Air Crew: 25 Missions. The Story of the Memphis Belle - Waist Gunner.

STAFF SGT. CLARENCE E. WINCHELL
Waist Gunner

Sergeant Winchell was a chemist for a paint company in Chicago before joining the Army in March, 1941. He is 26 years old. He wants to be a gunnery officer.

HIS STORY

YOU can see that Germany is getting desperate. A good example of the things they are trying is dropping bombs on our planes from above. It isn't effective, but it's something that bomber crews should watch for.

They seem to be pulling their defenses back into Germany itself. St. Nazaire used to be tough, but it's not so bad now.

Although some of those places in the occupied countries are easier than they used to be, they still are no snap. It's good advice never to sell a target short, because you may get a surprise.

You'll still find stiff fighter opposition. The Germans seem to be trying to feel us out, trying to learn more about us and our ships. They have gone from mass attacks to single attacks and back to mass attacks.

Our crews should have more high altitude training. Bombers and fighters should be in the air at the same time on these training flights so that they can get accustomed to each other and learn what to expect.

The interphone is the most valuable piece of equipment on the ship. Most of the fellows would rather go over with half their guns out than with the interphone out.

Bomber crews must not relax just because they are out of enemy territory. They jumped us once in the middle of the North Sea and damn near shot us down.

THERE is one incident that stands out in my memory. It was on the Emden raid. We had bombed our target and the fighters were after us. I never saw such crazy flying as they were doing. One Focke-Wulf came in at 9 o'clock and seemed to be concentrating on me personally. I was looking down the barrel of a 20 mm. He went over our left wing ship and under us. I don't know yet how he managed to slip through. I was petrified.

The Memphis Belle had no better crew than a hell of a lot of other B-17's. If there was anything remarkable about our taking all we did without a casualty, it was a combination of things. We had some luck. We had a good crew, and what's just as important, we had absolute confidence in each other.