Memphis Belle, despite its inaccuracies, is one of my favorite movies of all time, i remember i was 11 years old when it came out. I was in 5th grade, we had a writing competition in our school district and i drew on the film to come up with my story.
I wrote a story about a B-24 Liberator called "Lucky Lady II" in which the crew departs their base in england following the D-Day invasion on a bombing mission against targets in germany, they are shot down behind enemy lines and the pilot manages to crash land in a big hay meadow near the western front. A small plane scouting for artillery witnesses the B-24 go down and radios in their location, meanwhile the men in the B-24 become surrounded by German Soldiers and they use the turrets and machine gun positions of the bomber to hold them off until a C-47 swoops in and picks them up under the strafing cover of P51s
the story was reviewed as a finalist in the district wide contest and received perfect marks. I along with about 15-20 other kids were rewarded with an awards ceremony and Pizza Party in town (which i missed out on due to breaking my arm the night before the event)
i am hopeful that any miniseries produced by Hanks-Spielberg would at least showcase
some real aircraft doing the flying.