Bill was pilot of B-26 Marauder Sharon Rozanne II. He had flown 35 missions and was due for some liberty in Scotland but he and his co-pilot chose to fly one more mission into France. He was shot down on August 4, 1944, while trying to bomb a bridge near Chartres, France. Bill parachuted out of the plane after his crew and landed in a field. He broke his ankle and was taken in by some farmers who eventually got him to a safe house in Paris. The man who led him to the safe house eventually turned him and the other pilots over to the Gestapo. Bill was taken by boxcar, along with 167 other men, to Buchenwald. He was there for three months and was then taken to Stalag Luft III, Stalag XIII, and finally to Stalag VIII