Tragedy at Kufra
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The Tragedy at Kufra occurred in May 1942 during World War II, when 11 of 12 South African aircrew flying in three Bristol Blenheim Mark IV aircraft of No. 15 Squadron of the South African Air Force died of thirst and exposure, after the flight became lost following a navigational error near the oasis of Kufra in Libya and made a forced landing in the Libyan Desert.
Blenheim light bomber
The cockpit of a Bristol Blenheim Mark IV on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford in August 2005.
A line-up of Bristol Blenheim Mark IVs, the same of type of aircraft forced down in the Kufra incident.
A Royal Air Force Bristol Blenheim Mark IV similar to those involved in the Kufra incident being serviced in the Middle East ca. 1942.
Lady Be Good (aircraft)
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Lady Be Good is a B-24D Liberator bomber that disappeared without a trace on its first combat mission during World War II. The plane, which was from 376th Bomb Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), was believed to have been lost—with its nine-man crew—in the Mediterranean Sea while returning to its base in Libya following a bombing raid on Naples on April 4, 1943. However, the wreck was accidentally discovered 710 km (440 mi) inland in the Libyan Desert by an oil exploration team from British Petroleum on November 9, 1958. A ground party in March 1959 later identified the aircraft as a B-24D.
Parts were strewn by the Consolidated B-24D Liberator Lady Be Good as it skidded to a halt amid the otherwise empty Libyan desert. Engines 1, 2 and 3 visible in the photograph had their propellers feathered.
The crew of Lady Be Good. Left to right: Hatton, Toner, Hays, Woravka, Ripslinger, LaMotte, Shelley, Moore, Adams.
The wreckage of the Lady Be Good in 1958
Intact cockpit and nose with machine guns still in place