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joined the Army Air Corps and during the war, 1944, he was stationed with the Eighth Air Force in England and he was a member of a ten-man crew of B-17 flying bombers. These were the heavy bombers we used during World War II. His primary mission was to destroy the military industrial complex of Nazi Germany. He was

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the left waist gunner of that crew and most of you probably don't have any reference of what happens in a combat mission. Some of you saw the film, Memphis Belle, hopefully. Mr. Winchell was a technical advisor, flew to England and helped them to produce that. But most of you really don't have any background

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as far as what goes on at 10,000 feet in the air when you're being attacked by German fighter planes and being shot at the flak. Now in 1944, they produced a short documentary entitled The Memphis Belle. This was a documentary of the actual crew and it was filmed during a combat flight. The 25th mission, now Mr.

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Winchell was very fortunate to be here today. He flew 25 combat missions. Most men can't claim that because their planes usually were shot down, men were injured, but he came through unscathed. And after that 25th mission, because it was so unique that he came back and the crew came back and the aircraft came

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back, his 26th mission was to home, the United States. He came back with his crew to train other crews here in the United States, give them the very, very important experience that he learned over there while he was over in Germany. And then he went on a war bond tour, helping to build up funds to continue the

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war in Germany and Japan. So I have excerpts, 15 minutes, maybe more, maybe we won't show that much, of that documentary. So you will have some reference point to ask him questions when he begins to talk to you about his experiences. So we're going to see that first and then we'll listen to our guests. But at

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this point, Mr. Archie Ripple, he was the man, he was a former board member here at our high school and he's the one responsible for Mr. Winchell being here today. He'd like to maybe say a couple of words about this whole event that is going on and then we'll show the speaker.

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Good morning. I too was living when Pearl Harbor happened. I was in college. I remember very vividly, of course, the time difference was great. It was in the late afternoon when we got the word that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. I was in the Navy, didn't choose the Air Corps. I was in the Navy and my ship, the

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destroyer, was sunk by a kamikaze off the coast of Okinawa in 1943. I'm lucky to be here today. I was one of the survivors. This whole agenda today, Mr. Winchell being here, I knew Bill's father quite well. He was a secretary, he was probably the secretary of the Oak Park YMCA. I know him quite well and Bill looks like his

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father. Bill was in the class of... 1934. '34 here at Oak Park, Oak Park High School before he went into the service. And this whole starting of this thing is not really me, but we're sponsored by the

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Civic Arts Council of Oak Park. This is a coordinating group, we have a permanent group ahead of it, but it's a coordinating group for over 20 different cultural arts within the village of Oak Park, Forest Park. And tomorrow, Mr. Winchell is going to be at our simulated USO day. He's going to speak, show the documentary.

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We're going to have a lot of mementos, we're going to eat Spam, we're going to get free tickets to the Memphis Bell when it comes to the Lake Theater. I'm not sure of that date yet. But I encourage you, if you have any parents, if your parents are interested, maybe we're in World War II, invite them for tomorrow

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night. It's going to be a gala there over at the Bishop Porter Center. Used to be the Bishop Porter School. So, I'm not going to take up any more of Bill's time, but I hope you have a good time. Thank you, Mr. Ruff. We'll see a short clip now of what it was like to be on a bombing mission. And then after that, Mr. Winchell

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will tell you what it was like. But if you listen very carefully, you'll hear his name mentioned two different times. He introduced the crew, and then you'll hear his name mentioned again when they're being attacked by a fireplace. Okay, let's roll. >> Just one plane and one crew in one squadron, in one group, of one wing, of

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one Air Force, out of 15 United States Army Air Forces. Well, fellas, we've never had an easy ride over there yet. And today won't be any different. No escort, except unfriendly. So keep your eyes peeled. Don't get excited and yell when you're talking on the intercom. Save your ammunition and make your shots count. And let

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me know what goes on back there, Quinlan. Yes, sir. Stay on the ball, gang, and she'll bring us back like she's always done. Okay? Let's go. >> They have completed 24 missions in this, the toughest theater of air war, the big league of sky fighting. Their experience is priceless. And so, if the

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Memphis Belle comes back this afternoon, they will be sent to bring the vital lessons they have learned to thousands of air crewmen in training at home. Home is America. [Music]

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>> This is a battle front like no other in this or any war. No monster armies, no booming cannon. Only the roaring engines sound of the bombers pounding through the quiet English countryside. This is an air front. [Music]

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[Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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>> The England of the towns and cities whose people have defended their island's freedom for over a thousand years. But today, their countryside has changed. Today, their island has been converted into a gigantic bomber field, a super aircraft carrier anchored off the shores of fortress Europe with hangars and machine shops,

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with hundreds of dispersal points, perimeter tracks, and concrete runways. This is England in its fifth year of war. And this is the new battle front, the air front, from which we seek out the enemy. Not his infantry or his artillery, not his panzer divisions, but the greater menace, the industrial heart of his nation, the foundation

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on which the Nazi empire and its armies stand, the power behind the German lust for conquest, the steel mills and refineries, shipyards and submarine pens, factories and munitions plants, pinpoints on the map of Europe which mean rubber, guns, ball bearings, shells, engines, planes, tanks, targets, targets to be destroyed. And these are the

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destroyers, each with a belly full of bombs and ten men like the crew that met the spell. Pilot, Captain Robert Morgan, industrial engineer from Asheville, North Carolina. He's flown this ship across the Atlantic. The other pilot, Captain Jim Varenis, business administration student at the University of Connecticut. Radio

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operator and gunner, Sergeant Bob Hanson, construction worker from Spokane, Washington. Navigator, Captain Chuck Leighton, chemistry student at Ohio Wesleyan. Engineer and top turret gunner, Sergeant Harold Locke from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Used to be a stevedore. Besides keeping the bell in order, he covers the sky above.

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Tail gunner, Sergeant John Quinlan of Yonkers, New York. Worked for a carpet company in Ludwig, Gwinn, December 8, 1941. Ball turret gunner, Sergeant Cecil Scott, gristman for a rubber company in Robles, New Jersey. Pilot to crew, 10,000, put on oxygen. They're climbing higher now, 300 feet a minute. The strain on the planes and

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on the men is mounting. The rest of the crew, Bombardier, Captain Vincent Evans, operated a fleet of trucks in Fort Worth, Texas. Waste gunners, on the right, Sergeant Bill Winchell, chemistry routine company in Chicago. And on the left, Sergeant Tony Nostal, used to repair washing machines in Detroit when he was a kid.

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Now he's 19 and has two Nazi fighters confirmed. It takes all of a pilot's strength to keep a 30-tonne, 4%-type formation. But the formation is the bomber's best defense against enemy fighters. The planes are deployed to uncover every gun. Stepped up and down, echelon to the right and left. Arranged to overcome the danger of gunners

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firing into friendly ships. Arranged so concentrated cones of fire from the Caliber 50 machine guns cover the sky for 1,000 yards in every direction. The friendly coast of England slides by below. It doesn't look like much now, but in a few hours when you come back, if you come back, this will be the most beautiful

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view in the world. Higher and higher, climbing to reach your best operational altitude, 45,000 feet, five miles straight up. So high you can't be seen from the ground with the naked eye. So high that after one minute without oxygen, you lose consciousness. After 20 minutes, you're dead. Well, now to the target. Go about your

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routine duties. Watch your course. Check your equipment, weight, and feet. Higher and colder, temperature 40 degrees below zero. Take off your glove and your loose fingers. You look out at the strange world beyond, reflections in plexiglass like nothing you ever saw before outside the dream. Higher and higher into the lifeless

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stratosphere until the exhaust of the engines mixing with the cold thin air and streams to heavens complete the trails. To the men in the ships, they're far from beautiful, for they point like beckoning fingers to the formation, signposts in the sky for the enemy to spot us. For these bombers to accomplish their mission, a

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plan is needed. Carefully worked out, timed to the minute. The job is to bomb build-ups up, effectively and economically. The field helmets go on. Watch for live frame. Tight formations are held tighter still. Tense gunners more alert because here it comes. Beginners. From up here, it looks the same as any other. Houses,

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roads, green fields, factories, waterways. They are the houses and fields of those who invaded the press. They are the factories and roads of the people who twice in one generation have flooded the world with suffering. Suffering in such quantity as the history of the human race has never known. Brought torment and anguish into

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countless American homes. Gold stars and telegrams from the war department. The first black, just harmless looking, silent puffs of smoke. Only each puff is a shell exploding, throwing shrapnel around the sky. Exactly the range, accurate black by radio prediction. Five miles down at the end of the aircraft, batteries have

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calculated the altitude, speed and course. Where will the next one hit? You try not to be there. The docks and submarine pens of Ilhamshaven. Approach to the target starts. No smoke screen can protect it. Now the enemy knows the path of your approach and walls that path with a black barrage, but you fly right through it.

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Black so thick you can get out and walk on it. Morgan changes course every 15 seconds. Evasive action to confuse the black batteries. Bumpsides set for correct altitude and speed. Bombay doors open. The bombing run begins. Pilot to the air. Okay, man, you got it. Now Evans flies the man this bell, controlling it

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through the bomb site. And now we are most vulnerable. Committed to our bombing run, we can't dodge black or white. Here's the first. Evans must ignore the battle. Crosshairs lined up on target. Adjustments for wind drift made. Two more fighters diving from nine o'clock. Black now has the range too. They've hit this

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port. He keeps on his bombing run. As lead bombardier Evans, his aim must be good. Every other ship in the group will drop its bombs when he drops his. Now one pointer on the bomb site moves toward another stationary pointer. The instant they touch, bombs will release. They touch. Bombs away.