Cecil William “Bill” Simmons was born on October 15, 1920, in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina. He was the son of Clarence William Simmons and Bess Avarilla Bullington Simmons.

Bill earned his pilot’s license at 18 and volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, four months after graduating from high school and well over a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He received his wings in May 1941 and joined No. 149 Squadron Royal Air Force in England in June 1941. Flying out of RAF bases at Mildenhall and Lakenheath, Bill completed 26 bombing missions over Europe including participating in the famous first “Thousand Bomber Raid” in May 1942. In June 1942, Bill’s Short Stirling bomber received heavy damage on a mission over Bremen, Germany, and the plane was lost over the Ijsselmeer in the Netherlands on its return flight with the loss of the entire crew.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com