Thought I’d add my Belle experience….
The lads at the airfield said âget up here quickly as everything is flying tomorrowâ (Thursday). Also donât wear white trainers or carry a camera as some idiots had already spoilt several film shots to get their own. So wearing a green grow bag I was ready for casting. The day was sunny with scattered cloud and I watched the armourer loading a pile of 50 cal cases with blank charges ready for shooting. I remember him testing one of the guns on the airfield and it seemed really loud from 100 yards away.
The shout went up that casting was about to start. We formed up around a chap who said this was a maximum 5-ship sortie and therefore would need many extras. He then asked for someone to play the lead role of Bombardier in the Belle. I just stepped forward, he looked at me as if to check for the modern trainers and said âyouâll do, go and get some gear from Propsâ.
I was then kited out with sheepskin jacket and boots, flightsuit, officerâs hat and radio headset.
The time came to board our planes. I remember we had a full complement of crew as all the gunnersâ positions were needed to be manned. As I climbed in, a lady with clipboard asked if I was playing the Bombardier, and that I should wait for the camera ship to be in front and then use the bomb site and switch panel as if on the bombing run. I found a jump seat to strap into in the rear fuselage as the engines started.
Now everyone has his or her own magical aviation moments and one of mine was just starting. Soon after take off I un-strapped and stood up sticking my head up into the open upper panel which mounted a single 50 cal. The image of us climbing out of Duxford airfield and watching 3 other B17âs (we were the second airborne) take off behind us will stay with me forever.
I know needed to get into the Bombardierâs position. With all my kit on I trod carefully across the narrow walkway in the bomb bay with only rope guides to aid my balance across. I was then in the busy cockpit and with a nod from the co-pilot I moved down into the nose section to the Bombardiers station. There, sitting on the small seat behind the bombsite I had the best ariel view of the formation through the huge spherical front window. I had lost all sense of time but we had moved into a Vic formation and I could look back port and starboard beyond the fantastic view of the engines to watch 2 B17âs per side in close formation.
We broke through some cloud and there in front of me at about 75 feet was the B25 camera ship. This was it, 6 classic warbird bombers in close formation.
I started my acting as instructed earlier but was aware that the chap I shared the nose section with was readying the two 50 cals to fire. This is where I thought I would be defend as I had no ear plugs and those guns sat about 12 inched away from my head.
I never got to hear them fire as the formation broke up and the word spread that there was a fault with the camera ship.
I never appeared in the film, but did I care?
My friends and I had experienced what it might have been like during a mission.
I have some great photos and a bag of those 50 cal shells, but the best souvenir was the sight, smell and sound of being in that formation.
The film was and is fantastic.
But whatever happened to the miles of film shot in the air and was never used?
Will we ever witness such a collection of classic bombers in one formation again?
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