Tragedy at Kufra

The Blenheim crews conferred and concluded that they were only about 20 miles (32 km) from Kufra. At 11:00, a crew took off in Z7610 and flew southwest, but returned at 11:30 having failed to find Kufra. After transferring fuel from the disabled T2252, a crew again took off in Z7610 and flew on a heading of 213° for about 24 miles (40 km), but returned at 11:40 without having sighted Kufra. A third flight left at 15:35 and flew on a course of 240° – which would have led it to Kufra – but turned back after 81 miles (130 km) before reaching Kufra. The crews made no further attempts to find their base that day and apparently assuming imminent rescue they consumed a great deal of water during their first day in the desert.[1]

By midday on 4 May, Kufra was aware that the three Blenheims must have landed somewhere in the desert. Occasional weak signals from the aircraft during the day were inadequate to establish their bearing. Ground search parties were organised at Rebiana, Bzema, and LG07 and various direction-finding stations monitored possible signals from the missing aircraft. Ground searches began based on doubtful bearings taken during the day.[1]

The downed Blenheim crews made two more unsuccessful flights seeking Kufra on 5 May. Flying Z7513 using fuel transferred from T2252, one crew flew on a bearing of 90° for about 45 miles (72 km); after its return, it departed again on a flight of 96 miles (160 km) on a bearing of 290° with three men aboard, but was forced down by fuel exhaustion 24 miles (40 km) north of the other two stranded Blenheims. Evidence discovered when searchers found Z7513 four days later suggested that its crew had landed twice during this flight, but were unable to rejoin the other Blenheims due to lack of fuel.[1] Meanwhile, most of the various ground search parties returned to report their lack of success, and the requirement for an air search became obvious.[1] With Z7513 not returning, the remaining survivors assumed that the aircraft had reached Kufra and that rescue was imminent.[4]

The nine men stranded with Z7610 and T2252 had used up almost all of their water by the morning of 6 May. Major de Wet himself took off in Z7610 to search on a bearing of 290°, but returned without success. Meanwhile, three Bristol Bombays of the Royal Air Force's No. 216 Squadron began an air search, but encountered a sandstorm that grounded them for the next two days. The sandstorm aggravated the plight of the men with the stranded Blenheims; those with Z7610 and T2252 began to die during the afternoon.[1]

A Royal Air Force Bristol Blenheim Mark IV similar to those involved in the Kufra incident being serviced in the Middle East ca. 1942.

The sandstorm continued through 7 May and into 8 May, when visibility finally began to improve. Major de Wet recorded on 8 May that only six men remained alive out of the 12, and expressed concern that the men might shoot one another or him; later in the day he observed that only two men were left alive besides him. At various times between 5 and 9 May, ground search parties came to within 2 miles (3.5 km) of Z7513 and T2252 and within 5 miles (8 km) of Z7513, but limited visibility prevented them from finding the downed Blenheims.[1]

On 9 May, with the sandstorm finally over, a Vickers Wellington sighted Z7610 and landed alongside it.[5] Its crew found the Blenheim's three-man crew lying in the shade of its wing, all apparently dead since 8 May.[1]

On 11 May, the same Wellington found Z7513 and T2252 parked nose-to-nose at either 24°51′00″N 24°25′00″E or 24°49′00″N 24°10′00″E.[Note 1] Once landed, the Wellington crew found A/Mech Juul as the sole survivor. The bodies of Major de Wet and seven of his men were found around the aircraft, some with what were assumed to have been self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Three revolvers were found with all ammunition expended. One of the revolvers was found in the hand of Maj. de Wet.[5] Juul was flown to Kufra for medical attention[1] and later testified at the S.A.A.F/R.A.F. Court of Enquiry.[6]

An inquiry into the incident took place at Kufra from 1 to 4 June 1942. The board of inquiry attributed the incident to the crews' lack of experience in desert flying; their failure to keep accurate navigator's logs; and the failure of wireless operators to perform their duties during the flight. The board placed the responsibility for the forced landing on the crew of the leading aircraft, Z7513 flown by Major de Wet.[1] The board attributed the failure of the ground and air searches to a lack of accurate information regarding the possible position of the aircraft; the difficult terrain; the sandstorm; problems with unserviceable aircraft that could not carry out search functions assigned to them and poor signal organisation. It also found that the downed Blenheim crews did little to assist the searchers in finding them because the crews engaged in bad direction-finding procedures even after landing and failed to employ visual signals and smudge fires.[5]

The inquiry also identified reasons for the early death of the stranded aviators, finding that they failed to appreciate their plight or to ration water immediately and that they made foolish use of compass alcohol, A/Mech van Breda having drunk it despite its poisonous qualities,[7] and fire extinguishers, which they had sprayed on themselves for temporary relief from the heat resulting in the infliction of painful skin injuries.[1] and their ignorance of survival techniques.[5]

To avoid any recurrence of the Kufra incident, the board made comprehensive recommendations with regard to equipment to be carried on aircraft likely to fly over the desert and emergency procedures in the event of forced landings in the desert. It also recommended that only experienced crews operate from Kufra.[1] By a strange stroke of irony, Maj. de Wet had been dubbed "Jannie sonder koers" (Off-Course Jannie) in Abyssinia following an incident when he led his flight of Fairey Battles in the wrong direction due to instrument damage and disorientation.[5][8]

The Libyan Desert landscape in southern Libya.

The search parties buried the three men found with Z7513[Note 2] next to the plane, and the eight men found dead around Z7610[Note 3] and T2252[Note 4] at their discovery site.

In February 1959, a geological survey party rediscovered Z7513, and the bodies of its three crewmen were exhumed and reburied in Knightsbridge War Cemetery at Acroma, Libya. The bodies of the eight men found with Z7610 and T2252 remained where they had been buried and in 1963 they were exhumed and reinterred in Knightsbridge War Cemetery.[1]

In May 1942, Z7610 and T2252 were repaired and flown back to Kufra. T2252 later suffered engine failure and crashed near Kufra, but Z7610 operated with No. 15 Squadron's detachment there until 27 November 1942, when the detachment departed Kufra to return to the squadron. By that time, the squadron had converted to Bristol Bisleys – the Mark V ground-attack variant of the Blenheim – so the detachment left Z7610 behind at Kufra to be repaired by a Royal Air Force Maintenance Unit (MU) and flown to Khartoum in the Sudan.[1] Z7513s engines had been run with excessive manifold pressure and was considered un-flyable, it was abandoned where it lay. After an Axis air raid on Kufra on 25 September 1942, it was cannibalised for spare parts to repair a Bisley damaged in the raid.[1]