The Memphis Belle: The Story of a Flying Fortress is a World War II documentary directed by the Oscar-winning film director William Wyler. Wyler had made several acclaimed feature films in the 1930s and 1940s, including Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941) and Mrs Miniver (1942), when he joined the U.S. Army Air Force as a major in order to make documentaries about the war in Europe. Wyler went to England where he initially struggled to set up a film project or find useful work. Eventually he and his crew joined the 91st Bomb Group based in Bassingbourne in Cambridgeshire, where they would capture genuine footage of bombing missions over occupied Europe. The film they made, The Memphis Belle: The Story of a Flying Fortress , follows one particular American raid over Germany. It focuses on one aeroplane in the raid, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress given the name Memphis Belle by the crew.