I expect many of you are familiar with this classic. I must admit I've never watched it through until recently. The closing sequences were shot at Bassingbourn and then Bovingdon commencing with the presentation of Captain Morgan and his crew to General Devers by General Eaker. In the closing moments of the film Memphis Belle departs from Bovingdon's R/W 04 and then performs a flypast. You can just catch a glimpse of the Control Tower as it was on June 9th 1943. However all was not what it appeared to be. Graham Simons and Harry Friedman's researches have revealed the following:
The timeline of the journey home – from last mission to Washington DC.
May 17 – Morgan’s 25th mission.
May 19 – Memphis Belle’s 25th mission.
May 26 – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Bassingbourn.
Date Unknown Medal ceremony at Bassingbourn.
June 8 – Test flying/filming/proficiency flying from Bassingbourn
June 9 – Depart Bassingbourn -filming en-route for one hour. Land at Bovingdon.
June 9 – ‘26th Mission’ ceremony at Bovingdon.
June 12 – Depart Bovingdon for two hour thirty minute flight to Prestwick, Scotland.
June 13 – Depart Prestwick, Scotland for eight hour flight to Greenland.
June 14 – Refuel. Depart Greenland for ten hour flight to Bangor, Maine.
June 14 – Refuel. Depart Bangor, Maine for three hour flight to Chicopee, Massachusetts.
June 15 – Arrive Washington DC area.
June 16 – Official arrival at Washington National Airport.
Graham Simons has identified other film locations as Bassingbourn, Alconbury, and Chelveston. The B17 concerned was 41-24485 of the 91st Bomb Group.
William Wyler and his Film Crew previously visited Bovingdon in 1943. I've extracted the following from Brig.Gen. J. Kemp McLaughlin's Memoir (The Mighty Eighth in WW11). He, together with his Captain, Tom Hulings were then Duty Pilots at Bovingdon with the 11th CCRC.
'Sometime in February1943, Major William Wyler arrived at our station with a group of cameramen experienced in aerial photography. All of them were Commissioned Officers and being ten to fifteen years our senior, they were all First Lieutenants and Captains. Tom Hulings and I were assigned to fly for them and we began immediately to experiment with manned camera stations all over the airplane. We set one up in the radio room hatch, with the camera on an installed tripod and the cameraman's head and shoulders outside the airplane. Other photographers were set up in the nose, tail, waist gun and ball turret positions. After preparing these camera positions, we flew several orientation flights to give our cameramen an opportunity to adjust to their tasks of photography from an aerial platform. We then flew to Bassingbourn the home field of the 91st Bomb Group. There after several meetings and briefings, we finally took off, climbed to about nine thousand feet, where six of our P-47s began making fake combat gunnery passes at us. Their maneuvers were from all quarters, both high and low, while we cruised as slowly as possible so that the cameramen, especially the one whose head and shoulders were outside the airplane, could get good shots. These films turned out to be excellent footage, and we were told that they would be used to help train aerial gunners. About a month later I saw some of these shots on the Pathe News in a London movie theater shown as actual aerial combat over Germany ! '
William Wyler at Bassingbourn. January 1943. Photo credit American Air Museum in Britain.
Memphis Belle quite possibly photographed en route to Bovingdon from Bassingbourn on June 9th 1943. Photo credit American Air Museum in Britain.
Ditto...
Memphis Belle at Bovingdon June 9th 1943. Photo credit American Air Museum in Britain.
Bob Morgan and crew. General Devers at the microphone, General Eaker looks on. Photo credit American Air Museum in Britain.