Fort Collins resident Bill Powell was a B-24 bomber pilot in WWII. When he arrived in Europe after training, Bill and his crew began flying missions out of Italy. He was now on his 10th mission and everything seemed to be going smooth. After dropping their bombs on the rail yards in Munich, the formation began their return to base.
WWII Veteran William ‘Bill’ Powell
At this point, Bill turned the controls over to his co-pilot and stood up to stretch. While doing so, he looked out the window and saw two bombs fall from above and hit the lead plane in the formation. (Bill surmises that the bombs got hung up in another plane during the initial bombing and finally came loose.) Shrapnel from the exploding plane torn into his plane, killing his co-pilot instantly. Bill himself would have been killed as well had he not stood up, as shrapnel blew away his headrest.
Grabbing the controls, with two engines out and having a hard time handling the plane, Bill realized that they would never make it back over the Alps and gave the order to bail out. Upon hitting the ground, Bill had no sooner started taking off his parachute when a German farmer was upon him with pistol drawn. The farmer turned him over to the authorities, and after being interrogated, it was off to Stalag Luft 1 for Bill. He would go on to spend the next seven months as a prisoner of war in the dirty and overcrowded camp. The camp was eventually liberated by the Russians.
After his service, Bill married, finished college, and went on to have a long and successful career with the Miami-Dade County Public Works Dept., finishing out as its director. If you ever drive between Miami and Key Biscayne, you will go over the William M. Powell Bridge which is named in his honor.
Brad Hoopes is preserving the stories of veterans. For more veterans’ stories visit www.rememberandhonor.com for the recent WWII veterans book, “Reflections of Our Gentle Warriors.”