Picture of the day.

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Capt. Vick said:
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Lady Be Good was from a sister squadron in the same bomb wing my late neighbor Dick Hurd was in, and he and his crew flew on the same mission that claimed The Lady.
For those not familiar with the story, a number of planes got separated from the main group due to weather, poor navigating, and battle damage, and straggled back to Benghazi singly, some after dark. Benghazi had a reasonably powerful radio beacon that could be picked up leaving the "boot" of Italy southbound, so returning planes could home on it.
In an early war B24 this was not as simple as it sounds, as they were equipped with manual Radio Direction Finders, not the Automatic Direction Finders common today. In a manual RDF, the radio operator cranks a loop antenna around in a circle while the navigator monitors signal strength, noting the two relative bearings 180° apart where it peaks. Then the ambiguity has to be resolved by the navigator based on a general understanding of approximate aircraft
location and general direction of destination.
The pitfall of this is if you're in the dark or in the clouds you can fly right over the station and be going outbound on the same heading if your nav happens to miss the momentary signal strength flicker denoting station passage. Apparently Lady Be Good picked up an undetected tailwind over the Med and overflew Benghazi long before anybody expected her to. Unfortunately, the ground station didn't have direction finding gear, so as they were talking to The Lady, they took her word for it she was still inbound, and as her signal got weaker, they assumed she was still far away and losing altitude. Nobody considered the possibility of an overflight. End of story. Until 16 years later, the sequel unfolds.
 
The East Africa Campaign .... airpower
Following the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, the remaining Wellesley squadrons participated in the East African Campaign against Italian forces in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somaliland. Although obsolete, the Wellesley formed a major part of the British Commonwealth bomber forces, mainly carrying out raids targeting Eritrea and northern Ethiopia.[24] Sudan-based Wellesleys carried out their first bombing mission on 11 June 1940, against Asmara in Eritrea. Three days later, they were involved in their first air combat, when Capitano Mario Visintini, future top-scoring biplane ace of the Second World War, intercepted a pair of Wellesleys from 14 Squadron on their way to bomb Massawa. Visintini, who was flying a Fiat CR.42 Falco, shot down the aircraft K7743, flown by Pilot Officer Reginald Patrick Blenner Plunkett. It was the first of Visintini's 16 air victories in Eastern Africa.[25][26]

In the early part of the campaign, fighter escort was not available and when caught by CR.42s, Wellesleys proved vulnerable to the Italian biplane fighter. Despite this, the Wellesley continued to be sent on bombing raids, bombing Addis Ababa from Aden on 18 August.[27] The Wellesley continued in use against the Italians over East Africa until November 1941, when Gondar, the last Italian-held town, fell to Commonwealth and Ethiopian forces. The final Wellesley-equipped unit, 47 Squadron, was then switched to maritime reconnaissance duties over the Red Sea, continuing in this role until September 1942.[28]

While the Wellesley was not a significant combat aircraft, the design principles that were tested in its construction were put to good use with the Wellington medium bomber, which became one of the mainstays of Bomber Command in the early years of the European war. During February 1940, three Wellesleys (K7728, K7735 and K8531) were sold to Egypt to serve in the Royal Egyptian Air Force.[29]
 
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On this day on April 8th 1945.
One of the most iconic pictures of the airwar was taken. Wee Willy gets hit by flak and plummets to the ground.
On 8 April 1945, the 322nd Bombardment Squadron was part of an attack against the locomotive repair facilities at the railroad marshaling yards in Stendal, Saxony-Anhalt Germany. The squadron was bombing through clouds using H2S ground search radar to identify the target area. Antiaircraft gunfire (flak) was moderate, causing major damage to four B-17s and minor damage to thirteen others. Two bombers from the 91st Bomb Group were lost, including Wee Willie.
The Missing Air Crew Report, MACR 13881, included a statement from a witness:
"We were flying over the target at 20,500 feet [6,248 meters] altitude when I observed aircraft B-17G, 42-31333 to receive a direct flak hit approximately between the bomb bay and #2 engine. The aircraft immediately started into a vertical dive. The fuselage was on fire and when it had dropped approximately 5,000 feet [1,524 meters] the left wing fell off. It continued down and when the fuselage was about 3,000 feet [914.4 meters] from the ground it exploded and then exploded again when it hit the ground. I saw no crew member leave the aircraft or parachutes open."
This picture - "We were flying over the target at 20,500 feet [6,248 meters] altitude when I observed aircraft B-17G, 42-31333 to receive a direct flak hit approximately between the bomb bay and #2 engine. The aircraft immediately started into a vertical dive. The fuselage was on fire and when it had dropped approximately 5,000 feet [1,524 meters] the left wing fell off. It continued down and when the fuselage was about 3,000 feet [914.4 meters] from the ground it exploded and then exploded again when it hit the ground. I saw no crew member leave the aircraft or parachutes open."
The pilot, Lieutenant Fuller, did escape from the doomed bomber. He was captured and spent the remainder of the war as a Prisoner of War. The other eight crew members, however were killed.
1st Lieutenant Robert E. Fuller, O-774609, California. Aircraft Commander/Pilot—Prisoner of War
2nd Lieutenant Woodrow A. Lien, O-778858, Montana. Co-pilot—Killed in Action
Technical Sergeant Francis J. McCarthy, 14148856, Tennessee. Navigator—Killed in Action
Staff Sergeant Richard D. Proudfit, 14166848, Mississippi. Togglier—Killed in Action
Staff Sergeant Wylie McNatt, Jr., 38365470, Texas. Flight Engineer/Top Turret Gunner—Killed in Action
Staff Sergeant William H. Cassiday, 32346219, New York. Ball Turret Gunner—Killed in Action
Staff Sergeant Ralph J. Leffelman, 19112019, Washington. Radio Operator/Top Gunner—Killed in Action
Staff Sergeant James D. Houtchens, 37483248, Nebraska. Waist Gunner—Killed in Action
Sergeant Le Moyne Miller, 33920597, Pennsylvania. Tail Gunner—Killed in Action





 
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