If the nine U.S. Army Air Force crewmen had known that April 4, 1943 afternoon when they took off from a base near Benghazi, Libya on a mission to bomb targets in Italy, that they would soon be statistics to be added to the 65,164 airmen killed in World War II, they might have "called in sick." In fact, they had no idea that they would never again be seen alive on this earth and their bodies would not even be discovered until 16 years later.
I first heard this story in 1961 when a good friend and pilot told me about it and lent me Dennis E. McClendan's very excellent book--"The Lady Be Good." I borrowed it, read it; several years later I borrowed it again--and read it again. In the 70's it was reprinted and I got my own copy and read it again. (Good thing too--they are listed now at up to 348.00, though I believe a diligent book searcher could find one much cheaper.)
The story is this: The crew of "Lady Be Good" were on their first mission and in a brand new Consolidated B-24D Liberator, four engine heavy bomber, serial# 41-24301, with ID# 64 painted on the nose in tall letters. (Reader's info: this was the most-produced U.S. Bomber of the war, with some 18,000 being built; and at a cost of $297,627 each---$4.4 million in today's dollars.)
They were in the second wave of 13 planes totaling 25 planes in all, headed for Naples, Italy. The Lady was among the last two or three of the planes to take off. Soon all were caught in a terrific sandstorm, nine turned back, and The Lady was separated somehow from the the others, but she continued her mission, finally having to bomb an alternate target due to poor visibility over main target.
So she then began her long lonely trip back across the vast dark Mediterranean Sea, on her way home to her base at Soluch, near Benghazi. At 12:12 a.m. (civilian time), still flying alone, the pilot Lt. Hatton, called the base on his radio and stated that his automatic direction finder was not working and asked for a bearing to verify his position. The bearing was sent out but there is no knowledge as to whether the plane received it or not. And in those days, one could receive a bearing but be on "the back side of it, going away." Thus he could have been...past his base.
Plane engines were heard high above the base by the concerned ground crews about this time and flares were fired into the air.
Apparently, as deduced later, the crew could not distinguish the ocean from the land due to the dense darkness, and never knew when they crossed the coast. Thus Lt. Hatton flew on and on, deeper into the interior of North Africa. At about 2 a.m.with three sputtering engines feathered and one running, the plane was set on "auto-pilot" and the crew bailed out wearing their Mae West life preservers, apparently thinking they were still over the ocean.
The Lady Be Good still had enough fuel so that it flew 16 miles further into the desert and made a somewhat "gentle" belly landing, but breaking in two. The crash was deep in the desert near the Egyptian border, and a little over 100 miles north of an oasis.
When the plane didn't return, a concerned base sent out air searches, some over the ocean, but no trace of plane or crew was found. No one thought to look over four hundred miles south in the desert.
The first reported sighting of the plane's wreckage was by a British Oil exploration crew, November 9,1958. They notified Wheelus Air Force Base. No search was conducted at that time. On February 27, 1959 a British oil surveyor team again reported the wreckage at 440 miles south of Soluch. On May 26, 1959, a team from Wheelus AFB found the wreckage.
The plane, as noted earlier, was broken in two and no sign of the crew was found other than odds and ends in the plane, including a thermos of tea still drinkable, and some food and water.
The plane, in the dry desert air, was immaculately preserved; the .50 caliber machines guns fired right off when tested. The radio was taken out and hooked up to an electrical source and worked immediately. No parachutes were found.
In February of 1960, the U.S. Army conducted a formal search for the missing men. They found five in one group. Diaries were found, enabling them to piece the events together. The five had apparently become exhausted due to lack of food and water, freezing nights, and exposure to the harsh sun. (The entire group had only one canteen of water.) A path of discarded equipment, miscellaneous items, and scraps of parachutes weighted by arrows of rocks, had led to the first five. Then they found one more, 21 miles further on, and the last who was strong enough to make it 6 miles beyond that. One crew member was never found. Also it was discovered later that one had died when his chute didn't open.
The searchers, from the diaries and other evidence, determined that the men thought they were jumping over the ocean. On landing, they fired their revolvers and flares and got together in a group and started the long walk north, wrapping up in their parachutes against the cold desert nights. They actually thought they were near the Mediterranean coast, and were not really expecting a long hike. As it turned out, some walked 100 miles.
The Graves Registration Service Report on the incident ascribed the crash to "navigational error" and said in part: "The action of the pilot flying 440 miles into the desert, however, indicates the navaigator probably took a reciprocal reading off the back of the radio directional loop antenna from a position beyond and south of Benine but 'on course.' The pilot flew into the desert, thinking he was still over the Mediterranean Sea and on his way to Benina."
The bodies were all removed and given military burials at the proper places. Through the years parts of the plane were removed by different groups, individuals, and scavengers. Some parts of the plane can be seen in various military museums, mostly in the U.S. A propeller may be seen in the hometown of the co-pilot, Robert E. La Motte. An ironic thing, it seems to me, is that a pretty good bit of the wreckage is stored at Jamal AFB, Libya.
Adolph Hitler's war, which cost the world 60-70 million souls, must have been a shock to the whole conscience of civilization. It must have sorely touched the Heart of God. It certainly caused untold grief and misery to all involved, and specifically to the families of these good American men. These men wanted to live, just like all of us; they too wanted families...and little children.
One of my high school friends noted recently, something like this: "It's not popular anymore to talk about World War II; it's not taught much in schools and most people would rather not think about it." I respect this man's opinion. Regarding this conflict, I have always said: "The only thing worse than remembering....is forgetting."
We will remember these Americans, crewmen of the "Lady Be Good:"
1st Lt. William J. Hatton, Pilot
2nd Lt. Robert F. Toner, Co-Pilot
2nd Lt. D.P. Hays, Navigator
2nd Lt. John S. Woravka, Bombardier
T/Sgt. Harold J., Flight Engineer
T/Sgt. Robert E. La Motte, Radio Operator
S/Sgt. Guy E. Shelley, Gunner
S/Sgt. Vernon L. Moore, Gunner
S/Sgt. Samuel E. Adams, Gunner
Members of 514th Bomb Squadron; 376 Bomb Group, United States Army Air Corps
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment