William Edward Laslo was born on May 15, 1923, in Frostburg, Maryland. He moved to Springfield Township, Summit County, Ohio, with his mother, father, and sister.
William attended the Uniontown High School in the adjacent Stark County as he lived closer to that school. Being six foot two inches in height and reasonably slim at one hundred and thirty-eight pounds (65kgs), he excelled in his school basketball team. On leaving school, he worked in a machine shop before enlisting in the Army at Akron on January 29, 1943.
After his initial military training, William Laslo was posted to one of the Army radio schools where he gained skills in radio theory and maintenance, also becoming competent in Morse code. During missions, the Radio Operator only received messages from the Wing HQ. Due to total radio silence, there was no radio traffic between aircraft in the group.
The lead 'ship' would only send a short-coded message when the bomb-load was delivered.
William Laslo attended the air gunnery school in Harlingen, Texas. He completed combat training with his crew at Davis-Monthan airfield Tucson Arizona before joining the 492nd BG at Alamogordo, New Mexico where they were allocated to 856th BS as crew 607 before flying in their allocated aircraft B24J (44-40146) 'Sugar-N-Spice' across the Atlantic via the southern route arriving at North Pickenham in April 1944. There he spent his first weeks on familiarization flights with the 856th Squadron.
William Laslo's first operational mission as Radio Operator was on May 11, 1944, in 'Sugar-N-Spice.'
There were two further missions in this aircraft; the six following missions were in a variety of other 'ships.' The final and fatal mission on June 4, 1944, was in B24H (42-95160). This un-named 'replacement' aircraft was on its fourth mission having arrived on the squadron five days earlier.
B-24H #42-95160 took off from England on a bombing mission over Avord, France. For an unknown reason, the plane stalled and spun out of control, and crashed at Garvestone, Norfolk, England.
TSgt Laslo, along with all his crew was buried at the US Cemetery at Madingley on 5 June 1944. His remains were later repatriated and he is now buried in the Hillside Memorial Park, Akron, Summit County, Ohio, USA.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.garveston12.org.uk