Mario Martinez (1)

A detailed account of the mysterious B-24 bomber LADY BE GOOD which disappeared on its first bombing run in 1943 and wasn't found until it turned up in the Libyan desert in 1959. This is a much more detailed account than the first book on the topic, THE LADY BE GOOD, by Dennis McClendon, though McClendon's book is much more elegantly written and doesn't indulge in fantasy ruminations on what went through the minds of the air crew as they wandered lost in the desert. (These ruminations, several of them religious and perhaps not coincidentally aligned with the Roman Catholic connections of the author himself, are not labeled as being products of the author's imagination, but they are nowhere to be found in the written record the lost crew left of their last days.) What serves this book well are the details of the assemblage and background of the crew, of the first (and last) raid they went on to bomb Naples, Italy, the reconstructed period between the crew's abandoning ship over Libya and their deaths after a heroic and magnificent trek through the desert, and the discovery and recovery of the plane and its crew more than 16 years later. What doesn't serve is the repetition and the extensive coverage of an interesting but relatively unrelated air raid that occurred several months after the loss of the LADY BE GOOD. Anyone interested in this haunting story would do well to read both books.… (mehr)

“book is at odds, sometimes sharply so, with other accounts on certain vital points. Even so, Martinez’s conclusions have never been seriously challenged by anyone.” http://speedreaders.info/3617-lady’s-men/
The story of the World War II mystery bomber 'Lady Be Good' and her crew. In April 1943, an American Liberator bomber, based in Libya and christened by her crew 'Lady Be Good', vanished mysteriously. The crew were simply reported as 'Missing, presumed dead.' Then, fifteen years later, BP oilmen on an aerial reconnaissance over south-central Libya spotted the remains of the bomber four hundred and forty miles from its original destination. Examining in detail all the available evidence, Mario Martinez set out to discover what had really happened to the ill-fated craft and her crew. This is a much more detailed account than the first book on the topic, THE LADY BE GOOD, by Dennis McClendon, though McClendon's book is much more elegantly written and doesn't indulge in fantasy ruminations on what went through the minds of the air crew as they wandered lost in the desert. (These ruminations, several of them religious and perhaps not coincidentally aligned with the Roman Catholic connections of the author himself, are not labeled as being products of the author's imagination, but they are nowhere to be found in the written record the lost crew left of their last days.) What serves this book well are the details of the assemblage and background of the crew, of the first (and last) raid they went on to bomb Naples, Italy, the reconstructed period between the crew's abandoning ship over Libya and their deaths after a heroic and magnificent trek through the desert, and the discovery and recovery of the plane and its crew more than 16 years later. What doesn't serve is the repetition and the extensive coverage of an interesting but relatively unrelated air raid that occurred several months after the loss of the LADY BE GOOD. Anyone interested in this haunting story would do well to read both books.… (mehr)