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By Bill Lombardi
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
In the late afternoon of April 3, 1943, 25 U.S. B-24 planes took off from Soluch, Libya to bomb the German forces in Naples. Their mission was to drop bombs on strategic enemy targets and return to base.
Of the 25 planes only one, the “Lady Be Good,” failed to make it back.
Listed as missing in action, it was assumed that German fighter planes shot it down over the ocean. Almost 16 years later in November of 1958 a team of geologists searching unchartered regions in the Libyan desert discovered a perfectly-preserved World War II B-24 airplane. It looked out of place - like something from The Twilight Zone. It showed very little damage. Inside, loose cigarettes, guns, and equipment were strewn about.
The serial number of the plane was forwarded to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. It was identified as the “Lady Be Good,” missing since 1943 along with nine crew members. A U.S. expedition team was sent to investigate and find out what happened to the crew. For several days they drove around, looking for anything that might have belonged to the men.
The temperature rose to an unbearable 135 degrees in the daytime and dropped to nearly freezing at night. Finally the team came to a spot where they found discarded parachutes and Mae West life preservers. Further on, they located a pair of military boots and other pieces of equipment. When the search team came to the horrifying sand dunes, they couldn’t imagine how the crew could possibly have made it across without water.
But because they kept on finding evidence, they continued on with the blazing hot sun of the desert beating down upon them.
Approximately 22 miles from the location of the parachutes, the team discovered a campsite containing the remains of 5 crew members. The bodies were remarkably preserved because in the arid climate, very little bacteria exists. The flesh did not decay, but had dried hard as leather and shrunk to fit the corpses. Pieces of parachutes used to shield them from the sun lay nearby. Empty water canteens, dog tags and bits of personal belongings were also found.
But the biggest find was the diary of Co-Pilot Lt. Bob Toner of North Attleboro, MA. He kept a daily account of the crew’s eight agonizing days in the desert.
He told how they were lost and bailed out at 2 a.m. and landed in the desert. On the ground, eight landed together and were able, by yelling, to find each other in the darkness. They never knew what happened to the ninth crew member. Lt. Toner wrote about the torturous and unbearable sun and the chilly nights. They constantly prayed and had a tremendous desire to be home with their families. He told of their will to live.
When most of the men were too weak to go on, they sent the three strongest ahead for help. Sergeants Moore, Ripslinger, and Shelley were chosen. “We all want to die” was Toner’s last entry in his diary. They realized there was no way out.
In the days that followed, the Air Force rescue team found the remains of Ripslinger and Shelley. Shelley’s will to live was incredible. He had walked over 25 miles since bailing out, and spent many of those miles traveling through the dunes without any water. Moore’s body was never found, and will probably be buried forever in the shifting and changing sands of the desert.
In 1960, another geologist team found the remains of the ninth crew member, Lt. Woravka. He was wearing his chute, which never opened up, and an inflated Mae West jacket. He died on impact. All their bodies were finally sent home for burial.
Due to careful investigation, an Air Force inquiry board determined what actually happened to the “Lady Be Good.” After she dropped her bombs, the navigator miscalculated the location of the base and continued for 426 miles, deep into the Libyan desert.
The United States was unprepared for World War II. At the time, one could be a pilot or a navigator with just a high school diploma. Today, the requirements are much stricter - one must have at least a college degree.
After a while, the crew of the “Lady Be Good” must have realized they were lost, so they began searching for the coastline. As the B-24 flew deeper into the desert, the plane ran out of gas. It was night, so the gray desert looked like water. The crew, thinking they were over the ocean, put on their life jackets and bailed out.
When daylight came with horrifying heat, they must have realized that the navigator miscalculated and put them in this situation. Desert experts said that without water, the men should not have survived more than a few days. Those experts were amazed to find the crew had gone on for more than a week across the steamy desert.
Bob Toner was the only crew member from Massachusetts. He was adopted and never learned who his birth parents were. At North Attleboro High School, Bob was a super athlete and was very popular. His diary was invaluable in determining what actually happened to the crew.
It turns out, however, that there was a way out.
If the crew had gone in the opposite direction, they would have found the “Lady Be Good,” which made a belly landing on the soft sand. There, they would have found water, food, and most importantly of all, a radio transmitter that could have saved them.
Bill Lombardi is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He is the grandfather of Emily, Ashley and Zachary Sullivan, and Cayce and Jimmy Lombardi - all Walpole residents.
