Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good...

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Sheridan's team on the survey consisted of the following people:

John Martin, 26, a geologist who had already seen the wrecked B-24 from the air.  He was somewhat acquainted with B-24's having seen them flying over his home in England during World War Two.

Gordon Bowerman, 26, who was so experienced as a surveyor, that he was able calculate the party's position within a few feet of its actual location.  Before the party was to set out for its survey of Application 121, Bowerman had no knowledge of the B-24's existence.

Martin, on the other hand, was very enthusiastic about Sheridan's planned "moonlight" expedition.  For Martin owned a sailboat that needed a compass, and a compass from a B-24 Liberator would be just fine.

Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good...

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In as much as Sheridan's employer- D'Arcy Exploration-would not be keen on his using company time and resources to check out a wrecked bomber, it should be noted that Sheridan's superior, Ronald MacLean was one of the first to spot the wreck.  Therefore, it would not be unreasonable to assume that MacLean unofficially approved of Sheridan's search efforts, so long as Sheridan didn't stray from his duties and survey territory to do so.

Obviously, Sheridan would have to be discreet with regard to his "side project".  Still, he would need help from other employees in order to carry out the ground search for the B-24.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good..

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Lady Be Good was just an unidentified wreck, in February of 1959.  She had come to rest some 440 miles south east of Benghazi, and 180 miles north east of Kufra Oasis.  Neither the U.S. nor the British air force had pursued any investigations of the wreck.  The latter, and the B-24's remote location rendered it fair game for anyone who found it.

Still, Don Sheridan would have to take a low-key approach to investigating the wreck.  After all, he was being paid to look for oil.  Using company supplies, resources, and time to check out a wrecked World War Two aircraft (especially an American aircraft) would not be viewed kindly by his employer, D'Arcy Exploration.

Death in the Desert: Lady Be Good...

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As the DC-3 carrying Sheridan flew away from the wrecked B-24, Sheridan resolved to see the old bomber up close-on the ground.  He and the others aboard the DC-3 wondered what happened to the crew of the broken bomber.  Were they entombed inside?  Did any of them make it out of the desert?

It is tempting to dismiss Don Sheridan as a self-centered adventurer.  But, his motives may have something to do with the demise of the HMS Kelly, which went down near Crete in 1941.  Sheridan's brother, 27 year old Vincent Sheridan, went down with that ship.  

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good..

September of 1958 saw Sheridan gathering a complete survey team at the Kufra Oasis.  Sheridan based his operation there, relying supplies flown in by Silver City Airways every six weeks.  Another purpose of these flights was to ferry personnel back to civilization for their much-needed breaks from field work.

It was on one of these flights, that Sheridan asked the pilot-one Captain McMurchy (Honey was navigating, and Colvin was handling the radio)-to fly to the coordinates provided to Sheridan by Hellewell.  McMurchy obliged, and the crashed Liberator appeared again.  This was the second time that Sheridan had seen the B-24 (as it was Honey's; Colvin had seen it three times), and he resolved to find a way to reach it on the ground.

Death In the Desert: Lady Be Good...

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D'Arcy's chief geologist, Ronald MacLean planned to reconnoiter Application 121's southern territory-on the ground.  This was after completion of the June 15, 1958 aerial survey.  The idea was to evaluate the area that MacLean wanted to give back to Libya.

So, at the end of June, 1958, MacLean, Sheridan, and a surveyor by the name of Richard M. "Slinger" Woods set out by truck, to inspect the region.  At this point, whatever plans Sheridan may have had for making a detour to the crashed Liberator, were derailed early on.  The whole survey had to be abandoned almost immediately, because Sheridan's truck broke down in the extreme heat.

Death in the Libyan Desert: Lady Be Good...

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Hellewell, Sheridan, and the rest of the party flew the scheduled aerial survey mission on June 15, 1958.  During the flight, Hellewell flew over the crashed B-24, giving everyone a much closer look at the wreck.

Aside from being broken in half, the Liberator appeared to be intact, and the survey crew began to believe that at least some of the American airmen survived the crash.  Plus, skid-marks were visible, which indicated that the B-24 crash-landed relatively softly.

On the following day, another Silver City Airways employee made a second report of the crashed B-24 to the authorities.  This time, it was First Officer Honey reporting the the wreck to the Royal Air Force (RAF).  He too, was rebuffed, being told that the desert was splattered with lost airplanes (which was true of British aircraft, but not so much of American bombers- specifically since this wreck was very far from most of the American large-scale bombing areas).  The RAF refused to even note the crashed Liberator's position.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

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Captain Hellewell, along with First Officer  Ken W. Honey, and Radio Officer Colvin were hired by D'Arcy to deliver food and equipment to a survey group at the Kufra Oasis on June 14, 1958.  The next day, they were to fly the survey party over the Kufra area.

Hellewell's landing at Kufra generated a lot of excitement among the local children, because they'd never seen the mysterious substance used by the crew to keep foodstuffs cold, before.

Well, once the children's excitement over the ice brought by Hellewell and his crew had dissipated, Hellewell  was delighted to spot an old friend of his, twenty nine year old Don Sheridan.  Sheridan was to be the lead geologist in charge of the next day's survey; he and Hellewell had flown together a few years prior, delivering drilling equipment to places like Oman.

Sheridan was known for his resourcefulness.  Some said that he was down right crafty.  That night, after Sheridan and the other surveyors had had their fun by frightening Hellewell with stories about night-crawling desert scorpions (Hellewell decided to sleep in his DC-3), Sheridan asked Hellewell for the precise location of the wrecked B-24.  After hearing Hellewell's story about the aircraft, Sheridan decided that he would like to find it.

In exchange for providing Sheridan with the crashed bomber's coordinates, Hellewell made Sheridan promise to bring him a souvenir, should he reach the B-24.

Exactly what form this "souvenir" would take, caused some anxiety among the men, because the wreckage was likely to contain human remains.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

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A sight similar to this greeted Hellewell and his crew, when they first spotted the B-24.

Photograph courtesy of the United States Air Force.

Broken in half, wings intact, there seemed to be a quiet dignity about the wrecked bomber.  Practical concerns, like a dwindling fuel supply, however, overrode the Silver City crew's reverie.  They noted the crashed B-24's position and then headed back to Concession 37.

Since the American markings were still visible on the B-24, a Silver City Airway's employee paid a visit to Wheelus Air Force Base- an American base that was near Tripoli.  There, the duty officer dismissed the B-24 sighting, stating that it couldn't be an American airplane, since the U.S. Air Force hadn't operated B-24's since 1947.  Why it didn't occur to this officer that the B-24 probably crashed prior to 1947, is a mystery.  In fairness, though, very few American wrecks had been sighted as far south as this one.  So, the staff at Wheelus took no action.

Further, some oil explorers had discovered some cave drawings,  roughly two hundred miles south east of Kufra.  In the excitement, the mysterious B-24 was largely forgotten.

Or, so it seemed.

Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good...

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By the afternoon of May 17, 1958,  Hellewell was roughly 7,000 feet above ground level (AGL), and he was droning along, approximately one hundred, fifty miles north of the Kufra rock formations that had been studied previously.  This was an especially barren, flat area.

Suddenly, someone in the cockpit (for all of the crew were on the flight deck) asked:  "What's that down on the left?"  History doesn't record who asked the question.

With fuel running low, Hellewell didn't want to descend for a closer look.  Instead, he initiated a shallow turn over the object in the sand, which everyone recognized as an American World War Two bomber.

Hellewell and MacLean immediately identified the wrecked aircraft as a B-24 Liberator.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

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After picking up MacLean and his assistant, a geologist by the name of Robert B. Holroyd, Hellewell took off again.  This time, he headed south west along the western "shore" of the Calanscio Sand Sea.

For five hours, Hellewell flew over the desert, allowing MacLean to give him instructions.  MacLean's instructions were on the order of "turn left, so I can look at that hill..", and the like.

The constant changing of direction made dead-reckoning virtually impossible.  Plus, two items began to nag at Hellewell.  He was running low on fuel, and he wasn't sure how he'd be able to spot the camp at Concession 37, since he'd be returning at dusk, and the camp consisted of a few canvas tents.  On top of all this, radio operator Colvin hadn't been able to contact the station at Benghazi at all, so Hellewell had no weather information for the flight back to base.

Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good...

At 35 years of age, Captain Charles P. Hellewell had flown missions during World War Two.  Heading to a rendezvous with Ronald MacLean (who, the reader will remember as D'Arcy Exploration's chief geologist), Hellelwell flew a Silver City Airways DC-3 from Tripoli's Idris Airport to Concession 37 on May 16, 1958.
Also on board the DC-3 were First Officer (co-pilot/navigator) Tony G. Hunt, 34, and Radio Officer Bill Colvin, 28.

Hellewell was instructed to spend the night at Concession 37, and then fly MacLean on his aerial survey of the Kufra Mountain rock formations, which were located in the southern section of Application 121.  En route, they were also supposed to figure out if a road could be built, in order to connect Concession 37 and Application 121's northern section.

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Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

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Whatever his concerns about dead reckoning navigation, MacLean's worries were offset by the confidence he had in his Silver City Airways aircrews.  These were experienced airmen, with a sense of adventure and a cognizance of the importance of their work.

Captain Charles P. Hellewell was one of these men.

Death in the Desert: Lady Be Good...

Vanishing, seemingly without a trace....

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"Application 121"  covered an immense area.  It stretched three hundred miles from north to south, and two hundred, fifty miles from east to west.  Harsh would be an understatement in describing Application 121's landscape.  In some places, there were towering dunes which rose six hundred feet above sea level.  The northern section of Application 121 was a barren gravelly area, which did not have any identifiable landmarks.  Well, there were a few rock formations, but that was about it.  The southern section was more mountainous and rocky.

Because Application 121 covered so much area, the Libyan Petroleum Commission decided that Application 121 should be cut by twenty five percent. The question facing Ronald G. MacLean, D'Arcy Explorations Chief Geologist, was: which part of Application 121 should be bypassed?

There were no aerial photographs of the area, and the available maps dated back to World War Two.  Obviously, aerial surveys were needed.

A World War Two military pilot himself, MacLean was painfully aware of the problems faced by aircrew flying over barren, featureless terrain, when utilizing "dead (i.e. "deduced") reckoning" navigation methods.

Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good..

The oil companies scouring the Libyan desert for oil relied on subcontractors for support.  These subcontractors consisted of firms and individuals.  Geologists, seismic specialists, cooks, etc. were needed, as were aerial survey/exploration/cargo-hauling aircraft and the crews to operate them.

An outfit called Silver City Airways owned a fleet of aircraft that were based at both Benghazi and at Tripoli. The company got most of its work from Esso (now known as Exxon), but the firm also took on work for BP and its subsidiary, D'Arcy Exploration Company, Ltd.  

The regions being explored for oil were divided into individual "concessions", which were identified numerically.  One of the concessions granted to D'Arcy Exploration was assigned the number 37, and it was located on the Cyrenaica region of Libya.

Quite a ways south of Concession Number 37 was a largely unexplored region for which D'Arcy had applied for permission to explore (from the Libyan government), which was called "Application 121."

Lady Be Good: Flight To Oblivion...

The very thing that enabled B-24's like Lady Be Good to fly was responsible for her being found.  Oil.

Lady Be Good was sighted on three different occasions by employees of British Petroleum (BP), who were flying over the Libyan desert in search of oil. The story of these men- three in particular-is intertwined with that of Lady Be Good and her crew.  For, if it weren't for these oil-seekers, the fate of Lady Be Good and her crew would never come to light.

An understanding of the political situation in Libya at the time that Lady Be Good was found, is helpful in understanding the actions of some of the personalities involved.

The year was 1958.  An aging king by the name of Muhammad Idris al-Mahdi a Senussi was ruling Libya. In fact, the country was composed of three defined regions which had been "federated" under the "guidance" of the United Nations.  But, the king ruled this federation in the manner of a totalitarian regime.

Not surprisingly, there were rumblings of dissent, and members of the king's family were suspected of opposing him.  Nonetheless, one of the king's son's was expected to be the king's successor.  This was not to be; for in 1969, a 27 year-old military officer-a Colonel by the name of Muammar al Qaddafi-led a military overthrow of the king and his government.

But, back in  1958, finding new oil reserves had become extremely important to the nations which had fought during World War Two.  The war had greatly depleted global oil supplies, and oil companies were scrambling to find new sources of petroleum.  1958 saw no less than sixteen oil companies scouring Libya in search of new reserves.

B-24 Liberator Missing: Death in the Desert...

Despite the exigencies of war, leaders of the 376th Bomb Group finally concluded that the unidentified aircraft heard droning over Benghazi shortly after midnight on April 5, 1943 was possibly Lady Be Good.  Accordingly, a search and rescue mission was launched.

Search patterns were flown by another Liberator over the course of several days, with forays 380 miles into Africa, and out over the ocean.  Not a trace of Lady Be Good or her crew were found.

The search effort lasted roughly a week.  There was a war on, after all.  Lady Be Good's crew was deemed "missing in action."  After a year, Hatton's parents were notified by the War Department that Hatton was missing and presumed dead.

For the next fifteen years, Hatton and his crew were all but forgotten, save for the crew's family members and a few former comrades.

                            Photograph courtesy of the United States Air Force.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good..

So Lady Be Good had vanished into the ether.  Where was she?  Many of the 376th Bomb group wondered.

However, one of the tragedies of global warfare is that the concerns about the next mission-weather, fuel, and supplies take precedence over one missing aircraft.  The fact that men's lives are at stake does not change this.

Death In the Desert: Lady Be Good.

Several days later, on April 9, 1943, to be exact, a report was sent to the commanding officer of the Ninth Bomber Command.  Besides summarizing the results of the raid, the number of damaged airplanes and injured crewmen, the report mentioned that "Aircraft 64 Lieutenant Hatton and Aircraft 31 Lieutenant Iovine  (were) unaccounted for."

Prior to the aforementioned report being sent, it had already been confirmed that Lt. Iovine had landed at Malta, after running low on fuel.  So, the only "real" missing aircraft was Aircraft 64:  Lady Be Good.

Death in the Desert: Lady Be Good...

Despite navigator Dp Hays' nervousness, inexperience, and possible errors, he must have been somewhat aware of Lady Be Good's position- at least after 9 PM.  For shortly after midnight on April 5, 1943, Lady Be Good overflew (or, at least flew near) Benghazi, Benina, and the airfield at Soluch.  Indeed, Hatton's failure to find the Soluch airfield may have been the direct result of squabbling between Col. Compton and his radio crew at Benghazi regarding the type of aircraft that overflew the field that night.

Radio Operator LaMotte's sketchy log sheet does show that he made contact with Malta and Benina.  His log ends at 10:05 PM.

A crewman on a B-24 which landed at Soluch at 11:10 PM stated that he heard Lady Be Good calling for a heading.  This same person stated that it was assumed that Lady Be Good flew over Soluch and continued heading south.

Hatton's last radio call was transmitted at approximately 1:55 AM.  "Faggart 64 to Lifebuoy.  Faggart 64 to Lifebuoy.  My direction finder is not working.  Please give me a position report.  I think I'm over the Mediterranean, close to Benghazi.  Fuel almost gone.  Will have to jump soon.  Please give me a QDM."

Death in the Desert: Lady Be Good....

So, Hatton and Toner were given a bearing of 330 degrees from Benina.  It is possible that Lady Be Good had already flown south of Benina, and that the 330 degree bearing would have resulted in Hatton and Toner believing that they were still over the Mediterranean Sea.  This erroneous belief would have led them to continue flying south, in an attempt to reach Benina.

When the radio monitors at Soluch heard that lone aircraft nearby, flares were fired into the air.  But, the aircraft continued to drone southward over the desert sands, toward the Kufra Oasis.

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

With his calls to the Soluch airfield being ignored, Hatton appears to have also sent a coded message to the radio direction finder station at Benina.  The Benina station gave Hatton a course of 330 degrees from Benina.  Hatton should then have set his ADF radio for a bearing of 150 degrees (the opposite direction)-because Lady Be Good was, in fact, flying toward Benina.  But, did he?

Liberator Down: Lady Be Good...

Hatton plaintively asked Soluch airfield for a radio fix; it was slightly past midnight.  Even as Hatton sent his calls into the ether, Col. Compton and his radio crew at Soluch heard the sounds of an airplane passing overhead.  It has been alleged that they ignored Hatton for fear of attracting the attentions of any German night fighters.  The airplane that they heard passing overhead was probably a B-24-and a B-24's engines sounded quite different from those of the Junkers Ju-88 night fighter.  For the Ju-88's two engines were unsynchronized and made a very distinctive sound.

More to come.

Death in the Desert: Lady Be Good...

By

Scott 

Schwartz

It was 11:30 PM, and pilot Lt. William Hatton had descended below five thousand feet, so that he could see the coast.  

Activating his Automatic Direction Finder ("ADF"), Hatton was hoping to track the radio signal from Benina.  Another B-24, which had also turned back from Naples, was just landing at Soluch.  This aircraft - Liberator number 90 was the last B-24 to return to base, that night.

Apparently, Hatton was having trouble with his ADF, because the following transmission was heard by the 376th Bomb Group's commanding officer, Col. Keith Compton and his crew in the radio tower at Benghazi:  

"Faggart sixty four (Lady Be Good's radio call sign) to Lifebuoy (Soluch airfield's call sign); Faggart Sixty Four to Lifebuoy...my ADF has malfunctioned.  Please give me a QDM (navigation fix)."  

Col. Compton and his crew is also supposed to have heard the sounds of an aircraft's engines at around the same time that the radio broadcast was heard.  It was just after midnight on April 5, 1943.

More to come.

                                           Lady Be Good.  Photograph courtesy of the United States Air Force.

Death In The Desert: Lady Be Good.

Lady Be Good cruised along at two hundred miles per hour.  During the ninety minutes that passed after La Motte apparently received a bearing from the Benghazi aircraft controllers, the crew had time to think.  Hays puffed on cigarette after cigarette.  The waist hatches were closed and the guns stowed.  The crew figured that an attack by enemy fighters was unlikely.  In reality, the opposite was true.  Junkers Ju-88 night fighters patrolled on nights like these.

By 11:30 PM, Hatton was descending below 5,000 feet, so that he would be able to spot the coast.  He was sure that Lady Be Good was approaching Benghazi.

More to come.