Tragedy at Kufra

The Tragedy at Kufra occurred in May 1942 during World War II, when 11 of 12 South African aircrew flying in three Bristol Blenheim Mark IV aircraft of No. 15 Squadron of the South African Air Force died of thirst and exposure, after the flight became lost following a navigational error near the oasis of Kufra in Libya and made a forced landing in the Libyan Desert.

The flight

By 3 May 1942 the direction-finding station was back in working order and Major de Wet briefed his crews on their first familiarisation flight which he would lead early the following morning. The flight was to be made at a true air speed of 150 mph and was to familiarise crews with landmarks in the area and to gain experience with desert flying. Takeoff was planned for early morning 4 May and was to follow roughly a square path, with its first leg one of 83 mi from Kufra to Rebiana, Libya, on a course of 269°, followed by a second leg of 51.5 mi on bearing 358° to Bzema, then a third leg of 64 mi on bearing 63° to Landing Ground 007 (LG-007 Matruh West), and finally on bearing 162° for the 83.5-mile (134-km) leg back to Kufra, with ETA at Kufra planned for 07:42. In addition to the crew of three in each aircraft, each plane would carry an armourer to assist with armament aboard the aircraft during the flight. Each aircraft carried four days of rations plus water.

After receiving the early-morning weather report for the region which predicted a visibility of 2.5 mi and wind from a bearing of 60° at a speed of 19 to 24 mph at 1600 ft, de Wet refused a weather balloon check of wind conditions – this was to prove fatal. The three Blenheims, each with four men aboard, took off from Kufra and after initial communications checks nothing was heard from the aircraft until 7:10. In the meantime, the three Blenheim crews believed that they had successfully completed their flight, identifying each waypoint and planning to arrive at Kufra between 07:33 and 07:42. However, Allied personnel at Rebiana did not hear them fly past, suggesting that they already were off course by the time they thought they had completed the first leg of their flight. A contributing factor may have been that a weather balloon launched shortly after they took off revealed that the earlier weather report was wrong, and that winds at 2200 ft actually were blowing at 31 mph from a bearing of 290°, and one of the navigators aboard the planes noted that the flight was so bumpy that he was unable to take drift readings.

At 07:10, Kufra finally heard from the Blenheims, when aircraft Z7610 requested a bearing and Kufra requested that it transmit dashes so that the direction-finding station could establish its bearing; the aircraft did not respond. At 07:27, Major de Wet's Blenheim, Z7513, requested a course for a return to Kufra, but its radio operator ceased broadcasting before the direction-finding station could determine its bearing; after taking a snap bearing, Kufra radioed 120-3=0527, meaning that the aircraft should "steer 120° (zero wind) third-class fix, time 05h27 GMT," but the aircraft appears only to have heard the numbers 3-0-5 and as a result believed the course to base was 305°. The aircraft turned to this course at 07:42, and Allied infantrymen at Taizerbo heard them fly past to the west. At 08:10 they turned 180° to fly on the reciprocal bearing, 125°. After T2252's starboard engine began to malfunction around 09:00 hours, Major de Wet ordered the aircraft to land in the desert, which all three Blenheims did successfully at 09:15.