Army File Shows What Really Happened to the Lady Be Good

On 4 April 1943 an American B-24D bomber, "Lady Be Good", failed to return to its base in Libya after her crew's first combat mission. The Army filed Missing Air Crew Report 937 and assumed nine men were lost at sea. Fifteen years later, oil surveyors found the plane almost intact, 440 miles inside the Sahara. This film reads the file page by page: the typed Missing Air Crew Report, the 12:12 a.m. radio call, the 330° bearing that could be read two ways, the bailout at 2 a.m., copilot Robert Toner's diary ("No help yet, very cold nite"), the 1959 search that ended when the equipment "began to deteriorate and fail", Operation Climax in 1960, and the stained glass window that now stands in Dayton, Ohio. In "The File Today" we separate what the record shows from what is disputed (did she reach Naples, the date of the first sighting, the miles walked) and from legend (the drinkable tea, the "curse"). This documentary is based on historical records. Some scenes are illustrated, and any dialogue not on record is clearly described as such. Archive photos are public domain (credits below). Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 2:03 Soluch 5:43 Naples 7:30 12:12 A.M. 12:08 Lost at Sea 14:59 The Walk 20:11 The Sand Sea 22:57 Operation Climax 28:23 The File Today The crew: 1st Lt William J. Hatton (pilot), 2nd Lt Robert F. Toner (copilot), 2nd Lt D. P. Hays (navigator), 2nd Lt John S. Woravka (bombardier), T/Sgt Harold J. Ripslinger (engineer), T/Sgt Robert E. LaMotte (radio), S/Sgt Guy E. Shelley, S/Sgt Vernon L. Moore, S/Sgt Samuel E. Adams (gunners). Sources (file numbers): Missing Air Crew Report MACR 937, B-24D 41-24301 (US National Archives) US Army Graves Registration / Quartermaster findings, 1960 National Archives still pictures: 342-B-ND-075-4-163133AC and -163134AC (Toner's diary), 342-B-ND-075-4-162171AC (the B-24 in the desert), 342-B-ND-038-9-K35807 (Wheelus chapel window, 1961), 111-C series (Operation Climax, 1960) National Archives blog "The Unwritten Record": Lost and Found: The Story of 'Lady Be Good' and Her Crew John Lowery, "Lady Be Good", Air & Space Forces Magazine, 1 February 2014 National Museum of the United States Air Force, "Lady Be Good" fact sheet Lady Be Good (aircraft) — Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be...) Book: Mario Martinez, Lady's Men Archive images (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia): Missing Air Crew Report 937; the Lady Be Good crew; Lady Be Good before her overseas departure; the wreck from the air (1959) and the crash site (1960, US Air Force); Wheelus chapel memorial window; 376th Bomb Group in Libya, 1943 (US Army Air Forces); B-24D cockpit and instruments (USAF); US Army Map Service sheet "Calanscio"; Kufra oasis map; the Calanscio Sand Sea and the Libyan Desert from space (NASA). Full list in photos/credits.txt. Music (YouTube Audio Library): "Keys To Unravel" and "Fact or Friction" by The Soundlings, "Monument" by TrackTribe, "Somnia" (Variations 1-10) by Reed Mathis. Sound effects: YouTube Audio Library. New files every week — subscribe to Sealed Orders for true missions of World War II, opened one file at a time. #LadyBeGood #WW2 #B24