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.