I WAS very interested in Martin Vincent's article on the crew of the US B17 bomber.

The plane has been made famous by the popular film of 1990 Memphis Belle but what the writer did not mention is that it was based on a classic World War II documentary made by the great Hollywood director William Wyler.

In 1944, Wyler came to Britain along with other Hollywood cameramen to film the war in the air.

At great personal risk Wyler flew on the 25th mission of the Memphis Belle and captured all the action and the drama of bombing and fighting off German attacks.

The later film follows very closely the events of the mission and even duplicates camera angles.

After the war Wyler went on to make the Best Years of Our Lives, The Big Country and Ben-Hur.

He won many Oscars for his work. Sadly Wyler died in the 1980s and his daughter Catherine held the rights to his documentary.

She wanted the story to reach a wider audience and collaborated with Sir David Puttnam to produce the feature film here in Britain with six surviving B17s, one of which crashed during the filming.

The remaining crew of the original bomber, which is preserved in Memphis, acted as technical advisors.

The last flying fortress in Britain the Sally B still carries the Memphis Belle logo. As a student of cinema I like reports to include important details of film history.

ROY COZENS

Corporation Street

Swindon