Plot

The epic story of a B-24 'Liberator' bomber aircraft, 'Shady Lady', that took off from Darwin, Australia, on Friday 13th August 1943, on what was at that time, the world's longest ever attempted bombing mission.

This is the epic story of a B-24 'Liberator' bomber aircraft called 'Shady Lady', that took off from Darwin, Australia, on Friday, 13th August 1943, on what was at that time, the world's longest ever attempted bombing mission. Under the command of 'Doug' Craig, 'Shady Lady' set off with 10 other aircraft to attack the oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo. With the target hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, this was an audacious attempt to strike back at the Imperial Japanese Army. 'Shady Lady' survived intense tropical thunderstorms, serious turbulence, heavy enemy antiaircraft fire and was chased by Japanese Zero fighters - but never made it back to base. 'Shady Lady,' after 16 hours and 35 minutes in the air, ran out of fuel and was crash-landed in a salt-pan, in the remotest part of Northern Australia. Local support from the Aborigines and a massive rescue mission amazingly saw 'Shady Lady' - fly again.—Director

'Shady Lady' is the epic story of the B-24 bomber aircraft called 'Shady Lady', that set off from Darwin on Friday, 13 August 1943, on what was at that time, the world's longest ever attempted bombing mission of WWII, to the oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo.

Shady Lady with a crew of 10 and one RAAF photographer, was one of eleven bombers that chased the setting sun westward, past Timor, into heavily defended enemy territory.

The crew of Shady Lady under the command of First Lieutenant, Doug Craig, had a hazardous journey to the target. Flying through numerous tropical thunderstorms that caused severe turbulence and greatly hampered navigator, John Nashs ability to carry out celestial navigation. Despite all the odds, all 11 aircraft arrived individually at their target. Shady Lady was the last to arrive and tasked with not only attacking the target but to also photograph it.

As she flew over her target for 45 minutes, searchlights tracked Shady Lady to help the anti aircraft gunners destroy her. As anti aircraft fire exploded around Shady Lady and rocked the aircraft violently, waist gunner S/Sgt. Maurice "Slim" Powers, with nerves of steel, decided to inject a little humor into the tense situation. He pretended to take a curtain call at his gun window. Much to the other gunner's amusement, he repeatedly bowed in the limelight, shouting, "Thank you, Thank you very much."

On her journey back to base, more tropical thunderstorms threatened to tear the wings off Shady Lady. When day finally came, the Shady Lady crew realised they were miles off course and had no choice but to overfly a main Japanese air base in Timor, if they had any chance of getting back to Australia alive.

Japanese fighters had no intention of letting Shady Lady fly back in one piece. After an hour-long very stressful dogfight, that tested the crew to the very limit, Shady Lady finally escaped and headed for Australia.

With fuel all but gone and running on empty, the aircraft was in a dire situation. The aircraft commander was preparing to ditch the aircraft when the Northern coast of Australia was sighted.

With just minutes of fuel remaining, the commander spotted a salt pan near the coast and prepared the crew for an emergency landing.

The commander had to land the aircraft in impossible circumstances, with no second chances. Apart from the nose wheel collapsing and the resulting damage to the front of the aircraft on landing, there were incredibly, no serious injuries.

It was 0945 hrs, sixteen hours and thirty-five minutes since their departure from Darwin. This had became the longest ever aeroplane bombing mission in aviation history to that day.

Miles from anywhere, the crew and aircraft had to now be rescued. Radio contact was eventually established with Darwin and provided the stranded airmen with the hope of rescue the following afternoon. This hope materialized in the form of Father Seraphim Sanz, the priest at a local mission.

A new race against time had started. The salt pan were Shady Lady landed was due to flood soon as the season changed. Engineers were brought in to make temporary repairs to the aircraft in extreme conditions of heat, little water, and limited facilities. This was one of Australias harshest locations. Under constant attack from thousands of sand flies crews worked around the clock to fix and lighten the aircraft by removing unnecessary parts such as armament and ammunition.

New parts and fuel had to brought to Shady Lady and this was done by Aborigines who carried them over very difficult terrain for tens of miles.

With only days only to spare, Shady Lady was finally pushed back and prepared for what sadly became her final take-off.

Shady Lady was never to fly again in combat, too badly damaged from the crash landing.

Since 1996, the site where Shady Lady landed has become an Australian Heritage Site with parts of the aircraft still there. Incredibly, the tracks from her landing still visible, frozen in time due to the geological features of the area.

Lt. Craig later received the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his unique flying abilities. A Presidential citation was re-issued in 2011 and presented to Lt. Craigs widow in Sydney.