William Francis Coll was born on May 9,1917 in McAdoo, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania to parents James F. and Hannah M. (Kelly) Coll. He was the third of their children, which included John, Mary, then William, David, Joseph, Catherine, and Dorothy. When William was born the family lived on S. Tamaqua Street and their father earned his living as an engineer for the railroad. By 1930 the family relocated to W. Blaine Street, still in McAdoo, and by 1940 to N. Hancock Street.

William graduated McAdoo High School in 1934 and was considered an artist, a good student and was always happy. He went out of his way to help people and was very mechanically inclined. On October 16,1940 William, at the age of 23 registered for the draft in McAdoo while he was employed with the Dick Construction Company. On January 13, 1942, he enlisted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with the Army Air Corp. He was working as a semiskilled mechanic and repairman of motor vehicles.

William F. Coll was given service #13051982 and sent to Keesler Army Airfield to begin his basic training (now known as Keesler Air Force Base), in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was also assigned to Barksdale Field in Louisiana. From there he was assigned to a bomber and a tour of Greenland, Iceland, and Scotland followed. He was then sent back to the United States to Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma then Grenier Field, New Hampshire. While William was stationed at Grenier Field on September 23,1942, he was promoted in rank to Staff Sergeant. He was assigned as a top turret gunner/flight engineer with the 66th Bomb Squadron, 44th Bomb Group. Prior to March 15, 1943, his parents were given prior notice that their son would be heard on a live radio broadcast called “London Report” from England in the UK. For them this was a proud moment. In July of 43, William and his crew had completed most of their bombing missions (William needed one more flight), and they were preparing to return home on a leave to the U.S. William had developed a lung infection and was grounded. He still needed to complete one more flight, his 25th.

“Operation Tidal Wave “was the name of the mission to bomb nine Ploesti Oil Refineries in Romania, considered to be “Hitler’s gas station”. It was expected to be a highly dangerous mission, so a decision was made to have the mission on a volunteer basis only. T/Sgt William F. Coll decided to volunteer to accomplish his required number of flights.

On August 1,1943 178 B-24 Liberators with a total of 1751 Aircrew (which included the 98th, 376th from North Africa, 44th, 93rd, and 389th from England) took off from airstrips in Libya to fly the distance to achieve their mission of bombing the oil refineries. They were to cross the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sea, pass near the island of Corfu, cross the Pindus Mountains in Albania, and cross the southern part of Yugoslavia to enter southwest Romania and turn east until they reached their target. They flew extremely low, to what seemed to be tree-top level, to avoid being detected by enemy radar. William’s crew originally flew the plane “Lady Luck” but on this day she was out of service and in repair due to experiencing gas leaks. They were given the plane “Scrappy II” and became part of the 4th wave of the “Flying Eightballs”.

On take-off in Libya, due to the dry land conditions and the five groups of the enormous strike force that were overloaded with the additional weight of fuel and the extra-large number of bombs, excessive amounts of dust was kicked up and caused one plane not be able to depart with the other 177. For all the remaining, they positioned themselves in formation until one plane (Wongo Wongo) with the 376th Bombardment Group, in the lead group of about 40 B-24’s, started to fly erratically and crashed into the Adriatic Sea. One plane (#23 Desert Lily) left formation to look for survivors and narrowly missed crashing into another plane in formation. Once the Desert Lily confirmed there were no survivors, she was unable to regain her altitude and was forced to return. Confusion and 10 other planes’ inability to work together to overcome the circumstances, and refrain from a radio silence order, resulted in 10 more planes returning to a safe airstrip for landing. The remaining continued their mission with difficulties. Unaware the Germans knew exactly where they were but not of what their targets were.

As they approached Pitesti in a loose formation rather than the tight one they intended at the beginning of their journey, and becoming approximately 20 minutes of flying distance between them, all 5 groups made their navigational checkpoint. Soon, the 389th peeled off to arrive at their target, the next group unaware that their orders included a grave error in navigation, they were sent to follow an incorrect railway line, resulting in the 93rd Bomb Group headed toward Bucharest. This error caused others to break radio silence to correct the error and get everyone back on track to their designated targets for the synchronized dropping of bombs at each of the nine targets.

As the remainder of the original 178 planes reached their targets, they did not expect the barrage of immediate and intense fighting from the overprotected oil refineries at Ploiesti by the waiting German and Romanian Air defenses and ground forces. Planes that were able to continue to drop their bombs and destroy their targets did while being attacked and fired upon, and sometimes while crashing. One of the downed American planes crashed into a female prison resulting in the death of 100 civilians. August 1,1943, Operation Tidal Wave, considered to be “one of the bloodiest and most heroic missions of all time” 660 air crewmen (KIA or POW) and 53 aircraft were lost.

“I have been through and out of the mouth of Hell” said Captain Reginald H. “Bud” Phillips, Pilot of “Lemon Drop”, 44th Bomb Group, 68th Bomb Squadron when he returned to Benghazi.

The B24 Scrappy II was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire and severely damaged by exploding oil tanks on the ground over the Ploesti oil fields. The Pilot crashed landed, skidding the plane to an almost immediate halt in a wheat field, when a 100-foot fireball erupted and instantly killed everyone on board. The remains were retrieved from the crash site and interred together in a Temporary makeshift grave until after the war. On August 3,1948 the remains were disinterred and returned to the United States and placed to rest together. T/Sgt William Francis Coll is buried in a group burial plot at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in Lemay, St. Louis County, Missouri, Section 84, Graves 195,196,197 with his crew:

1st LT Philip P. Phillips

1st LT Everett F. Anderson

Sgt Marvin R. Mickey

S/Sgt Hugh J. Malone

Sgt Thomas F. Schappert

S/Sgt Channing N. Satterfield

T/Sgt William Francis Coll was awarded the following:

Distinguished Service Cross

Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster

Purple Heart

(This list may Be incomplete at the time of posting)

Thank you, T/Sgt William Francis Coll, for your courage, service, and sacrifice to our great country.

You are forever a HERO remembered!

Sources:

1920 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com

1930 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com

1940 United States Federal Census - Ancestry.com

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 - Ancestry.com

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 - Ancestry.com

U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1954 - Ancestry.com

Pennsylvania, U.S., Veteran Compensation Application Files, WWII, 1950-1966 - Ancestry.com

Remembering Operation Tidal Wave at 75 Years – Oregonians in the Low-Level Mission against Ploiești, 1 August 1943 > 142nd Wing > Article Display (af.mil)

Operation Tidal Wave (history.com)

U.S., National Cemetery Interment Control Forms, 1928-1962 - Ancestry.com

TSGT William Francis Coll (1917-1943) - Find a Grave Memorial

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see http://www.storiesbehindthestars.org ). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 421,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Together We Served and Fold3/Find A Grave have smartphone apps that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery and read these stories of WWII fallen.

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William F Coll