How Sergeant Rock Pays Tribute To The Memphis Belle

Hey, welcome to trucks. You know, a few months ago, I pulled a 1941 dodge military truck out of a field

and pulled it in the shop here and got it running again.

Yeah,

that

from

look at this, no power steering, no brakes, no floor, but it's running under its own power. And that is what trucks is all about. This is great.

And after building a new floor for it,

I teased you with some really big tires.

I have got plans for this thing.

Big plans,

really big plans bigger than you can imagine.

Now the Copperhead is almost done. It's time to start building a big bad off road truck, which means it's time to get that old power wagon back in here and I'm gonna call it

Sergeant Rock. Now. The reason I'm doing that is not just to recognize its obvious World War two heritage.

No, it's also to pay tribute to one of the most famous fighting machines of World War two.

The Memphis Belle.

Now, I'm sorry to say that a lot of you are probably thinking

Memphis Belle.

What the heck is that? And

why is that worthy of a tribute

and that's ok. It was a long time ago,

but something should not be forgotten.

So we are gonna give everybody a little reminder.

The Memphis Belle was a bomber but not just any bomber. It was a BSE

flying fortress.

Now, the BSE

had one purpose to drop bombs on Germany

and hopefully bring their crews back alive day after day

mission after mission.

Yeah,

but it wasn't that easy, despite its toughness, the bse's

took incredible casualties

to the point where the US government said

if a plane could survive 25 missions, it and its crew could go home

and the Memphis Belle was the first B 17 to do that

making it and her crew bona fide war heroes.

But to truly understand what these crews and these airplanes went through and why this is such a big deal.

Well, you'd really need to ride on the Memphis Belle back in 43 on an actual bombing mission.

So let's go.

The first thing that you had to contend with was the flak

and the fighters

they pounded at you from the ground and from the air

and they could easily turn your airplane into Swiss Cheese.

After that heck making it through the bombing run was the easy part.

The hard part was getting back home without getting shot down by enemy fighters.

Four of them, one

high. They're coming around

fa six

up coming and diving out of teeth

two more

through the 94 3 planes nine coming around.

Keep you out of

coming around to 10.

Watch

me.

So keep your eyes open.

They're breaking, 11, breaking at 11.

I got

watch him, Scotty. I got my sights on him. Check out to be 17. Chuck at three

motors, smoking fire

at 1030 coming around

1030 up

or a lower.

Keep after him with

you. I see him.

I'm on him, I'm my new son of a,

I

got him

that fighter. He got him. Chief. Look, he's bailing out. Damn it. Don't yell on that intercom fighter. 10.

Watch those two or 12.

They're coming in.

They're coming in, Scotty. Get that ball turned on

the ammunition as much as possible.

Watch that fighter coming in at three.

He's coming in on a half roll, pull her up. Chief, pull her up. Hurry

17 out of

control.

Now the intensity of the battle was bad enough but there was also the horror of this.

Come on, you guys get out of that plane, bail out.

There's one, he come out of the bomb bay. Yeah, I see him.

There's a tail gunner coming out.

Watch out for fighters.

Keep your eye on them. Bill. See any parachutes. Quillan

two parachutes oblige at 98. Men. Still not b 17. Come on. The rest of you guys get out of there

so

far. Three more shoots flag 11

one by one. The planes would straggle back some without a scratch.

Others shot up so bad. It's a miracle. They stayed in the air

and for the crews, the story was the same. Some walked out without a scratch,

others were wounded but rose again to fight another day

and some

paid the ultimate price.

And it was in the face of these harsh realities that the Memphis Belle flew her 25 successful missions

to become a symbol over incredible odds for the whole nation.

But the real question here is where does an old battle scarred airplane go? Once all the bullets have stopped flying and all the crews have gone home.

Where did she end up after the war? Uh uh

After the break?

Hey, welcome back to trucks. Today. I'm laying the groundwork for a killer off road truck. I'm gonna build called Sergeant Rock. I'm gonna utilize that old 41 dodge sitting outside

and it's gonna be forever linked

to the legendary bomber of World War two, the Memphis Belle. But before you can understand where I'm going with this truck project,

you really need to understand the significance of that old airplane. That's what we're doing.

Now, after the war, the Memphis Belle was retired and then it was put on display in Memphis, Tennessee where it's sad and it deteriorated

and people just kind of forgot about it.

But a few years ago, it was declared a national historic treasure by the government

and a nonprofit organization of volunteers decided it was time to restore the bell. So future generations will be able to experience this piece of history.

The association's purpose

is to preserve the Memphis Belle

in order to make this project work, you know, we need, uh,

we need the country behind us. She belongs to the country

and all our veterans.

And, uh, it's gonna take,

you know, money from all over the United States to make this happen.

But what exactly is gonna happen? Simple, a full on restoration to return the bell to the shape it was in when it completed its last mission.

Now, like I said before,

everyone that works on the bell is a volunteer. No one's getting paid here.

But all the lead guys in charge of the restoration are top flight professional aircraft mechanics.

So, you know, this is gonna be done, right?

The plane must be slowly and carefully disassembled. So each major component can be worked on separately.

And even though it's tough work, these guys don't forget to have fun

that,

ok.

Although the wings and tail are in surprisingly good shape, especially for a battle scar

BSE,

they're still gonna need a lot of work before this thing's ready for any museum.

Number two, tank fuel quantity indicator.

Our transmitter goes to the indicator, tell you how much gas you got.

It's got an old float on it which

probably still float.

A dead

one.

Restoring the aluminum skin is a unique challenge

where replacements are needed because of corrosion or vandalism. Exact replicas are fabricated

and carefully riveted into place.

However, you gotta be really careful on a project like this that you don't remove the history of the aircraft.

This is flat damage where a flat shell went off and the uh

hot metal from the exploding shell came through the that lower skin

fing

and penetrated the fuselage

and it actually uh set the one of the radios on fire

during that mission.

People need to see this. This is actual battle damage from World War two and it, it would be actually be a

by travesty to,

to even attempt to repair any of this stuff. This is history.

Of course, the engine restoration room was one of my favorites

because it was packed with those four huge Curtis Wright Cyclone engines

that have about the coolest cylinders I've ever seen

compression after 61 years. There you go.

Now that's a cylinder head

and there was a lot of other cool stuff too.

Welcome back to trucks and our quick little blast through history on the legendary flying fortress, the Memphis Belle. Now, I know you saw those vintage Dodges being used in that old footage that we showed you earlier.

So I know you've made the connection between the truck I'm gonna build and that old bomber. But before we get into the truck project,

we haven't talked about the most important part of A

BSE.

The part that made it a fortress.

The guns,

all the gunners knew that

the dimensions, especially the top Turk and the ball Turk gun. They,

their life depended on it. He didn't, you know, he didn't get off long burst. It's just a short burst.

BB.

Oh, man, they really jumped us and the flack opened up first and then the fighter planes came in

and for about 45 minutes it was all hell broke loose

as I wrecked the German planes. The third time going down the line like this,

the guy on this side blew up and the other two took off.

Of course, the guns the bell was armed with was the massive 50 caliber machine gun

which could inflict incredible amounts of damage when you pull the trigger.

And the proof of the damage that the bell inflicted is still being found. Today, we found a, a 50 caliber machine gun shell

that was underneath the ferring around the ball turret.

The excitement in this hanging was unbelievable. You find this and you realize that the last time that was used is 1942.

You're the second person to

touch that since 1942.

That's a huge rush.

So not only are the guns being restored, but all the turrets are gonna be operational too.

And finally, I had a chance to see if the ball turret is really as small as they say it is.

It is.

Oh, you've got to be kidding.

Now, the tail gun. Oh, that was much better.

There was a lot more room. The guns were more maneuverable.

Hello, Chris.

This is great.

Of course, at this point it was time to start putting parts together for my truck project.

So the first thing we did was check out some door handles.

I found what I was looking for off an old B 52.

Well, I think these two will work for us.

Yeah, those are great. I think they polish out

nice.

And that's a compare.

However, what I was really after for the Sergeant Rock project

was a pair of 50 caliber machine guns. Now, this is the type of gun that would be on a Jeep or a truck or something, right?

This is a browning uh M 250 caliber heavy, heavy barrel.

You notice it doesn't have the cooling tubes like the bell

and the barrel looks longer too. It's a lot longer gun,

but this would be the proper gun to have on a truck.

That's what you want.

So, how many of these do you have laying around here?

Uh I got a few. Uh huh.

Check this out. This is awesome.

It's a little something to play with.

Now, hopefully, this gives you an idea of just how special the Memphis Belle is. It is a national historic treasure like

the Statue of Liberty. And the cool part is you can be part of its restoration. You can actually go down there, donate your time

and help restore the thing

or you can donate money to help pay for it.

Or if you have a business, you can donate tools and parts

to help them get it done.

And then

you will be part of the Memphis Bell's history. I have to tell you

that sort of opportunity comes along one time. So if you're interested,

check them out at Memphis belle.com, or at the very least

make a trip to Memphis. Listen to some blues and check out that airplane. You'll be glad you did. Now, what about this truck I'm gonna build

and these machine guns?

Well, you didn't think I was gonna build a tribute to a B 17 and not put some 50 calibers on it. Did you,

you know me better than that. We'll be back after this

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