Hello,
Several web sources (including
https://tighar.org/Projects/P38/elliott.htm) tell that on 27 November 1942, two pilots of 14th FG, Lt Eliot and Cole, were flying back from a ground attack mission late and decided to land on a dry lake rather than returning to base for a risky night landing. Both aircraft were damaged and they burned them the next day before returning to their outfit.
There is no such loss on this date in the "History of the Mediterranean War, Volume Three". Cole was shot down and captured on 30 November 1942, so making it dubious, but still possible, that he was in the middle of the Algerian countryside in the morning of the 28th.
The same book on the other hand says that six P-38s of 14th FG crashed in the evening of 22 November while trying to land after dark on return of a ground attack mission.
It is possible that Cole and Eliot actually landed on this lake on 22 November, and their aircraft are part of the six reported lost in this book.
Can someone confirm it or add something to this subject ?
There is a biography book for Lt Arthur Cole, "King Cole: The Biography of a Ww2 Prisoner of War And His Sweetheart" (
https://books.google.fr/books?id=HoSXPAAACAAJ). If someone has it I will be interested to know what is in the book about this incident.
Thanks in advance