The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress

William Wyler, serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces, filmed the crew of the B-17 bomber Memphis Belle on its 25th and final mission over Europe, the milestone that would send the crew home. Shot with hand-held 16mm cameras mounted inside the plane, the documentary puts the viewer inside a real bombing raid, with flak so thick the crew said you could walk on it. Wyler combined footage from several missions to tell the story of one plane and its ten crewmen, ordinary Americans doing a job that might not let them come back. One of Wyler's cameramen was killed during filming. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the film is in the public domain.