Saturday, July 10, 2021

the ‘Lady be Good,’ a B24 that rested in a Libyan desert for 15 years before being discovered after crash landing in 1943. Thanks Bob K!

the Lady Be Good disappeared without a trace on its first combat mission during World War II. The plane, which was from 376th Bomb Group, disappeared in Libya following a bombing raid on Naples on April 4, 1943.

 

The wreck was accidentally discovered 440 mi inland in the Libyan Desert 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. After continuing to fly south into the desert for many hours, the crew bailed out when the plane's fuel ran out. 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 the Lady Be Good was taken to a Libyan Air Force base after being removed from the crash site in August 1994.

History cannot forget these guys. 

The full crew included, left to right in the picture, 1Lt. W.J. Hatton, pilot; 2Lt. R.F. Toner, copilot; 2Lt. D.P. Hays, navigator; 2Lt. J.S. Woravka, bombardier; TSgt. H.J. Ripslinger, engineer; TSgt. R.E. LaMotte, radio operator; SSgt. G.E. Shelly, gunner; SSgt. V.L. Moore, gunner; and SSgt. S.E. Adams, gunner.

5 comments:

  1. There is a "Lady Be Good" stained glass window at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. My uncle piloted B-24s during the War...I cannot hear the song without thinking of the aircraft.

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  2. There is a pretty good movie based on this story. 'Sole Survivor' Starring the guy who starred in Ben Casey tv show, if you remember that. Hard to find but a decent flick. In it, Richard Basehart is the navigator and sole survivor. He bails out early leaving the rest of the crew to fend for themselves. Interesting movie.

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  3. Additional info: the plane wreckage is in a museum in Libya (not that I'm dying to go to Libya right now). There's also a couple of her instruments on display at the new Udvar Hazy museum outside Dulles.

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  4. I will look for the movie. Thank you for bringing this history to our attention.

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  5. I remember around when the plane was first found there was a big spread in Life magazine. At the time I think the cause and the crew's fate were still something of a mystery, and I remember being fascinated by the whole thing.

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