The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944) - 720p - Restored

Good stuff.

[video=youtube;Iklskql58yM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iklskql58yM[/video]

The movie of the same name (Memphis Belle) made in 1990 is one of my favorites.

The bombing mission in the movie was to drop ordnance on the city of Bremen northern Germany where strangely enough I lived for several years.

Back in the 1960's I saw, entered, and explored the Valentin submarine pen north of the city. At that time it was still a restricted area and not open to the public (looks left, looks right, climbs wall).

The river in the foreground of the image below is the Weser. The submarine entrance ways have been removed and filled in.

An old B17 and B24 are doing a tour around the US. You can pay a few hundred to fly in it. But for a few bucks you can walk through both. The B17 you climb in the hatch below/behind the cockpit and work your way back, exiting a side hatch behind the ball turret.

On the way through you actually climb through the bomb bay. I was surprised how small it was. It only held 6 small bombs.

I remember thinking all that plane, all the crew and gunners and 50 cal rounds and box formation tactics and risk all for each plane to drop 6 bombs. The B24s held 12, IIRC.

I saw a lot of videos of B52s carpet bombing where it seems like dozens of bombs drop out for miles.

I saw a stat on the A1 Skyraider that said it could carry as much munitions as a B-17, and that's a single engine, single crew plane. It's certainly not a long range bomber, but I found it interesting.

Regardless, it was still amazing climbing through those old planes. And I'm glad our country had and used them when they were needed.

The Collings Foundation is in town this weekend with their B17, B24, B25, P51, and Skyraider.

The tour costs $15 while the B17 flight costs $400.

If price is no object, you can get 30 minutes of "stick time" on the P51 which is fully outfitted for dual flight control...for only $4000. 60 Minutes of flight time is available also but is equally spendy.

Only 6 bombs? I believe they held 6-500 pounders and/or lots of smaller ones. My dad was a bombardier in the 92BG 326thSq. Flew 26 missions. Shot down 4 German fighters. Never talked about it until about the last year. I was at his side those last hrs of life. The last thing that I could understand him say was ME 109s!. Love ya Dad.

Since I actually work on one I can confirm that the bomb bay seems quite small on a B-17. How much they carried on a mission depended on the mission, the distance to the target, what munitions were available, etc. I think a typical bomb load on a long mission would likely be six 500 pound bombs. They had hard points for more than six bombs, but the added weight would impact range, speed, fuel consumption and altitude. If you see photos of them dropping a lot of bombs those are likely 100 or 250 pounders.

I'll ask Frank, the guy I work with on our B-17 about the bomb loads. He is on the board of directors for a B-17 that is in Phoenix as well as working on the one here in Urbana, OH. His father was also a crew member on a B-17 in WWII. I can also post some photos later this week of our B-17 bomb bay.

My cousin Casey works in the restoration dept at the Museum of the USAF... he painted the "Blue Belle"... and did a lot of other restorations.

I'm pretty sure he has the best day job of anybody I know.

[video=youtube;44pVJeNSeoU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44pVJeNSeoU[/video]

I got a few pics of the bomb bay. These are the best two.

I don't know the size of the bombs, 500 lb? There's three in the rack with room for three more on the other side of where my buddy is standing. That's the whole bomb bay. I'm standing just aft of it, and just forward of the ball turret while taking the pic. And there's no room on the other side. Right behind my buddy is the top turret platform and cockpit.

Wikipedia says the plane could carry 4,000 lbs of bombs for a long range mission, 8,000 lbs for a short range.

FWIW, I had the same reaction as you questioning what I'm saying. "That can't be it. I swear I've seen them drop more" if I hadn't stood both in and under the bay and seen it with my own eyes, I would be skeptical too.

The B-24 had a similar bomb bay, but it was double long. So there was room for two racks, front to back or double capacity. The bomb bay doors were different too. More like a roll-up door that ran up the exterior of the plane. The B-17 was more like a clamshell.

I think that's why they sent a fleet of hundreds of bombers on a mission. They needed that many to get enough bombs on target to be effective.

Sorry for the sideways pic. I don't have the patience to deal with TRF's pic BS tonight

There's a good image here of the interior of the plane:

https://www.boeingimages.com/archive/B-17F-Flying-Fortress-Forward-Section-Armament-2F3XC5S2OLG.html

For as big as the planes look, there's not much room inside. I'm 6'3" and 210 lbs and I was a tight fit. We were discussing how you'd have to be small and nimble to be able to move around the plane.

I got some good pics of Movie (Memphis) Belle landing at Geneseo (NSL) yesterday. Was out searching for a rocket when she came in!

Anyone know what the bombs that were shaped exactly like standard high explosive bombs, but painted completely yellow with black stripes along their length were all about? They are seen in the sequence when ground crew are riding bombs to the B-17s. I've searched on-line, but there's too many "noise" hits to find out.

Winston said:

Anyone know what the bombs that were shaped exactly like standard high explosive bombs, but painted completely yellow with black stripes along their length were all about? They are seen in the sequence when ground crew are riding bombs to the B-17s. I've searched on-line, but there's too many "noise" hits to find out.

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According to this document, British HE bombs were initially painted yellow.
https://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/britishexplosiveordnance1946.pdf

I talked to my B-17 expert today and he said that a typical B-17 bomb load was twelve 500 pounders.

I have some photos of the bomb bay and will upload them soon. Edit: I uploaded the photos from my phone to my computer and decided that they weren't very good. I'll try to remember to take my camera which has a flash and a wide angle lens.

Wait a minute, is this an African or European B-17?

Zeus-cat said:

I talked to my B-17 expert today and he said that a typical B-17 bomb load was twelve 500 pounders.

I have some photos of the bomb bay and will upload them soon. Edit: I uploaded the photos from my phone to my computer and decided that they weren't very good. I'll try to remember to take my camera which has a flash and a wide angle lens.

Click to expand...

I just realized in the photo I posted of the bombs it says 500 lbs right on the bomb. I have no idea how they squeeze 12 of those in the bomb bay, but that's why I'm working an office job and not a crew chief on a bomber. Here's a few more pics that I got.

Steve Shannon said:

According to this document, British HE bombs were initially painted yellow.
https://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/britishexplosiveordnance1946.pdf

Click to expand...

Hmmm, makes sense that the US would preferably use bombs made in the UK. Why ship highly "explody" ships through the submarine wolfpacks if one doesn't need to. Now I wonder how many of the bombs I've seen in films dropping from B-17s and B-24s which I assumed were US types were actually UK types. I don't know enough about the WWII aerial bomb types used other than the UK blockbusters which I researched because of recent ones found in Germany.

BTW, GREAT Brit series, Danger UXB, based on a non-fiction book. I own the DVD set, haven't watched it for years, and having just thought of it am going to watch it again:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0054DPLHK/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

June, 2018, in USAF Museum:

[video=youtube;VcRXOdqwxwE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRXOdqwxwE[/video]

Winston said:

BTW, GREAT Brit series, Danger UXB, based on a non-fiction book. I own the DVD set, haven't watched it for years, and having just thought of it am going to watch it again

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Of course, who needs DVD sets these days? I just found the entire series on YouTube:

Winston said:

Hmmm, makes sense that the US would preferably use bombs made in the UK. Why ship highly "explody" ships through the submarine wolfpacks if one doesn't need to.

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Evidently they used both UK and US manufactured aerial bombs. Here’s an interesting clip about one of the Liberty ships and its cargo...

I went and saw the restored Memphis Belle last weekend. It is quite the sight and a great exhibit in an already fantastic museum. I only live a few hours from Dayton, but a trip there should be on anyone who is interested in aviation's bucket list.

memcbride said:

Evidently they used both UK and US manufactured aerial bombs. Here’s an interesting clip about one of the Liberty ships and its cargo...

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Yeah, I figured they'd use both, just that they'd try to use everything the Brits could crank out to avoid "shipping costs" which were very high thanks to Wolf Packs.

NateB said:

I went and saw the restored Memphis Belle last weekend. It is quite the sight and a great exhibit in an already fantastic museum. I only live a few hours from Dayton, but a trip there should be on anyone who is interested in aviation's bucket list.

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Agree, the USAF Museum is awesome.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/afmuseum/pool/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/sets/72157631351292122

https://www.flickr.com/photos/15586866@N07/sets/72157612636442565/

I haven't made it down to the museum yet to see the Memphis Belle, but my club will be there on July 21st for a build and fly event and I will try to pop in and see it. Each year the museum buys 500 rockets and gives them away to visitors. Wright Stuff Rocketeers (NAR 703) helps people build them and then launch them in front of the museum.

Some of the stuff I have made over the last dozen years for our B-17 project (The Champaign Lady) is supposed to make it into the Memphis Belle at some point. I know the interior isn't done on the Memphis Belle and I worked on some seats that are supposed to go in her.

My grandpa flew B24s over Southern Europe. He groused a few times that they almost always took off with all fuel tanks full. That reduced their bomb load significantly for short missions. I don't know if the B17s did something similar or not.