Bill Pace was born and raised in Waterbury, Connecticut, a blue collar town in the middle of the state. Bill was the youngest of three with a brother and a sister. Right after completing High School, Bill knew the inevitable was going to be the draft and sure enough, the call came in May of 1943 for induction into the Army Air Force - there was no separate Air Force at the time - and the 18 year old Connecticut lad was off in June for an adventure of a life-time. I am sure at the time that the last thing Bill would call it is an adventure. Little did he know when he was drafted into the United States Army Air Corps in June of 1943 that he would wind up being captured by a German officer from Chicago. The Waterbury Connecticut native

recalls every detail of his army life from the day he reported to the induction center at Ft Devins Massachusetts, to the day he bailed out of his crippled B-17 over enemy territory to being liberated from Stalag Luft1, a German POW camp in Barth, Germany. "The ride to basic training in Miami from Ft. Devins was great" he said. "The trip took two days and I didn't mind a bit as we rode in Pullman cars." "Nothing but the best for the Air Corps," he recalled. "Every train ride was first class." From Miami, Pace crisscrossed the United States from one training camp to another for almost a year, practicing day and night missions, bomb runs and specific target bombing before being assigned to a brand new B-17 for the flight to England. Flying the northern route, he and his crew landed in Valley Wales England. "We were given royal treatment," Pace said. "The Brits couldn't have been nicer." Pace was assigned to the 390th Bomb Group, the top rated in England.

"We had had more kills and more missions than any other group, receiving two presidential citations," he recalled. The missions Pace and his fellow crew members took them deep into enemy territory to deliver their bombs on strategic targets. The nine men were very cohesive, depending on each other for survival. Being the Ball Turret Gunner, Pace had a bird's eye view of the terrain below and armed with twin 50 caliber machine guns, he fought off enemy fighters that

attacked his formation relentlessly. Preparing for his 12th mission, Pace was concerned. "I had a premonition something was going to happen and didn't sleep all night," he said. "We were going back to the Merseburg oil refineries for the 2nd time which was heavily defended." "For the first time I put on my parachute harness and took the chute along," he recalled. When asked why he never did this before, he said "It was big and clumsy, and I could never fit in the ball turret with it, so what good was it". On November 30, 1944 Pace and his crew left England with 2,500 other B-17's headed for Merseburg. "As we approached the target, all hell broke loose" he said. "The Germans must have taken every anti-aircraft gun they had and placed them around Merseburg." "The flack was so thick we could have put down the landing gear and rode on it." "The sky was black with flack." Dropping their bombs, Pace looked up at the bomb rack and called "All bombs

away." A blast of flack killed the co-pilot and then Pace felt a "Terrific crash." "The plane shuttered and started to go down." The waist gunner opened the hatch to let Pace out and he learned that another B-17 above them got hit, rolled upside down and landed on them. "That was the crash I heard," Pace said. Desperately trying to get his chute attached to the harness, the Flying Fortress split in two and Pace bailed out at 30,000 feet with just one part of his chute attached to the harness. Tumbling upside down and falling like a rock he said, "I could not hook up the chute to the harness and the trees were getting bigger and bigger so I pulled the belly chute cord as a last resort and it opened." "I could see the people from the town following my descent and when I landed in somebody's garden I was immediately surrounded by a mob of angry people and a rope was tied around my neck." "They were screaming at me in German but I sure knew I was in trouble," he recalled. "I was paraded through town where people threw stones at me." "Just then a German officer on a bicycle arrived and dispersed the crowd with a shot from his pistol and took me in tow." "In perfect English, he said, they were going to hang you." "When I asked how he spoke English so well, he said he was from Chicago and in Germany on vacation and was conscripted into the army. "He saved my life," Pace recalled. The officer took Pace to a police station where he was detained for two days. The officer said he would be treated well and asked what he was going to do with his parachute which he carried with him. The officer suggested he give it to the jail secretary who said she would use it for her wedding gown. "I felt real good about doing that," Pace said. "My parachute which saved my life was going to make a young lady a happy bride." After two days, Pace was taken to an interrogation center where he saw his bombardier and navigator. This is when he learned they were the only three to survive the downing of their aircraft, one of 69 B- 17's lost that day. From the interrogation center, Pace and his fellow POW's were herded into box cars and shipped to Dulag-Luft for Air Corps personnel before being shipped to Stalag Luft IV, located in Stettin, Germany on the Eastern front. Here his was interred with British, Canadian and Polish POW's. In January of 1945 the Russians were getting close to the camp, so the men were again transferred to Stalag 1 in Barth Germany on the Baltic coast. On January 29th, 3,000 POW's were marched two miles from Stalag Luft IV to a train station where "We were loaded into box cars and packed in like sardines," Pace recalls. "They were filthy cattle cars with manure and straw covering every inch of the floor." "It was bitter cold and we were hungry. Dysentery was rampart on that God awful train, but we were determined to get through that six day trip, no matter what," Pace said. In early April, the German guards fled as the Russians were closing in and liberated the camp. "We were one happy group of liberated GI's," Pace recalled. I lost 50 pounds since I was captured. Pace and most of his fellow POW's were then flown to LeHarve, France where they spent two weeks recovering from their ordeal. It was here that he met General Eisenhower. "I was as close to him as I am to you," he said. "A group of us chatted with Ike for about fifteen minutes." "He told us we were going home and thanked each and every one of us for a job well done." His trip back to the states was also an eventful one. On board a spanking new ship, the USS Admiral Mayo, they met Victor Mature who was the Chief Petty Officer of the Mayo. The men had many questions for the actor and his reported romance with Rita Hayworth. "He was a real gracious guy," Pace said. Pace attained the rank of Staff Sergeant and was discharged on November 5, 1945. He went to work for the Bristol Company which specialized in the manufacture of weather instruments, spending 38 years there. He also worked part time for 38 years at the Boys Club as a physical education instructor in Waterbury. He met his wife Mary at a USO dance in Waterbury and was married on April 12, 1947. Bill and Mary have four children, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren and one great, great grandchild. His thoughts on the military? "I feel it's the best thing that can happen to a young person." "They should join the Air Force, as it's the cream of the crop," he said. Pace's only regret is not obtaining the name of the German officer who saved him from being hanged. "I sure would like to see him and say thank you." Pace was awarded the Purple Heart, the Air Medal and Peace Medal. He and his wife Mary have resided in Bonita Springs since moving from Waterbury in 1990. He is active in the Knights of Columbus, Our Lady of the Rosary Assembly.