I would have to confess that I didn't watch this movie very closely the last time I saw it as I was looking up information on this plane on the web, and in books I own...the visual effects, especially of the German fighter attacks, are fine but the Belle's last target was Lorient, a port in France, not Bremen, Germany. The Belle flew her 25th mission on May 17, 1943. However, the movie shows P-51 Mustangs providing fighter escort. Problem here: the P-51 wasn't available until December 1943. Further, the P-51's greatest asset was it's range; it would have been able to take B-17s all the way to Bremen and home again. P-51s, with additional drop tanks, could take B-17s to Berlin and Bremen is only a little more than half the distance. As it was, the three available groups of P-47s couldn't even cover the mission to Lorient; they were sent on a fighter sweep of Northern France and Belgium.
According to my research, on six of the Belles missions no repeat no losses were suffered, although bombers were damaged. The only time that the attacking force lost bombers in double digits in any raid that the Belle was on would have been her twenty-first mission, April 17, 1943. 115 bombers went to Bremen...16 were shot down. Aircrews reported that enemy air reaction was the heaviest they'd yet seen.
The real casualties came during the summer and fall of 1943, when the 8th bomber command went deep into Germany. Also, by that time, the higher German fighter officers would have had time to figure out how to go about attacking B-17 formations, which was a hazardous proposition, despite the casualties suffered during the crisis period of October 1943.
According to my research, on six of the Belles missions no repeat no losses were suffered, although bombers were damaged. The only time that the attacking force lost bombers in double digits in any raid that the Belle was on would have been her twenty-first mission, April 17, 1943. 115 bombers went to Bremen...16 were shot down. Aircrews reported that enemy air reaction was the heaviest they'd yet seen.
The real casualties came during the summer and fall of 1943, when the 8th bomber command went deep into Germany. Also, by that time, the higher German fighter officers would have had time to figure out how to go about attacking B-17 formations, which was a hazardous proposition, despite the casualties suffered during the crisis period of October 1943.