Where is the enola gay mud island memphis
The noseart was painted on the Belle by Cpl. Their mascot, a Scotty dog named "Stuka", traveled across the Atlantic with them and participated in the PR tour. The crew visited more than 32 cities where they received a heroes' welcome. The 26th mission of the BELLE was to return to the States during the summer of 1943 on a public relations tour to thank the American public for supporting the war effort. Bassingbourn is still an active English army base today. From there they flew across the Atlantic to their home base in Bassingbourn, England, just north of London. She was christened MEMPHIS BELLE in honor of the pilot's wartime sweetheart, Ms. They flew their ship to Memphis, TN on a shakedown flight, where The crew met their plane in Bangor, Maine for the first time in September, 1942. There was not one major injury to the crew members. This gallant lady was bullet-ridden, flak damaged on five separate occasions had engines shot out and once came back with her tail nearly shot off. She is the only B-17 to have her own file in the Air Force Film Depository. During her 25 missions she flew 148 hours, 50 minutes, and covered more than 20,000 combat miles. She dropped more than 60 tons of bombs over Germany, France and Belgium. The BELLE shot down eight enemy fighters, probably destroyed five others, and damaged at least a dozen more. Morale was extremely low because 80% of the bombers were shot down during the first three months of America's combat flights over Europe. The command generals had set 25 missions as an incentive for air crews to go home. She flew for 10 months from Novemto May 17, 1943. The BELLE was the most famous because she was the first heavy bomber in Hitler's European war theatre to complete 25 combat missions and keep her entire crew alive. 41-24485) was one of 12,750 B-17's built by the Boeing Aircraft Co. The B-17 Flying Fortress "MEMPHIS BELLE" (Serial No. 1st Eighth Air Force WW II Bomber to complete 25 Combat Missions & return to the United States