''Lady Be Good'' is a

B-24D Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

that disappeared without a trace on its first combat mission during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The plane, which was from 376th Bomb Group of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

(USAAF), was believed to have been lost—with its nine-man crew—in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

while returning to its base in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

following a bombing raid on

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on April 4, 1943. However, the wreck was accidentally discovered inland in the

Libyan Desert The Libyan Desert (not to be confused with the Libyan Sahara) is a geographical region filling the north-eastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan. On medieval maps, its use predates t ...

by an oil exploration team from British Petroleum on November 9, 1958. Investigations concluded that the first-time (all new) crew failed to realize they had overflown their air base in a

sandstorm A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transporte ...

. After continuing to fly south into the desert for many hours, the crew bailed out when the plane's fuel was exhausted. The survivors then died in the desert trying to walk to safety. All but one of the crew's remains were recovered between February and August 1960. The wreckage of ''Lady Be Good'' was taken to a

Libyan Air Force The Libyan Air Force ( ar, القوات الجوية الليبية) is the branch of the Libyan Armed Forces responsible for aerial warfare. In 2010, before the Libyan Civil War, the Libyan Air Force personnel strength was estimated at 18,000 ...

base after being removed from the crash site in August 1994.

Circumstances

Mission

In 1943, ''Lady Be Good'' was a new

that had just been assigned to the 514th Bomb Squadron of the

(USAAF) on March 25. The squadron was part of the 376th Bombardment Group (Heavy) based at Soluch Field in Soluch in

. The plane, which had the AAF serial number 41-24301, had the group identification number 64 stencil-painted on its nose. Its given name, ''Lady Be Good'', was hand-painted on the

starboard Port and starboard are nautical terms for watercraft and aircraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the bow (front). Vessels with bilateral symmetry have left and right halves which are ...

, front side of the forward fuselage. ''Lady Be Good''s crew were also new, as they had only arrived in Libya a week before on March 18. On April 4 they flew their first mission together, one of twenty-five B-24s assigned to bomb the harbor of

in a two-part late afternoon attack. The first wave of twelve B-24s was followed by a second wave of thirteen planes, including ''Lady Be Good''.''Vanishings!'' — "Lost in Libya", 2003, History International Channel, re-aired on March 1, 2010, 3:30 p.m. MST, and on September 6, 2010, 4:30 p.m. CST. After the attack, all planes were expected to return to their bases in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Operation

''Lady Be Good'', which was one of the last planes of the second wave to depart, took off from Soluch Field near

Benghazi Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...

at 2:15 p.m. It joined the formation and continued on to Naples. However, a

caused eight B-24s to return to Soluch, leaving four aircraft to continue the operation. When ''Lady Be Good'' arrived over Naples at 7:50 pm at , poor visibility obscured the primary target. Two B-24s attacked their secondary target on the return trip while the other two aircraft dumped their bombs into the

to reduce weight and save fuel.

Disappearance

''Lady Be Good'' flew alone on its return trip to its home base in Libya. At 12:12 a.m. the pilot, Lt. William Hatton, radioed to say his automatic direction finder was not working and asked for a location of base. The crew apparently overflew their base, failing to see the

flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...

s fired to attract their attention. They continued southward over North Africa, deeper into the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, for the next two hours. At 2 a.m., as fuel became critically low, the crew parachuted to the ground. The abandoned ''Lady Be Good'' flew a further before it crash-landed into the

Calanscio Sand Sea The Calanshio Sand Sea (Sarīr Kalanshiyū ar Ramlī al Kabīr) is a sand desert region located in the Libyan Desert, of the Kufra District in Cyrenaica, eastern Libya. It has a surface of approximately 62,000 km².British Petroleum (BP) in the northeast of

Kufra District Kufra or Kofra ( ar, الكفرة '), also spelled ''Cufra'' in Italian, is the largest district of Libya. Its capital is Al Jawf, one of the oases in Kufra basin. There is a very large oil refinery near the capital. In the late 15th century, L ...

. The team contacted authorities at

Wheelus Air Base Wheelus Air Base was a United States Air Force base located in British-occupied Libya and the Kingdom of Libya from 1943 to 1970. At one time it was the largest US military facility outside the US. It had an area of on the coast of Tripoli. T ...

, but no attempt to examine the aircraft was made as no records existed of any plane believed to have been lost in the area. However, the location of the wreckage was marked on maps to be used by oil-prospecting teams that were due to set out to explore the Calanscio Sand Sea the next year. On February 27, 1959, British oil surveyor Gordon Bowerman and British geologists Donald Sheridan and John Martin spotted the wreckage near , southeast of Soluch. This followed up the first sighting from the air on May 16, 1958, by the crew of a

Silver City Airways Silver City Airways was an airline, based in the United Kingdom, that operated mainly in Europe, between 1946 and 1962. Unlike many airlines at the time, it was independent of government-owned corporations; its parent company was Zinc Corpo ...

Dakota Dakota may refer to: * Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux ** Dakota language, their language Dakota may also refer to: Places United States * Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Dakota, Illinois, a town * Dakota, Minnesota, ...

, piloted by Captain Allan Frost, and another flight on June 15. A recovery team made initial trips from

to the crash site on May 26, 1959. Although the plane was broken into two pieces, it was immaculately preserved, with functioning machine guns, a working radio, and some supplies of food and water. A

thermos A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or cooler than the flask's surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewa ...

of tea was found to be drinkable. No human remains were found on board the aircraft nor in the surrounding crash site, nor were parachutes found. Most of the evidence from the wreckage indicated that the men had bailed out. However, the log book of the navigator 2nd Lt Dp "Deep" Hays, which was still on board, made no mention of the aircraft's movements after the crew commenced their return leg from Naples. Hays had been on his first combat mission.

Crew remains: 1960

In February 1960, the United States Army conducted a formal search of the area for the remains of the crew. Five bodies – those of Hatton, 2nd Lt. Robert F. Toner, Hays, T/S Robert E. LaMotte and S/Sgt Samuel E. Adams – were found on February 11. The team concluded that other bodies were likely buried beneath

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

after finding evidence that at least three of the surviving crew members had continued walking northward. With the news that five bodies had been recovered, the

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

and

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

started an expanded search called Operation Climax in May 1960. The joint operation used a USAF C-130 cargo plane and two Army Bell H-13 helicopters. However, it was a British Petroleum exploration crew that found the remains of S/Sgt Guy E. Shelley, on May 12, 1960, northwest of the recovered five bodies. A US Army helicopter found the body of T/Sgt Harold J. Ripslinger on May 17, 1960, located northwest of Shelley's body, over from the crash site, but still from Soluch airbase. These two bodies were the only ones found during Operation Climax. Another British Petroleum oil exploration crew discovered the remains of 2nd Lt John S. Woravka in August 1960. His body was then recovered by the US Air Force. The remains of one of the air gunners, S/Sgt Vernon L. Moore, have never been officially found. However, his remains may have been recovered and buried by a desert patrol of the British Army in 1953. As they were unaware that any Allied air crews were missing in the area, the human remains were recorded but then buried without further investigation.

Analysis and conclusions

Subsequent examinations of the remains and personal items showed that eight of the nine airmen managed to parachute safely down to the desert from the aircraft. They then located each other by firing their revolvers and signal flares into the air. However, one crew member, Woravka (the bombardier) did not rendezvous with the others. The configuration of the parachute found with his body suggested that it did not fully open, and that Woravka died as a result of an overly rapid descent. A diary, recovered from the pocket of co-pilot Robert Toner, recorded the crew's suffering on the walk northward. It indicated that none of the men were aware they had been flying over land when they bailed out, or that they were inland. It has been speculated that the dark and empty desert floor may have resembled open sea. The crew members who survived the descent had died while walking northward, because they believed they were fairly close to the Mediterranean coast. As they walked, the group left behind footwear, parachute scraps, Mae West vests and other items as markers to show searchers their path. The diary also says the group survived for eight days in the desert, with only a single canteen of water to share. After walking from the crash site, the location of the remains of the five airmen shows they had waited behind while the other three (Guy Shelley, "Rip" Ripslinger and Vernon Moore) set off north, to try to find help. The body of S/Sgt Shelley was found away while further on were the remains of T/Sgt Ripslinger. The official report in the American

Graves Registration Service Mortuary Affairs is a service within the United States Army Quartermaster Corps tasked with the recovery, identification, transportation, and preparation for burial of deceased American and American-allied military personnel. The human remains o ...

states:

The aircraft flew on a 150 degree course toward Benina Airfield. The craft radioed for a directional reading from the
HF/DF High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate ov ...
station at Benina and received a reading of 330 degrees from Benina. The actions of the pilot in flying into the desert, however, indicate the navigator probably took a reciprocal reading off the back of the radio directional loop antenna from a position beyond and south of Benina but 'on course'. The pilot flew into the desert, thinking he was still over the Mediterranean and on his way to Benina.''

The navigator on the ''Lady Be Good'' thought he was flying on a direct path from Naples to Benghazi. But the base's radio direction finder only had a single loop antenna. As the plane's direction finder could not distinguish between a signal in front or behind the aircraft, there was no way to identify reciprocal readings. The same bearing would be returned whether the plane was heading inbound from the Mediterranean or outbound inland. The crew might have survived if they had known their actual location. If they had headed south the same distance they walked north, the group might have reached the oasis of Wadi Zighen. After the crew bailed out ''Lady Be Good'' continued flying south for before coming to land, and there was also a chance that the crew might have found the aircraft's relatively intact wreckage, with its meager water and food supplies. The aircraft's working radio could have been used to call for help.

Legacy

Parts and crew items

After the ''Lady Be Good'' was identified, some parts of the plane were returned to the United States for evaluation while the rest of the wreckage remained. In August 1994, the remains of the craft were recovered by a team led by Dr. Fadel Ali Mohamed and taken to a Libyan military base in

Tobruk Tobruk or Tobruck (; grc, Ἀντίπυργος, ''Antipyrgos''; la, Antipyrgus; it, Tobruch; ar, طبرق, Tubruq ''Ṭubruq''; also transliterated as ''Tobruch'' and ''Tubruk'') is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near th ...

for safekeeping. They are now stored at Jamal Abdelnasser Air Force Base, Libya. Over the years pieces of the plane were stripped by souvenir hunters. Today, parts can be seen at the

National Museum of the United States Air Force The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official museum of the United States Air Force located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, northeast of Dayton, Ohio. The NMUSAF is the ...

. A propeller can be seen in front of the

village hall A village hall is a public building in a village used for various things such as: United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a village hall is usually a building which contains at least one large room (plus kitchen and toilets), is owned by a local ...

Lake Linden Lake Linden is a village in Houghton County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 1,007 at the 2010 census. The village is mostly within Schoolcraft Township, though a tiny portion lies in Torch Lake Township. History Lake Linden ...

, the home of Robert E. LaMotte. Prop-Lady

The U.S.

Army Quartermaster Museum The United States Army Quartermaster Museum, located at Fort Lee, Virginia, is an AAM accredited museum in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The museum's aim is to preserve and exhibit the history of the Quartermaster Corps, which was formed in 1775 ...

Fort Lee, Virginia Fort Lee, in Prince George County, Virginia, United States, is a United States Army post and headquarters of the United States Army Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM)/ Sustainment Center of Excellence (SCoE), the U.S. Army Quartermaster Sc ...

has a collection of personal items, such as watches, silk survival maps, and flight clothing from the crew members who were recovered. Several of these items are on display. An altimeter and manifold pressure gauge were salvaged from the plane in 1963 by Airman Second Class Ron Pike and are on display at the

March Field Air Museum The March Field Air Museum is an aviation museum near Moreno Valley and Riverside, California, adjacent to March Air Reserve Base. History The museum was founded in 1979 as March Air Force Base Museum. One of the first exhibits at the museum was ...

near Riverside, CA. A

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

team visited the site in 1968 and hauled away components including an engine (later donated to the

) for evaluation by the

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

company. After some parts were salvaged from the ''Lady Be Good'' and technically evaluated, they were reused in other planes belonging to the American military. However, some planes that received these spares developed unexpected problems. A

C-54 The Douglas C-54 Skymaster is a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain derived from the DC-3, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian a ...

, which had several autosyn transmitters from the ''Lady Be Good'' installed, had to throw cargo overboard to land safely because of propeller difficulties. A

C-47 The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota (Royal Air Force, RAF, Royal Australian Air Force, RAAF, Royal Canadian Air Force, RCAF, Royal New Zealand Air Force, RNZAF, and South African Air Force, SAAF designation) is a airlift, military transport ai ...

that received a

radio receiver In radio communications, a radio receiver, also known as a receiver, a wireless, or simply a radio, is an electronic device that receives radio waves and converts the information carried by them to a usable form. It is used with an antenna. Th ...

crashed into the Mediterranean. A U.S. Army

de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter is a single-engined, high-wing, propeller-driven, short take-off and landing ( STOL) aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It was conceived to be capable of performing the same roles as the earlier and ...

with an armrest from the bomber crashed in the

Gulf of Sidra The Gulf of Sidra ( ar, خليج السدرة, Khalij as-Sidra, also known as the Gulf of Sirte ( ar, خليج سرت, Khalij Surt, is a body of water in the Mediterranean Sea on the northern coast of Libya, named after the oil port of Sidra or ...

. Only a few traces of the plane washed ashore and one of these was the armrest from the ''Lady Be Good''.

Memorial

stained-glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

window in the

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

commemorates ''Lady Be Good'' and her crew.

Television and film portrayals

The ''Lady Be Good'' incident was indirectly referenced in a couple of television shows and movies: * " ''King Nine'' Will Not Return" is a 1960 episode of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, su ...

'' that told the story of a

B-25 Mitchell The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in ...

crew member finding himself alone with the wreckage of his plane in the desert. In the episode, the marker on the grave of a member of the crew is dated "5 April 1943", the day on which ''Lady Be Good'' was lost. The wreckage of the ''King Nine'' shown in the production is a smaller and lighter B-25

medium bomber A medium bomber is a military bomber Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft designed to operate with medium-sized Aerial bomb, bombloads over medium Range (aeronautics), range distances; the name serves to distinguish this type from larger heavy bombe ...

(specifically ''42-32354''), and the newspaper picture in the episode is a photograph of the set, not the actual ''Lady Be Good'' B-24

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the larges ...

. * '' The Flight of the Phoenix'', a 1964 novel by

Elleston Trevor Elleston Trevor (17 February 1920 – 21 July 1995) was a British novelist and playwright who wrote under several pseudonyms. Born Trevor Dudley-Smith, he eventually changed his name to Elleston Trevor. Trevor worked in many genres, but is princ ...

about a group of oil workers who are forced to survive in a desert when their cargo plane crashes. The novel was the subject of a 1965 film and a 2004 film remake of the same name. * '' Sole Survivor'' is a 1970 made-for-TV movie about the ghost crew of the ''Home Run'', a B-25 Mitchell medium bomber that crashed in the Libyan desert. As a B-25, rather than the larger and longer ranged heavy bomber of the

B-24 Liberator The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models des ...

''Lady Be Good'', the plane in this film only made it inland.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Diaries of Co-Pilot Robert F. Toner and Tech. Sgt. Harold J. Ripslinger

BoksburgHistorical.com: ''African Relics'' (Calanshio Sand Sea and ''Lady Be Good'')

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lady Be Good (Aircraft) 1943 in Libya Aviation accidents and incidents in 1943 Accidents and incidents involving the Consolidated B-24 Liberator Aviation accidents and incidents in Libya Individual aircraft of World War II Aerial disappearances Missing aircraft Lists of aviation accidents and incidents