Memphis Belle’s Obscured Target
The events of the movie may have happened to some B-17, with one glaring exception. During their last mission, the bombardier declares the target impossible to spot through cloud cover. The plan passes the target and circles back to achieve its mission. Circling back would have been unnecessarily dangerous for B-17 crews. Not only would this keep the B-17 formation in the line of fire longer, but ground forces would see this and deploy their flak defenses.
The Memphis Belle crew would have been given their mission with a primary, secondary, and tertiary target to ensure mission success even if one target is obscured. Even if all the targets were obscured, the force commander (rather than the lead plane pilot) would determine if there were other strategic targets available. If none, crews abandoned the mission. It would count toward their tour completion because they flew into dangerous enemy territory.
