[Annotator's Note: The interview begins in a room with airplane model and other memorabilia around. It sounds as if someone is on a telephone call.] William Fili was in the 450th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force. He describes that he is sitting in front of a radio-controlled replica of the B-24 Liberator [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] that he was shot down in. It was the deputy lead on the high-level raid on 5 April 1944. He was in the nose turret. The fighters lined up in front of them and were aiming right at him. He could see the 109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft] with their 20mm cannons firing. When he was writing a book 30 years later, it finally scared the hell out of him that he was the bullseye. Fili was born in December 1923 in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. He was always interested in aviation. He learned to fly in a B-24. He was the engineer, but they taught him how. He only attended one year of high school. It was right after the Great Depression and he had to go to work to get food for the family.

William Fili enlisted a few days after Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was heavy at the time and wanted to join the Navy. The doctor asked him if he wanted to sink the ship before the enemy did. He enlisted in January or February 1942. They had him report to active duty on Armistice Day, 11 November [Annotator's Note: 11 November 1942]. He trained as a mechanic, then an engineer, and then went to gunnery school all in nine months. He first flew in gunnery school in Fort Myers [Annotator's Note: Fort Myers Army Airfield, Fort Myers, Florida]. The pilots were all sergeants and were Cherokee Indians. Fili was in the rear of a T-6 [Annotator's Note: North American AT-6 Texan advanced trainer aircraft]. The gunner's canopy was removed. The bullets were painted, and the color would stick to the target. He was a wild kid and drank too much beer. He did not make his flight the next day. He was made to mop the office three times and then made to fly. At graduation, he got word the CO [Annotator's Note: commanding officer] was looking for him. He ducked him all day. Around ten o'clock that night, someone told him to report right away or the MPs [Annotator's Note: Military Police] would be called. He reported in. Fili did not want to wash out. The CO threw a roll of money at him. Everyone had put in one dollar for the person who had scored the highest. Fili won the money. The CO said he could go to a gunnery competition, but Fili wanted to stay with the unit and go through the war with the friends he had made.

William Fili went for assignment to Salt Lake City [Annotator's Note: Salt Lake City, Utah]. He had just finished B-26 [Annotator's Note: Martin B-26 Marauder medium bomber] school as an engineer. He was assigned to B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] in Tucson [Annotator's Note: Tucson, Arizona], where the crew was made. He remained together with one man he had gone through schools with. [Annotator's Note: Fili and the interviewer discuss rescue missions and books. The discussion is difficult to follow.] Fili went to Alamogordo [Annotator's Note: Alamogordo Army Airfield, now Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico] after some leave where they trained as a group. They left there for phase training in a brand-new airplane. They went to West Palm Beach [Annotator's Note: West Palm Beach, Florida] to prepare to go down through South America, Africa, and Tunis [Annotator's Note: Tunis, Tunisia]. They were in Tunis for the landing in Salerno [Annotator's Note: Salerno, Italy on 9 September 1943]. After that they went up into Italy. They got to their base [Annotator's Note: Manduria Airfield, Manduria, Italy] on 20 December 1943. His crew was the first to land there of the 450th "Cottontails" [Annotator's Note: 450th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force].

The first couple of bombing missions William Fili was on were "milk runs" [Annotator's Note: slang term used by American airmen to describe an easy combat mission]. The first mission was to Verona [Annotator's Note: Verona, Italy on 14 February 1944]. They were returning along the coast of western Italy and when Fili looked over towards Venice [Annotator's Note: Venice, Italy] he saw a puff of smoke. He said they should go closer and look at it. It was a flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] burst. [Annotator's Note: Fili laughs.] Fili flew with the same crew every day. They had difficulty with their squadron commander. He was a nasty man. He did not let them fly for their first three or four missions. He tried to split his crew up, but they resisted it. They missed their first mission briefing because their bombardier did not wake up the gunners. Fili's baptism of fire was Regensburg [Annotator's Note: Regensburg, Germany]. That was called Big Week [Annotator's Note: Operation Argument, 20 to 25 February 1944]. The Germans called it "The Week of White Death." Men bailed out and were entombed in the high Alps. They had been briefed on flak being "HIA" or Heavy, Intense, Accurate. All along the route there were airfields with 109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-019 fighter aircraft], 190s [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighter aircraft]. The 109s could only stay in combat about 15 minutes. It was continuous. Fili was going after the factories and others were going after the airfields. They flew about four miles up. That was one of the coldest winters in Europe. They were briefed to wear their electric heating suits.

William Fili had not been trained how to bail out of an aircraft. They had one bit of instruction. OSS [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] teams lectured them as to what was going to happen. Fili was in an auditorium listening to this. A man showed them how to put a parachute on and take it off. That was the extent of their training. At 20,000 feet, you would have 20 or 30 seconds to live and by then you would fall down into altitudes with oxygen. At Regensburg [Annotator's Note: Regensburg, Germany] during Big Week [Annotator's Note: Operation Argument, 20 to 25 February 1944], the temperature gauges showed the maximum of 60 degrees below zero. The heat suits worked well. They would sometimes shock and burn them though. Fili never wore his parachute. There was not enough room. The ball gunner [Annotator's Note: ball turret gunner] could never wear one. His knees were up to his ears just to fit inside the turret. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells of a gunner trying to get out.] Fili was in the nose turret and he had a 270 degree view. He could see everything going on. Everyone once in a while, he would see planes chicken out and not go over the target. In Regensburg, he could see Lake Constance [Annotator's Note: Switzerland]. He said to the crew they could go over and sit out the war. Just as he said that, he saw a B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] head in that direction. There was a 109 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft] right behind it. Fili did not see anyone firing. The Americans had no fighter escorts at the time. If you were flying alone, you were a dead duck if there were enemy fighters around.

Enemy fighters would come from all directions at the bombers. William Fili says they would dive fast and then turn away for another one to come in. Fili could not shoot at more than one at a time. It was something they did; he never looked at it as being scared. He had a job to do and he was fighting. He would end up running out of ammunition, he carried 250 rounds, it did not last long. You are flying along and break out of the haze and the German fighters were up above waiting for them. He was too busy to realize what was going on. You get lucky [Annotator's Note: shooting down an enemy fighter], it is not skill. The closing speed is about 600 miles per hour. He was usually in one of the three lead planes. They all shot at the incoming fighters and they all missed. The fighters just hopped over them and shot the ships at the tail of the formation. He flew three days of Big Week [Annotator's Note: Operation Argument, 20 to 25 February 1944]. He went overseas with 62 brand new airplanes with brand new, well-trained crews. His first actual bombing mission was 2 January 1944. By 4 April 1944, five original crews were left, including his. On 24 April he was shot down. [Annotator's Note: Fili tells a story from a book he wrote.] The flight surgeon had come up to him that day and called him by his first name, which he had never done. He also asked about how the crew was feeling. Fili thinks now he was trying to find some way to not let them fly. Fili found out later that after his crew did not come back, he [Annotator's Note: the flight surgeon] quit and transferred to a hospital. He did not want to get personal with anymore crews. He had lost over 60 of his crews. His job was to keep them healthy to die. That was hard on the flight surgeons and COs [Annotator's Note: commanding officers].

On William Fili's first mission to Ploesti [Annotator's Note: Ploesti, Romania] on 5 April 1944, his was the only crew out of six to come back to his barracks. He did not feel lucky. They were stoic and talking nonchalantly about it. They were getting mad, because new replacement crews were already coming in and were gung-ho. He just wanted to get away from them and let them learn. He was shot down on his 34th mission [Annotator's Note: on 24 April 1944]. Their tour number in Italy was 50 missions. The day he was shot down, it was changed to 35 from 50. That day started with the flight surgeon talking to him. He had a delay in getting started. Fili lit the cigarettes of two other men and his using the same match. After they were shot down, one of the men blamed it on that. "Three on a match". Fili used to call on the pilot on a clear day and say the target was "dead ahead". The pilot would tell him not to say that and to say "it is up there" or something besides dead. In the area of the nose turret was the only place they could smoke. Whenever they would get down to about 14,000 feet, the pilot would open the door, hand Fili a cigarette and they both would say that was their last mission. [Annotator's Note: Fili laughs.]

The target that day [Annotator's Note: 24 April 1944, the day William Fili was shot down] was Ploesti [Annotator's Note: Ploesti, Romania]. William Fili remembers his bombs hitting. Planes normally flew in an 18 plane echelon with six planes in the center, six high right, and six lower right. Three planes went back because of malfunctions. Fili looked around and asked the tail gunner where the other two planes were. They were up there alone. One plane alone lets the gunners on the ground pick it apart. Right after "bombs away", the plane started jerking due to the explosions of the antiaircraft shells. The first one came right through the wing. [Annotator's Note: Fili talks to the interviewer about another aircraft that folded in half.] The next shot came up at the inboard engine. Pop Culver [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant Robert B. Culver, Jr.] went out there and was holding the gas line with his hand. It got too cold and he could not hold it, so they lost that engine. The third shot hit near Fili and blew the canopy off. It splattered him with shrapnel. He was bloody and semi-conscious. The navigator, Glen Boyle [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Second Lieutenant Glen E. Boyle] got him out and put his parachute on him. The bombardier told Fili to go out. You do funny things in times like that. He was on his back, watching Destiny Deb [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber tail number 42-78170] fly away. He waved to it and pulled his ripcord. He could see two other parachutes in the distance. He could see kids and farmers. He landed and tumbled down a hill. He cracked his legs, which he still suffers from. He had been told to let anyone know he was an American. If they think you are Russian, they will kill you right away. They came over and were shaking his hand. Two or three bearded men grabbed him and tied his hands. He was in no condition to fight them. A sad-looking woman was in front of him and came straight at him. He thought it was his last moment on earth, but she went past him and was pounding on someone else. Fili turned and there was a man ready to put an axe in his skull. Fili collapsed. They helped him up and the woman started cleaning the blood off his face. They were joined by his tail gunner and radio operator who came up with guards. They all went to a village to a jail.

[Annotator's Note: William Fili, his tail gunner, and radio operator were all captured and placed in a village jail after bailing out of their aircraft over Ploesti, Romania on 24 April 1944.] They brought in a woman who spoke perfect English. A man who had been going to kill him with an axe came in and knelt to kiss Fili's hand. The man told the interpreter to say he was sorry. Fili asked the interpreter why the man had tried to kill him. He told a story that a week or so before, there was a fierce air battle over their territory and shrapnel and bullets were coming down. Both of the man's children were killed in that battle. Fili did not tell him that he had likely killed his kids in that battle. Fili had to live with that for the rest of his life. The woman who had stopped him from putting the axe in Fili's skull was his wife. They were her children. They were so nice to him after he had destroyed their lives. Fili did go back after the war in 1995, and the couple were already dead. It would have been nice to try and thank them. The people in Romania and Ploesti never held it against them. He had people who wrote him after his books came out. A woman wrote to thank the Americans. They knew it had to be done. They wanted the Americans to chase the Russians away.

The first night William Fili was in the prison camp [Annotator's Note: in Bucharest, Romania], the British came over and dropped bombs. He finally got to sleep in an upper bunk in a burlap bag. He was awakened due to the air raid. He got up and had a cigarette. The whole city was lit up. They were in a garrison being used as a prison camp for downed airmen. An Englishman was at the window and was watching a Wimpy [Annotator's Note: British Vickers Wellington medium bomber] coming over when it dropped a bomb. He screamed and everybody dove under the beds. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer interrupts the story and asks Fili about his crew.] All of Fili's crew made it out of the airplane alive. The navigator broke his leg. When a bomber was shot down with ten men, on average three got out alive. He would always count parachutes if he saw an airplane go down on a mission. He was in Bucharest in the camp. The guards were all Romanian. They were treated well. They got the same food as the regular soldiers once a day. In the morning they got a weak tea and a piece of bread. Three of them got ptomaine poisoning pretty bad. The guards confiscated their escape kits. Fili would not take the morphine and suffered through it. His two crewmen were taken to a hospital. A few days later, a bombing mission hitting the railroad yards, hit the hospital. It killed the Romanian soldiers there. Their food rations were cut, and it took a while to convince them it was not the prisoners who had caused it. People outside would throw things at them.

William Fili was concerned about what his parents were feeling, but it would drive him nuts if he thought about it too much. They would get information from the men coming in. They got word on D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] right away. The Red Cross packages were not released by the Germans until two weeks before he was liberated. [Annotator's Note: The tape breaks and restarts with a new story about a yellow tunnel.] The guard came in at night and was trying to get dressed. He was excited. Fili had made friends with him through the fence. He kept saying "Peace" in Romanian and said that he was going home. The captain of the guard came in to get dressed and said that King Michael [Annotator's Note: Michael I of Romania, King of Romania] had told the German forces to get out of his country. They were asked not to leave the prison until a General got there. The General said not to leave. He felt the Germans were going to try and capture the prisoners for use as ransom. The next morning, it was a nice day. They started hearing sniper fire and 109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft] were coming in with bombs. That started three days of incessant bombing. They moved their sick and wounded away. At the end of two days, the camp was completely destroyed. Fili was trying to get guns and went through the city with a man helping them. They went into a Jewish enclave, there was a whole community. They had a feast there for some Americans, he had tricked them about the guns. Fili saw the Jewish star and the word Irgun [Annotator's Note: Zionist paramilitary organization in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948]. He decided they better get out of there. A 109 came over and dropped a bomb. Fili ducked into a building with some other people. He told them he was an American. They started shouting that the Americans were there to chase the Russians out and save them. They were kneeling in front of him. He had to leave. He could not do anything. People should know they thought that.

[Annotator's Note: William Fili was liberated from a prisoner of war camp in Bucharest, Romania on 23 August 1944.] They had to get word to the Allies that they were freed. The radio operator built radios. They found Captain Constantin Cantacuzino [Annotator's Note: Constantin Cantacuzino was a Romanian aristocrat as well as Romania's highest scoring fighter ace of World War 2] who was royalty and was a barn-storming pilot. He told Colonel Jim Gunn [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James A. Gunn, III] that was his 109 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft]. He told Gunn to climb into the fuselage and he would fly him to Italy. They painted an American flag on both sides of the fuselage. Gunn climbed in and was bolted in. They landed in San Giovanni [Annotator's Note: San Giovanni Airfield, Italy] where Gunn had been Deputy Commander of the 454th Bombardment Group. An OSS team [Annotator's Note: Office of Strategic Services; pre-runner to today's Central Intelligence Agency or CIA] and two B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] flew in and discovered it was not a trap. They fit wooden floors into 32 B-17s. They landed on a short field, left their engines running, men climbed on, and they took off, around the clock, arranged by Colonel Kraigher [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Colonel George Kraigher]. They rescued 1,160 prisoners of war, 400 miles behind the German lines in two days without a single casualty. King Michael [Annotator's Note: Michael I of Romania, King of Romania] sent a message with Colonel Gunn to General Twining [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces then US Air Force General Nathan Farragut Twining], to Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States], to Churchill [Annotator's Note: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill; Prime Minister, United Kingdom, 1940 to 1945], and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. He said to please have the Allies occupy Romania and not to let the Russians in. It was prearranged and Roosevelt and Churchill said no. With that no, the Romanians then suffered for 45 years under one of the cruelest dictatorships ever.