[ARC5] Lady Be Good - more detail.

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Good synopsis, Ken.  

I have a sorta semi personal connection to the Lady Be Good.  When the 
aircraft was located, my father-in-law, LTC (then MAJ) Dorries was at Wheelis 
AFB (Tripoli).  He was part of the crew who flew out to the crash site to 
offload ammunition and ordnance, in part I think because he had flown B-24's 
(specifically the Miss Susie) in the Pacific and was one of the few former B-24 
pilots at Wheelis.  18 years later, I was at Ras Lanuff and had to fly to 
Sarir to pick up some inspection equipment.  On the return flight, my pilot 
and I took a short detour and overflew the crash site.  Unfortunately, 
visibility was very poor as a gimbli was blowing in, so we didn't linger.

In a message dated 4/30/2011 9:55:08 PM Central Daylight Time, 
kgordon2006 at frontier.com writes: 
> 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
> 

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