Shady Lady

SHADY LADY is a new docudrama about the harrowing adventure of the B-24 Liberator aircraft called Shady Lady that set off from Darwin, Australia on Friday, August 13, 1943 to the oil refineries at Balikpapan, Borneo on what was at that time the longest bombing mission in aviation history. The film prompted the Obama Administration to re-issue a Presidential Citation to the crew, which was presented last year in Sydney to the widow of the plane’s commanding officer.

Under the command of First Lieutenant Doug Craig, Shady Lady set off with 10 other aircraft to attack oil refineries in Borneo. With the target hundreds of miles behind enemy lines, this was an audacious attempt to strike back at the Imperial Japanese Army. After accomplishing her mission, Shady Lady survived intense tropical thunderstorms, serious turbulence, heavy anti-aircraft fire and pursuit by Japanese Zero fighters - but never made it back to base. After 16 hours and 35 minutes in the air, Shady Lady ran out of fuel and was crash-landed in a salt pan in the remotest part of Northern Australia. Intense local support from the Aborigines and a massive rescue mission amazingly saw Shady Lady fly one last time.