B-24 ?

Discussion in 'North Africa & the Med' started by Devildog, Jun 9, 2008.

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  1. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    Several plus years ago (in the 80's), my "employer" sent me into Libya for a few days "Holiday" to perform an attitude adjustment on some certain individuals who were causing some problems out in the Med. We were not to far from the Egyptian boarder. During our "visit, we came across the wreakage of a B-24. I know it was a B-24 because I've seen pictures of them and I"m absolutely certain on what it was. We explored it briefly due to that we had other pressing matters in which we were obligated to perform. Most of it was "sandblasted" from the desert storms but we could barely see a name on it. "L..dy b.....o.d". We looked for a serial number and the only number we could find was "41-124301". Over all condition looked good but there were pieces missing which I think was scavenaged by Nomads. I took a few pictures of it before we had to move on and I'll try and dig them out of my "Box of a million pictures" and post them. I tried to find some information a few years ago but never had the opportunity to dedicate a lot of time into it. Maybe some of you know of this plane ? Is it a post war crash ? Did it land there to be abandonded ? I heard back in the day that Oil Companies had bought a lot of surplus aircraft and were using them to survey the area. I don't know.
     
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  2. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    So you saw Lady be Good in the flesh, so to speak. You lucky chap.. I think that the wreckage has now been moved. I'm sure I read about it in an old aircraft magazine article. I hardly ever throw anything away. I'll see if I can lay my hands on it.

    Bod

    What an interesting first post.. Welcome, by the way.
     
  3. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    They actually found the "lady be good" before they found the crew. Took years to locate the bodies and they found the skeletons in the middle of the desert.
     
  4. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    Lady Be Good ? Hell, we were thinking it was like "Lady Bod" or something because we looked real hard for the "naked Lady nose art" kind of thing. Guys in that kind of occupation kinda think along those lines if you know what I mean. Was this Bomber important or just forgotten ? Was it shot down ? We also observed bullet holes throughout the fuselage but they were small caliber, not the 50 cal kind of damage you'd expect plus the bullet holes were everywhere. We guessed that it was used as target practice after it was on the ground. This raised our alarm level of alertness up because if there were small arms fire evidence on this wreakage, it meant that someone had been there to put it there.
     
  5. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

  6. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    Thanks Gotthard. I just read Bodston's link and it gave me chills as I was reading it. To think I got to touch a piece of History without having to sneak across some plushy rope. I wish I had known then. I would have tried to have stayed longer and take more pictures but we had other pressing matters to take care of. Damn. It slipped through my fingers like sand. I'm going to do my best to dig up this pictures of mine and have them framed.
     
  7. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    I dug up my Journal that I kept at that time where I recorded the discovery. I marked a Grid reference of the location and that we came up on it approx. 0630 hours. It was on a Plateau which our map stated when we checked our Bearings. It was flat as far as the eye could see and already the heat was getting up there in temp. We noticed mirages because that was the first time we ever experienced them. That is how we discovered the wreakage because we thought it was a vehicle that we may have to contend with. We didn't come across any human remains but we did come asross the mummified remains of a Camel. I guess those "humps" don't hold water forever.
    There was debris or "floatsum" laying about but we didn't pick anything up because we didn't want to add any additional weight than what we were already carrying. Soldiers don't like to carry anything unless they have to just so you know. There were deterioated pieces of canvas, a few tools, oxygen bottles and what we guessed, a piece of white silk tied to the fuselage. I kick myself now that I'm learning all this. I could have picked up the Silk. That wouldn't have weighed much and it was a small piece.
    Then again, knowing what I know now, it was a grave and it wouldn't have been right to take a souvenir. At least I have the pics and I got to sit in the Pilot's seat.
    Our visit was brief and we had to move out fast but I'm glad now that we checked it out.
     
  8. Peter Clare

    Peter Clare Very Senior Member

    'Lady Be Good' as she was found on November 9 1958 by Ronald G. MacLean, an employee of D'Arcy Exploration Co. Ltd a division of British Patroleum .
     

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  9. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    That last pick is how I remembered it and I took one like that very simular. I've been reading more with the links eveyone has offered and this story is incredible ! These guys tried to walk out of the Desert and from what I'm reading, they practically had nothing as far as survival gear. And to think I bitched about Desert Survival Training at CAX. I'll never bitch again.
     
  10. Gerard

    Gerard Seelow/Prora

    Those guys were sooo unfortunate. It was terrible what happened. God rest their souls they died an awful death.
     
  11. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    I agree. I still have chills from what you all have provided. I just can't explain the sensation knowing what I touched and explored. It was one of the most facinating things I ever experienced and it has always been in the back of my mind over the years everytime I read or seen anything on a B-24. It's a good thing I came onto this forum and thought of it. I just contacted one of the members of the Team back then and he is a WW 2 Aircraft buff. He's freaking out right now and kicking himself because he didn't carry a camera at the time. If it wasn't for the advice of my old man on carrying a camera, I wouldn't have had one either. He said he tried to do some research on the wreakage a few years back but he couldn't remember what I had written down in my Journal and had lost my contact information ( which is consider normal in that occupation).
     
  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Interesting stuff.
    Is this the one Ray Mears mentioned in a recent survival programme?
     
  13. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    I don't know him. Is that a programme there in the UK ? I'm still going through my "Box of a million pictures". I must have taken thousands over the past 20 years. I never counted them. Just developed them and kept them all in four foot lockers.
     
  14. Bodston

    Bodston Little Willy

    Interesting stuff.
    Is this the one Ray Mears mentioned in a recent survival programme?
    Don't think so Adam. His recent series was set in Australia. Is that the one where he was with Les Hiddins, 'The Bush Tucker Man'?

    Edit: I do remember a documentary about the Lady be Good though, maybe in the 'Timewatch' strand?
     
  15. Warlord

    Warlord Veteran wannabe

    I saw the story in a History Channel series, don´t remember the name; that might bring some light on the subject.

    However, I first knew about it from a movie, one in which the story is followed through the eyes of the ghosts of the crew, which disappear one by one as their remains are found. Last scene depicts the last "survivor", whose body´s never found, playing a very lonely baseball game.
     
  16. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    Is this movie on DVD ?
     
  17. Slipdigit

    Slipdigit Old Hickory Recon

    I am amazed that you actually got to see and put your hands on the Lady Be Good. Such a sad story.

    Talking about their deaths, Gotthard, it had to be terrible. Before they died, they would have gotten to the point they no longer could make tears, so they had the sensation of sand and ultimately were no longer to open them.

    I read that the navigator's tools were stored away and there were thoughts he never used them to verify where the plane actually was, relying instead on the erroneous beacon readings.
     
  18. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  19. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    When I first got the internet 'Sole survivor' was one of the first questions it answered for me. Trying to remember the name of a film involving William Shatner, a plane, and the ghosts of it's crew had been bugging me for years.

    Decent page:
    "Lady Be Good" B-24 Bomber, Quartermaster Graves Registration Search and Recovery

    And having checked, it seems she did feature in one of Ray Mears's 'extreme survival' series.

    Something of a legend you stumbled on there DD.
     
  20. Devildog

    Devildog Junior Member

    Excellent ! Thanks Chaps for the Movie source. I'll be getting a copy.

    Slipdigit...I'm pretty amazed myself now that I know what I stumbled upon. I didn't know it at the time. My guess then was anything considering that during my travels around the world, I've seen the debris of WW 2 still laying around in some of the remote places. When I was in Morroco, there were British Crusaders hulls still laying around in the desert. One looked like it was still in the "Hull down" position. I don't know if that was it's original position or that the desert storms made it that way but there was a huge blast hole just off to the side of the main gun. We took a look inside but it was filled with sand. We were hoping we didn't find something grim inside and that the crew got out in time. It looked like the secondary explosion peeled the top off the turret like a Sardine can. If they were, it would have been a quick death.

    I would have given my left testical to have seen the outer defenses of Tobruk which I heard reports that they're still remains of the defensive line today but Libya at the time I was there, wasn't a very friendly place to be.

    While in Egypt, I did have the opportunity to visit Sidi Barrani and there are still pieces of German and British equiptment laying around several miles South of there. One of the things I remembered and took a picture of is what appeared to be a German 88. It looked like it was blown in place because the end of the barrel was peeled back like a flower. We didn't venture too far because we were warned by the locals that the sands shift revealing unexploded ordinance from time to time.
    I encountered the "unexploded ordinace" warning in the Pacific too when I visited some of the battle sites there.

    If I had remained a civilian, I don't think I would have never been able to visit some of those places so I feel fortunate.
     

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