11 Mar Memphis Belle
The Memphis Belle in Atlanta on March 3, 2013
Last weekend the B-17 Memphis Belle came to town! This is not the original Memphis Belle, the B-17 piloted by Robert K. Morgan that was celebrated so highly in 1943 for finishing 25 missions.
Rather, this is the B-17 that was used in the 1990 movie “Memphis Belle.” It is being operated by The Liberty Foundation, the same group that owned the Liberty Belle, the beautiful plane that flew me around Atlanta in 2009 and was almost completely destroyed two years later.
The team refers to her as “The Movie Memphis Belle.” The three B-17’s used to make the movie were “Sally B” based at Duxford, England, the “Movie Memphis Belle” and the B-17 that ran off the runway and was destroyed by fire. This was shown in the movie, and most people assume that was a model. It was a real B-17 and since the film crew was filming, they kept the cameras rolling and the incident was used in the movie. The crew evacuated the aircraft safely.
Movie Memphis Belle came out of the factory at Long Beach CA as a “G” model. The chin turret was removed, and an “F” model nose was installed in order to make the movie more authentic. The real Memphis Belle is in restoration at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. She is being restored to combat configuration but will probably never fly because of her historical value. (My thanks to Ron, who serves on the team, for the history of Movie Memphis Belle.)
Movie Memphis Belle was at the PDK (DeKalb Peachtree) airport for only two days with passenger flights set up all day long and ground tours after they were done.
“The Nose”
As I drove up the street to the airport on Sunday mid-afternoon I heard it. There it was, flying low over the nearby buildings and as I watched it I imagined that it could have been my Dad’s B-17 Liberty Lady flying, lost, over the island of Gotland shortly before its belly landing.
There is a lovely waiting area at PDK with huge picture windows looking out onto the airfield. I had a ringside seat and for several hours watched the plane take off and land. It was freezing outside.
(Okay, okay. Perhaps not freezing but very cold. I kept thinking that it was like East Anglia would have been on a nice day.)
As I watched the Memphis Belle come and go I noticed that there were fewer WWII veterans there than there had been in 2009. They’re all either just under or just over 90 years old now.
Dennis Baker, WWII Bombardier
It was my incredible good fortune to meet Major Dennis Baker and his family. Like my Dad, Major Baker had been a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force, and he agreed to let me tour the B-17 with him!
Major Baker is almost 94 years old but you’d never know it. Yes, probably due to the roaring thunder of the bombers he once flew in, Baker explained that he is “deaf in one ear and can’t hear out of the other.”
If you want to see Dennis Baker in action today and also read more about his action during the war, here is an article about his visit to the WWII Heritage Days in Peachtree City. It’s an annual event honoring our veterans.
Finally it was time for us to board the Memphis Belle. There was a long line of people waiting to climb a ladder up through the hatch door near the front of the plane. We got special permission to step up into the waist area at the back side door.
I’d forgotten how cramped it was. Even though the nose was blocked off for everyone, we did squeeze/crawl up into it. The bombardier chair had been taken out but there was that panoramic view.
Major Baker was stationed at Chelveston with the 305th BG and completed 35 missions in a B-17!
Most of the time we sat in chairs that had been put in the radio room for passenger flights. From there we had a grand view of the Bomb Bay where the bombs were stored. Just as air crews had to do 70 years ago, the folks on tour had to squeeze through a narrow opening and walk over the 18 inch catwalk.
(I didn’t see how some of the well fed gents would make it through, and one did have to turn around.)
I asked the Major, “Dennis, did you ever have to walk over that cat walk with the bomb bay doors open to the earth below?”
“Yes, I did … twice!” he replied. Once one of the bombs didn’t drop when it should have and had to be manually released.
“We had a safety belt that would keep us from falling down through the bottom of the plane,” Baker reassured me, but all I could visualize was he and my Dad scrambling over that narrow piece of metal while the plane was tumultuously flying through the Flak and flames.
Thank you so much, Major Dennis Baker, for the personal tour. We can never thank our veterans enough.
UPDATE: Please read the comment below by Jim Mandelblatt whose father actually flew “Movie Memphis Belle,” then a VB-17G (s/n 44-83546) on various times between May and September 1954.
Jim Mandelblatt
Posted at 18:11h, 11 MarchPat,
I saw and read your blog post about visiting Movie Memphis Belle (s/n 44-83546, civil reg. N3703G) when it was in Atlanta last weekend. To give you some additional information about the aircraft, the plane was manufactured/completed on April 3, 1945 as a standard B-17G, then modified into various configurations from 1945 through 1948. In mid-1948, it was converted to VIP transport configuration and served the remainder of its USAF career as a VB-17G based at Haneda Field, Tachikawa AFB in Japan. In September 1954, the plane came back to the US, was moved to Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona, where it was eventually dropped from the USAF inventory in 1959.
The plane was purchased for about $2700 dollars in 1959 and utilized in various capacities, mostly as a fire bomber (as N3703G) until 1984, when David Tallichet purchased the aircraft. When the movie Memphis Belle was being filmed in 1989, Mr. Tallichet had the plane back-modified to the F model configuration it is in today.
I’ve been researching this particular aircraft for the past 20 or so years, ever since visiting it in October 1991 at Manassas Airport, Virginia. The week after seeing the plane, I purchased Scott Thompson’s book FINAL CUT: The Post-War B-17 Survivors and showed the photo of 44-83546 in its USAF colors to my father, as he had often told me that he had flown a general’s transport B-17 in Japan (my dad served as a B-29 pilot in the 352nd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, SAC out of Barksdale AFB, LA from mid to late 1952, then transferred to Japan in early 1953, and would fly any multi-engine aircraft h could to maintain his rating). Upon showing my father the photo (the color version of which I’ve attached, courtesy of Scott Thompson), he didn’t hesitate in saying that 44-83546 was “his” plane. Through the years, whenever I’d think of it and get a sniff of pertinent information, I’d continue researching 44-83546. Then when The Liberty Foundation leased 44-83546 last year, I contacted Mr. Scott Maher (the Foundation’s director of operations) and told him of my connection and asked if I could volunteer with the Foundation. In August of last year, when the Foundation was at its stop in Baltimore, I was able to fly a bunch of times on Movie Memphis Belle. I should add that two days before I went to Baltimore, I received a copy of 44-83546’s Individual Aircraft History data card from the USAF AFHRA, confirming that Movie Memphis Belle was the same B-17 my father flew in 1954..
Again, I really enjoyed your blog..
Jim Mandelblatt
Emilie Denson
Posted at 06:06h, 12 MarchDennis Baker is my grandfather. Thank you very much for honoring him in this article and taking the time to interview him. With your knowledge of your father’s wartime stories, you knew the questions to ask him to elicit great responses. Our family appreciates you sharing his story to leave a legacy of his service to our nation!
Pat DiGeorge
Posted at 06:16h, 12 MarchEmilie, it was my privilege to spend time with your grandfather and go into the B-17 with him. Thank you so much for your kind words.
Alan Baker
Posted at 15:40h, 22 Januarymy name is Alan Baker, my father is Dennis Baker the son of Major Dennis Baker. I am so disappointed I never met my grandfather Major Dennis Baker. I am his first grandson from his first son Dennis Robert Baker. I am so proud of my grandfather! If anyone would like to contact me, you can e-mail me al_bakerusa2017@yahoo.com.