Benghazi Journal: The Lady Be Good

Benghazi Journal: The Lady Be Good: From the Benghazi Journal....... In a little over an hour and a half, I top a little rise and there, sitting in front of a big sand dune,...

The Lady Be Good

From the Benghazi Journal.......

In a little over an hour and a half, I top a little rise and there, sitting in front of a big sand dune, is one of the strangest sights I have ever seen. An American B-24, World War II bomber is sitting beside a low sand dune, looking as if it has just landed.

            At first, I can’t see any damage to the plane, but as I get closer, I note a bent landing gear and broken propellers. I pull up to the side of the plane, where the side door is open, and crawl into the cargo bay. The plane, which looks intact from the outside, is completely stripped of anything that can be unbolted or pried off—completely gutted. I guess the exterior riveting that holds the metal to the plane’s frame is too tough for the desert Bedouins to handle.

            Well, after a few minutes of walking around the plane, I finally climb into the cockpit and sit imagining what an American pilot would have thought when he landed here. It must have been a relief to at least be on the ground in one piece, but considering the crews’ fate a fatal crash landing might have been better.

            I’ve seen all there is to see and I have just climbed out of the cockpit and I’m walking over to where I parked my Land Rover. As I stand beside my Land Rover, I think about what the men who survived that landing faced when they scrambled out of the plane. Kufra, the nearest oasis, is some 100 kilometers [MS1] away—an easy drive for me, since I can drive across the hard-pack of the desert at 80 KMPH. But trying to walk that distance, in a blazing, summer sun, is impossible.

            In 1959, they found the remains of the crew. None survived the attempt to walk out of the desert. I want to take a souvenir from the plane, but everything that can be removed already been  taken.

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 [MS1]or you could do km, as you've done earlier

A Smackover Dog in Libya

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners: Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners : Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Ri...

Benghazi Journal

A Smackover dog in Libya---actually his name is Ben----for Benghazi. Richard, Vertis, and Ben are touring the old city of Cyrene.

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners

Benghazi Journal: Benghazi for beginners: Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Riots in the street, roaring sandstorms, ...

Benghazi for beginners

Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Riots in the street, roaring sandstorms, and screaming crowds of Libyans. Landing on one wheel on a windswept runway after being in the red sand desert for 23 days. Listening to President Kennedy’s funeral via short wave radio and candle light. Driving for hours across a trackless desert to see the Lady Be Good a WW II B-24 bomber that was lost in the desert, and then becoming lost!  

Benghazi Journal --overview

Two green, inexperienced Americans taking their first flight to of all place, Benghazi, Libya. Riots in the street, roaring sandstorms, and screaming crowds of Libyans. Landing on one wheel on a windswept runway after being in the red sand desert for 23 days. Listening to President Kennedy’s funeral via short wave radio and candle light. Driving for hours across a trackless desert to see the Lady Be Good a WW II B-24 bomber that was lost in the desert, and then becoming lost!  

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