Talk:Memphis Belle (film)

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Fair use rationale for Image:Memphis Belle movieposter.jpg

Image:Memphis Belle movieposter.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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Complete Plot overhaul

The current plot is a complete mess. I am going to edit it and anyone who has watched the film, please help me so too. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.17.209.204 (talk) 20:11, 15 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it looks like I beat you to it - the plot has been completely rewritten, and the "Cast" section deleted. We'll see how it holds up...John D. Goulden (talk) 04:37, 30 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thunderbolts?

The article contains the following

After assembling their formation and collecting their escort of North American P-51 Mustang fighters, the aircraft fly toward their target only to face constant harassment by defending German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters. Eventually the escorting fighters, low on fuel, turn away and the bombers continue alone.

I believe that the planes are Thunderbolts, because one of the characters notes that their escorts have to leave them Montalban (talk) 03:23, 7 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The film shows Mustangs. Could the early Mustangs fly all the way from airfields in England and escort a bomber flight deep into Germany and back? I can't recall if P-47's were ever used as bomber-escorts? 104.169.18.0 (talk) 04:46, 13 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The film shares its title with the classic wartime documentary about the real Memphis Belle, but is fictional. In May 1943, at the time when the action is set, the only escort fighters in Eighth Air Force were P-47C Thunderbolts. There were no drop tanks for these aircraft at that time and they could only give escort out to about 175 miles from base, just short of Antwerp. The film depicts a mission to Bremen, about 375 miles out. Because no Thunderbolts were available in England when the film was made, Mustangs are shown instead, even though this makes no sense because Mustangs would not have had to turn back. The P-51B Mustang was developed specifically for bomber escort and could theoretically range about 440 miles from base even without drop tanks. In practice it would always carry, at minimum, two 75-US-gal (62.5 imp-gal) drop tanks allowing it to operate perhaps 650 miles from base. But the first Mustang escort group was not operational until January 1944, so the Mustangs in the film are highly anachronistic. The fighters should be Thunderbolts. The Thunderbolts improved their escort range to about 340 miles in July 1943 with a single 75-US-gal drop tank, enabling them to go almost as far as Bremen. From August they each had a 108-US-gal tank taking them out to 375 miles, covering Bremen itself. But, as Eighth Air Force didn't yet have enough fighters to give escort both outbound and homebound, RAF Spitfires would usually fly out to the Dutch coast to cover the bombers' withdrawal. You can see this system in operation in the summer of 1943 in the colour documentary Combat America, narrated by B-17 air gunner Clark Gable. On the return journey from the climactic raid, after a long battle with German fighters, the camera ship's gunners are suddenly heard shouting, 'Hold your fire on that 109, that's a Spit on its tail!' 'Yeah, our fighter cover's got here!' 'Hightail it, Jerry!' 'That Spit! Ride 'em down!' 'Boy, you sweetheart!' You can see the fighters in combat as they speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SJQYG_GskY The intercom conversation may perhaps have been dubbed on in the studio, but this otherwise very real and rather moving film indicates, among other things, what a thin piece of commercial flim-flam Memphis Belle is.

The article fails to mention David Puttnam's well-known remark that he actually wanted to make a film adaptation of Len Deighton's 1970 Bomber (novel), about an RAF raid on the Ruhr that goes wrong, but was told by the US moneymen that only a film flattering American sensibilities could be financed. Instead, Bomber was adapted by BBC Radio 4 in 1995 into an extraordinary all-day and all-night play, with the episodes broadcast in real time from morning till the middle of the night. No one who heard it will ever forget it. Khamba Tendal (talk) 18:41, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]