LtCol William F. Cely

Profile: Born in Palestine, Texas in 1916; known as Billy Cely during his youth while living and attending school & college in Beaumont, Texas. His admiration for Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart led him to learn to fly before WWII; and he continued flying with pilot training in The United States Army Air Corps at Santa Ana, Ontario & Merced, California, graduating in Pilot Class of 43-D (April 1943) a Second Lieutenant receiving his wings at Yuma, Arizona where Captain Barry Goldwater was ground training officer.
Transferred to Pyote Army Air Base in Texas, he said "At Pyote, although I was a fighter pilot they decided I would learn to fly a B-17 and so of course I did." 2nd & 3rd phase bomber training was at Dyersburg, Tennessee with a crew assigned and crew training completed; then to Grand Island, Nebraska to pick up a Flying Fortress which he named Frenesi after a popular song. Navigator Floyd MacGowen painted the "nose art"on the plane. They all flew in the Flying Fort Frenesi to England via Greenland, Iceland and Scotland.
They were assigned to the 333rd Squadron of the 94th Bomb Group (8th Air Force), 3rd Bomb Division (4th Combat Wing), at Rougham Airfield in Bury St. Edmunds, (East Anglia) England There "We had to learn to fly all over again-this time formation flying." Their first bombing raid, 11 November 1943 was over Munster, Germany in the Ruhr Valley. On 25 December 1943, Cely became a 1st Lieutenant and flight leader of his squadron.
11 January 1944 during this time of heavy losses, his 13th mission (dubbed 12-B) was Brunswick deep in Germany. More than 650 bombers took off into heavy rain clouds throughout England and after 2 hours of climbing & assembling, headed for Brunswick. Weather worsened enroute denying the bombers fighter cover; and as they approached the target area, the mission was recalled.

The head of Lt. Cely's 94th lead wing, with 21 planes plus 6 extra, unable to confirm the recall and thinking a visual attack possible, decided to proceed. The rest of the 3rd Division and the 2nd Division turned back. Finding the target obscured by clouds, the commander ordered a second flight over it hoping for a break in
the clouds. The other groups dropped their bombs on the first run and headed for home. Weather in the east was good enough for the Germans to launch their greatest fighter plane effort in months, fiercely attacking the greatly outnumbered bombers. They launched new methods of attack firing broadsides of rockets by line-abreast twin-engine fighters, mixed with 20mm shells and flak from the ground. Eleven of the 21 and 3 of the extra planes went down.
Frenesi, severely damaged inside & out, dropped out of formation into a steep dive taking drastic evasive action to shake the fighters firing on them. The Fort was full of holes, a mess inside and out, the oxygen equipment & interphone destroyed, much of the tail gone, #2 engine dangling, giant holes in the wings with a wing tip gone; and from the cracking sound, they felt the plane would split in two. Dropping from 20,000 feet to 10,000 feet, Lt. Cely leveled the B-17 in some clouds. Half the crew bailed out thinking the plane out of control—going down—and were POW's in Germany till the war ended. Cely went down to 4000 feet and lost the fighters in cloud cover.
Three wounded gunners were unable to leave. One with ripped parachute reached Lt. Cely, who told him "That's all right, Papa is going to take you home." And he did Those words and news of his bringing home "The most battle-damaged plane ever at Rougham Field" put his name on the front pages of newspapers all across the British Isles and America. The London News-Chronicle named him "Man of the Week"; The Illustrated London News, Jan 22, 1944, featured an artist's sketch of the Brunswick air battle; The Stars and Stripes of March 2, 1944 and Time January 24, 1944 (copy attached) carried the story. Edgar A. Guest's poem "The Incident" added further fame. Radios in many countries relayed the good news. Kate Smith ("God Bless America") broke into her "The Kate Smith Hour" in the U.S. to announce it. Even Germany's Axis Sally called him by name saying they would get him next time.
Commanding Officer Frederick W. Castle said it was inconceivable that the plane could fly-that it was the best job of piloting he had ever seen. General Castle was famous for his wooden camp stool that he sat on behind the pilots & co-pilots for especially dangerous missions, including some with Lt. Cely.
Back in Beaumont, Texas they told him that his feat was responsible for a War Bond drive that netted $600,000.00 in excess of the Beaumont quota, said money specifically to replace the "unflyable" Frenesi, to "Buy a Bomber for Billy", a native son whom Texans were calling "The Davy Crockett of 1944." Lt. Cely returned in Frenesi II and completed his tour of missions without losing a plane, the final flight being over Berlin, Germany. His citations include the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal with 3 oak leaf clusters, Presidential Unit Citation and others.
After his combat tour, he was instructor pilot and test pilot for the 333rd Squadron for 2 months and then assigned to the 4th Combat Wing as Assistant Operations Officer.
The war in Europe ended in May 1945 and he returned to the U.S. being assigned to Pueblo, Colorado as Officer in Charge of Test Flying B-24's; learned to fly B-29's and this was included in his test flying assignment. After the war with Japan ended in August 1945, Captain Cely left the service but remained in the Reserve. In 1948 he moved from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona, and in 1953 was assigned to Detachment 17, USAFR. 1964 found him promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and serving as Deputy Commander till his retirement in 1971 completing 28 years of commissioned service with the United States Air Force Reserve.
Col. Cely died 28 March 1992 in Tucson and was inurned with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery on 3 April 1992.