“Double Trouble”

B-24D serial 41-23672, nicknamed "Double Trouble" and piloted by Captain Benjamin Riggs, was lost on 19 January 1943 during a bombing mission to Sousse, Tunisia.

The aircraft was hit by flak and Me-109 fighters, which struck engines One and Two and sent them windmilling out of control. Six men bailed out before the aircraft, having already dropped its bombs, exploded in mid-air. Capt. Luther C. Cox, one of the crew, reported that the airplane crashed into the water and exploded; only two parachutes were seen to open, and the tail gunner died in the aircraft.

The aircraft was last sighted approximately 150 miles southeast of Malta, heading toward the Tunisian coast before it disappeared. Of the six who bailed out, only Gerald Gray and Luther Cox survived; both were found by Arab fishermen and turned over to the Germans as prisoners, while the rest of the crew were killed.