[ARC5] Lady Be Good - more detail.

[Kenneth G. Gordon]

I just spent several hours reading a rather long dissertation on the LBG.

>From what the author of the article says, who also wrote the latest book on 
the incident, the problem was not so much the navigator as other things.

For one thing, when they flew past Benghazi and asked for a bearing, the 
operators at Benghazi refused to even acknowledge their request, as Ju-88s 
had been spoofiing them with fake calls for some time.

Apparently, there was a very heated argument between two of the British 
officers in Benghazi at the time over this, since even over the radio, the 
sound of a B-24s engines were noticeably different than those of a Ju-88.

Secondly, it also appears that the LBG was having some sort of receiver 
problem, as when they DID get a bearing from another station, they did not 
acknowledge receiving it, although they were close enough for the other 
station to hear their engines.

Thirdly, it turns out that one of the engines, I think it was the left inboard, 
when examined by Fairchild was found to contain a piece of a German 20 
MM cannon shell inside one of the valve rocker covers. This suggests that 
they may have been attacked, which would certainly unnerve a green crew.

Fourthly, the copilot had far more hours in type, and was far more 
experienced than the pilot, and the pilot himself could not figure out why their 
positions were not reversed. The author suspects it was simply because at 
that early stage of the war, the pilot had a college degree and the copilot 
didn't. Furthermore, there is evidence of an argument taking place in the 
cockpit during the home-bound flight.

Concerning the navigator, although the LBG was totally alone for most of the 
flight, the navigator successfully guided them to Naples through bad weather, 
arriving over Naples at night, and did lead the LBG back and over their 
takeoff point. This indicates a fair degree of competence.

Given the situation, I do not think the navigator was at fault.

IMHO, there were simply too many unfortuitous circumstances that simply 
piled one on another until the inevitible result.

In radio and electronic equipment, we call this something like "error stacking" 
or "tolerance stacking". Get enough components on the same edges of their 
tolerances and  you have problems with a circuit that would work if ONE or 
even TWO were on the edge of tolerance, but won't when they ALL are.

In any event, I find the story of the LBG to be very fascinating.

Ken W7EKB