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Author
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Topic: gosh, whatta bad way to die...
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li'l bastard
Pilot
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posted 05-02- 03:53 AM
   
Some time ago I found in a magazine an article about military mysteries, check out this story:
"The harbor of Naples is the objective of the B24 US bombers that are taking off in the afternoon of the 4th april 1943 from Souch, Lybia. One of the big bombers, nicknamed "lady be good", warns the airfield they have a some trouble and starts heading back home. At around midnight the radio operator sends an SOS. From that moment nobody will know anything about the "lady be good" and his 9 men crew. After 15 years, in the '58, a petrol company scout crew finds the plane in the heart of the lybic desert, 700 km away from the coast. The plane is intact: even the radio still works. But there's no trace of the 9 men. For a couple of unlucky coincidences, the pilot, William Hatton, had lost the bearing and headed to the desert. When he understood his mistake, it was too late. But what about him and his men?
For some strange reason, it still lives the legend the crew was never found. Actually the bodies of 8 of the 9 men where found. The mystery was almost explained. But what was really unbelieveable was the determination demonstrated by those aviators: as the experts of desertic surviving say, they couldn't had walked for more than 40-50 km. Five of them walked tho for 136 km, and the last one was found 75 km forward!. But maybe the glamour of the legend came out of the plane's name, that after this story sounds kinda ironic "Lady be good"."
Whatta story guys, let's think about that guys for moment......li'l b ------------------
IP: Logged |
Werner Molders
JAG
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posted 05-02- 09:16 AM
Wow, that's a very interesting story. Thanks for sharing, its stuff like that, that keeps us grounded in the reality of things. WM ------------------
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 IP: Logged |
ArgonV
Pilot
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posted 05-02- 11:24 AM
Ive heard this story. Funny you should mention it because I ran across this story at the Galveston airshow here in Texas last Saturday. They had a nice mock-up of what the crashed B-24 looked like.IP: Logged |
Jerry
Pilot
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posted 05-02- 11:57 AM
Within the last few months I saw a TV documentary on this story and recovery of the crew remains. Don't remember if it was the History Channel or Discovery Channel...maybe even NOVA on PBS. Fascinating story. They recovered all the crew remains but one I believe.IP: Logged |
Smokey
Pilot
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posted 05-03- 06:13 PM
Yeah, Jerry, your right. I'm pretty sure
there is 1 they didn't find. According to
the show Jerry is refering to they had an
inexperineced navigator. They overflew their
airbase. A suggested reason was the bomber
was returning in twilight and the desert
sand looked a lot like the ocean they had
been flying over, therefore, they didn't think
they had made it to their base yet. With
all the dangers there are in war this is a
very tragic end and seems such a waste.IP: Logged | |
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