Lady Be Good

[melaniejane]

I am attaching a newspaper article published in "The Herald" newspaper in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1960 when news of the discovery of "Lady Be Good" raised the hopes of my husband's grandfather that the aircraft would turn out to be the Liberator bomber in which his son Harland Benn (W/O2; Air Gunner; SAAF 34 Sqn) had disappeared while on his third tour of duty.

No trace has ever been found of Harland, his plane or crew after they took off from Celone (Foggia) to bomb the railway marshalling yards at Verona on 2 March '45 in Liberator EW 207 "K". I have been researching Harland's life for 5 years and trying to discover his fate, but without success. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated; I can be contacted via this site or at melhermanATiafrica.com
Kind regards
Melanie

 

[Junkers88A1]

i hope they will restire lady B good or put her on a proper display..as she has been salvaged and are now sitting behind a garage...

 

[vikingBerserker]

That would be awesome!

 

[beaupower32]

Would be nice to see her put on display for everyone to see.

 

[Geedee]

Welcome aboard MelanieJane and good luck with your quest. Thats an interesting paper article you have there...just about a month before I was born !

My understanding is that the Lady was recovered but not particularly well or sympathetically and suffered some further damage before languishing in a heap and almost forgotten.

These two shots are from the USAF Museum at Dayton and are a prop assembly and motor from the Lady. The prop on its own is said to be haunted and I know of several members on various A/C forums I belong to, that have an inability to stay anywhere near the display and feel very uneasy when walking past to get to the other exibits. Interstingly enough, it only seems to affect gals and not us blokes!. We have a number of museums here in the UK with lots and lots of crash recovered relics and again its the gals that cant / wont go near certain items !

 

[beaupower32]

Creapy, but yet would be pretty cool to see.

 

[ToughOmbre]

Cool pics Gary, and haunting in a way. Any idea on the current disposition of other "Lady" artifacts/wreckage?

TO

 

[ccheese]

I hope they will restore lady B good or put her on a proper display..as she has been salvaged and are now sitting behind a garage...

Parts of the plane were scavenged or returned to the United States for evaluation. Curiously, several aircraft that were repaired with parts scavenged from the Lady Be Good crashed. An Army 'Otter' that had an armrest from the bomber crashed in the Gulf of Sidra. The only traces that were ever found from the plane were a few parts that washed ashore—including the armrest from the Lady Be Good.

Aside from components reused in other aircraft, other parts from the Lady Be Good may be seen today at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. One propeller can be seen in front of the village hall in Lake Linden, the home of Robert E. LaMotte.

A Royal Air Force team visited the site in 1968, and hauled away components including an engine (later donated to the USAF) for evaluation by the McDonnell Douglas company. Other pieces were stripped by souvenir hunters over the years.

In August 1994, the remains of the craft were recovered by a team led by Dr. Fadel Ali Mohammed and taken to a military base in Tobruk for safekeeping. [Source: Wiki]


I really doubt that the Lady Be Good is sitting behind someone's garage.....

Charles

 

[GrauGeist]

Here's a good page that covers Lady Be Good's history, from their deployment and final mission, to the search recovery of the Airmen and the disposition of the aircraft's remains.
"Lady Be Good" B-24 Bomber, Quartermaster Graves Registration Search and Recovery

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Thank you for the link Dave.

 

[Njaco]

I am attaching a newspaper article published in "The Herald" newspaper in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1960 when news of the discovery of "Lady Be Good" raised the hopes of my husband's grandfather that the aircraft would turn out to be the Liberator bomber in which his son Harland Benn (W/O2; Air Gunner; SAAF 34 Sqn) had disappeared while on his third tour of duty.

No trace has ever been found of Harland, his plane or crew after they took off from Celone (Foggia) to bomb the railway marshalling yards at Verona on 2 March '45 in Liberator EW 207 "K". I have been researching Harland's life for 5 years and trying to discover his fate, but without success. Any suggestions or help would be much appreciated; I can be contacted via this site or at melhermanATiafrica.com
Kind regards
Melanie

Wish you all the luck in the world in your search for your husband's uncle.

 

[Geedee]

If any-one is interested, Sole survivor is available on dvd on Ebay...

Or, you can watch it here and probably download it as well. The quality is the same standard as my dvd copy, but after a few minutes you tend not to notice it.

Sole Survivor (1970) -William Shatner (the story of the plane ¨Lady Be Good¨)

 

[melaniejane]

Thanks for your good wishes for positive results in my search, Njaco Geedee!! As they say, "From your mouth to God's ears" . . . . So far, he isn't taking my calls!!!!
regards
Melanie

 

[Geedee]

So far, he isn't taking my calls!!!!

You keep ringing him !

If any one is interested, this is a quite comprehensive site with links to her current location...
http://www.ladybegood.net/index.htm

 

[diddyriddick]

Nice website, Geedee. Thanks!

 

[RabidAlien]

Thanks for your good wishes for positive results in my search, Njaco Geedee!! As they say, "From your mouth to God's ears" . . . . So far, he isn't taking my calls!!!!
regards
Melanie

Heh. I sometimes feel like I have the same prob. Turns out its usually static on the lines somewhere.