. it takes. all of a pilot's strength to keep a 30 ton fortress in take. but the formation is the bombers best defense against enemy fighters. the are deployed to uncover every gun stepped up and down echelon to the right and left, arrange to overcome danger of gunners firing into friendly ships. the range so concentrated columns of fire from the caliber 50 machine guns cover the sky

for a thousand yards in every direction. the the friendly coast of england slips by below. it doesn't look much now, but in a few hours when you come back, if you come back, this will be the most beautiful view in the world. higher, higher climbing to reach your best operational altitude. 25,000 feet, five miles straight up so high you can't be seen from the ground, the naked eye. so high that i'm the one minute without oxygen. you lose consciousness after 20 minutes, you're dead. from now to the target, you go about your routine. do this blood draw across, check your equipment wait and think.

higher and colder temperature 40 degrees below zero. take off your glove and you lose some fingers. you look out the strange world beyond reflections and plexiglas like nothing you ever saw before outside of the dream. higher and higher into the lifeless stratosphere until the exhaust of the mixing with the cold, thin air condensed and streams the heavens with, paper trails. to the men in the ships. they're far from beautiful, but they point like beckoning fingers to the formation signposts in the sky or the animate spots spots.

for these bombers to accomplish their mission, a plan is needed carefully out, timed to the minute the job is to bomb wilhelm's heaven effectively and economically. the enemy is strong skillful, determined to stop. here are his defenses eardrums well dispersed each indicates a stockpile or squadron of fighters. heavy anti-aircraft, highly trained and accurate all along the coast and defending his vital installations radar to warn him about coming here is our plan to divide his defenses and weaken his. at 1330 hours shortly after takeoff, six groups of planes will be heading toward the enemy coast from six directions. the blue force 100 b-24 liberator four engine bombers, the white force, three b-17 flying fortresses the green

force 300 b-17 with an escort of six squadrons of p 47 thunderbolts, a force of b, 26 marauders, twin engine medium bombers with six squadrons of raaf spitfires, a squadron, almost a thousand planes and over 8000 men in the air. the enemy, all our drones, but which is our main force? what are our targets? where should the nazi controllers, their fighters? it's our job to make them guests and wrong i a half hour later at 1400 hours the blue force will be heading east across the north sea with a white force following these enemy fighters tied down waiting to meet them. we will not be able to attack the green force. these fighters must come up to attack green force and thus will be no threat to the blue and white forces. the b 26 is and spitfires will bomb and strafe a key rail

junction diverting these six stop on and preventing the enemy from concentrating too many fighters on the green force, which is scheduled a bombing aircraft factory at hanover. at 1430 hours. the blue force will threaten this entire coastal area of north western germany. which target will it be? flensburg the kiel canal or will it turn and bomb? hamburg, vegas or emden? actually, it carries no bombs at all. it's a decoy and keeps the fighters from the northern area busy while the white boss main effort heads for the submarine tens of billions of it. at 1500 hours, while white forces over at target only a fraction of the available fighter strength of the area can intercept it because the blue post diversion and the

simultaneous bombing hanover by the green force. this is the plan of battle for today drawn up by the combined operation's planning committee and approved by the commanding. the white force lead group squadron. we've crossed the invisible line of enemy radar. the hunt is expecting us us. steel helmets on watchful eyes. tight formations that help take us. tense gunners. more alert because here it comes. the enemy coast. from up here, it looks the same as any other houses, roads, green fields, factories,

waterways. but they are the houses and fields of those who invade and oppress. they are the factories and, roads of the people. twice one generation have flooded the world with suffering. suffering such quantity. the history of the human race has never known, brought torment and anguish into countless american homes, gold stars and from the war department. the first black just harmless looking, silent puffs of smoke only each was a shell exploding, throwing shrapnel around the sky. exactly range accurate flak by radio prediction five miles down nazi anti-aircraft batteries have calculated the altitude, speed and course where will the next one hit? you try not to be there. the ducks and submarine bands of

wilhelmshaven approach to the target stocks. no smokescreen can protect it. now the enemy knows the path of your approach and walls pass with a flak barrage, but you fly right through it flak so thick you can get out and walk it. morgan course every 15 seconds, evasive action to confuse the black batteries. bombsight set for correct down the and speed bombay doors open the bombing run begins. pilot the bombardier okay then you've got it now now evans applies the memphis belle and rolling it through the bombsight and now we are most vulnerable,

committed to our bombing run. we can't dodge black fighters. here's the first. top turret myers had evans ignore the battle crosshairs lined up on target adjustments. wind threats made. to off by his diving from 9:00. flack now the range to. hit spot but he keeps on his bombing run. as a lead bombardier. evans his aim must be good every ship in the world will drop its bombs when he drops. now, one point around, the bombsight moves toward another stationary point to the instant the touch bombs will release.

they touch. bombs away.

the first half of the mission is over. the easy hut. now to get home. the flak stops. that means fighters at somewhere a stop lurking behind that cloud or hiding up in the sun with a glare blind you and you can't see them waiting to dive down on your fighters at 6:00. this is what i'm going to see is a speck in the sky that's a fighter and then a blink. that means he's firing you 2300 rounds a minute.

in a running battle. one of the most important instruments is the interphone interphone. there's more of 1:00. hi. they're coming round watching. two fighters. 6:00 up, coming in. dramatic piece of the trouble at 2:00, watching an engine on fire. there's more time for the 1943 planes. 9:00 coming around. keep you out. around a ten foxtrot. you guys are separated. 11, 11 running at 10:00. i go at 2:00. watch up, scotty. i got my sights on chicken. may 17, 3:00, walter smoke and fighter 1030 are coming around

1030 up here. lord. b-17 out of control at 3:00. come on, you guys, get on that plane. bailout there's wanting come out of the bombay i see him as a tail gunner coming out watch out for fighters. keep their eye on them don't see parachutes or parachutes so back at 9:00, eight man still not b-17. come on, the rest of you guys, get out of there. i'll fire three more shoots. flack 11:00. fighter 6109 at 3:00 in bathroom. what you guys. sam i'm them. come on, you son of. i got confirm that fighter they

got him chief look, he's bailing out -- don't yell at fighters 10:00 watch down to a 12 coming in coming in got it. get that all out of. ammunition as much possible possible. watch that fighter coming in the 3:00. he's coming in in a half. four up. chief, pull up. hurry. this fortress hurt and john, fire losing airspeed and altitude drifting into the flank alone and helpless a straggler and a minute nazi fighters will swarming like buzzards for the kill. you can watch, but you can't go down to help you keep your formation.

here. two of the mission is being flown nonetheless rail for being the minds and hearts of these men behind. ask anybody who's been to a field in england or anywhere else our bombers are based and he'll you that there's drama here too waiting to see who's coming back to watch them. you might not realize how tense these ground crews are, but they are tense and worried in air force, this waiting is known as sweating out the mission. these men know the flight plan. their watches, told them when the bombers were running into flak when they were over the target, when they left the coast. and now watches tell them the bombers should be nearing the field. air every air trains for the first sign of the engines and then somebody hears and somebody the first faint specks in the distance sky.

every face turns to see and count. the watches, try to read the numbers on the ships. these planes have priority to land first the colored flares mean wounded aboard in the hospital window. these watching men know what that means. they know what it feels to lie on a bouncing fortress fly for hundreds of miles through the frozen stratosphere in great pain with the other men in your crew fighting keep you alive until they hit the field. the field? hold it. it'll be okay then, because they'll be medical care the best soon the wheels of your plane stop rolling.

head one concussion 20 millimeter cannon shell exploded his radio compartment shock internal injuries he'll be all right then. flack bursts scattered flying shrapnel is full of steel. this pilot's leg not a pretty sight. neither are the doctor villains. hermann. these men will all get the purple heart. and this man to posthumously. a transfusion right in the plane. this gun is too to be moved. the new life giving blood into his veins might be the blood of

a high school girl and a mine minor. in alabama, a movie star in hollywood. or it might be your blood. it was ever. it is. thanks. 36 planes left this field this morning. now six more arrived. that makes 20 home. and this one's one more wounded. 22 coming in with his left inboard dead. 23 with a feathered prop on his left outboard engine. 24 southern comfort with a chunk of tail gone, 25 i flew on that

luck. 26 not a scratch scratch. the control tower that two more landed at a british field to the south. want a crash landing crew safe that. makes 2829 a rough landing, but a pilot's hurt wondering brought it back at all. 29 planes back so far, 29 out of 36 are losses were heavy, but the enemies were far heavier. we destroyed a german aircraft factory, a rail junction submarine docks and harbor installations. that's the specific known damage. but who can tell the number german torpedoes that will not be fired? the number of our convoys that will get through now the soldiers and seamen's lives that will be saved or the battles

that will be won instead of lost because of what these and airmen did today. pilot and tail gunner. i can laugh now. fire on the inboard engine did this flame streak back and burn the stabilizer to another crew brought back to. his old bell? well, a pretty good airplane when it took off, lost its nose, asked his navigator bombardier, wounded top turret gunner pilot hit hydraulic system, shot out.

no breaks, no flaps. but old bell back. now among the return crew members, talk flows like a river, talking out every detail of the mission. these the faces of combat, faces of americans have watched their comrades die. faces that can never the enemy. and there are no more than their picture taken taken. in the control tower. colonel ray, the seal is still watching and waiting and. then it's past the last flight. three more planes and one of them is the ship. everyone has been pulling. the memphis belle.

the last few miles of this trip have been a joy ride. the strain is over. they can leave their now. now they know they're going to go home to spokane green bay, asheville, detroit chicago, fort worth, yonkers. and. the bell comes in. the fire landing. but first, morgan buzzes the field, cuts the grass with a giant fortress. it's against the rules, but this is a special occasion.

the wheels of the memphis belle come back to the style of england for the 25th time. and.

this is a day they never forget. another great soon after brigadier general visited the field and presented the distinguished cross to every member of the. and then there was another day.

that majesties, the king and queen of. johnny quinlan never thought anything like this would happen to him when he left yonkers yonkers. the ground crew were a little self-conscious about being dressed in fatigues, but the queen thought they were very.

finally, two more visitors came. general hager, commanding the eighth air force and general debus, u.s. commander of the european the bell crew, received in flying clothes as general eckert read the order for what he called a 26 and most important mission return to america to train new crews and to tell the people what we're doing here to thank them for their help and support and. tell them to keep it up so we can keep up, so we can bomb the enemy. and again and until he has had enough. and then we can all come home. and.

to the men of the eighth air force who are now flying deep into germany bringing destruction to targets almost a thousand miles from their bases, destruction like this. and to have never once been turned back by the enemy to those men, this film has gratefully dedicated.