In 1944, America had been at war for more than three years. Throughout that year, history recorded the advancing Allies’ hard-won victories in the world’s great conflict over tyranny: New Guinea. Berlin’s bombings. D-Day and Normandy. The Marianas. Caen, Cherbourg and Paris. Leyte. Bastogne. The Battle of the Bulge.

The Allied air war against Axis targets wore on. With the USAAF 12th and 15th Air Forces based in Italy, its bombers accessed valuable Axis targets more readily. The B-24s were escorted by fighter planes whose pilots engaged enemy aircraft intent on destroying the bombers. The Spitfire’s power and durability made it a formidable challenger to the Luftwaffe’s Messerschmitt Bf 109. Its speed was not only an effective offensive weapon in attacking enemy fighters but enabled many Spitfire pilots to survive during combat chases. Author Stephen Bungay noted that "not until the advent of the first swept-wing jets in 1949 was there anything which could catch it."

On a wintery Saturday in 1944, a 25-year old American flyer left his Corsica base on a sweep over Italy’s Axis installations. The mission would test the limits of his Spitfire craft and combat skills against a superior Axis force.

From Coal Town to Tourist Town:

The small town of Windber, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, prospered during World War I, with its coal and lumber industries, as well as fire brick manufacturing. Located three miles from Johnstown, the community was home to Melvin Gahagen, Sylvia Askey Gahagen and their children, Hugh and Ruby. The family welcomed its youngest member, William Douglas Gahagen on September 17, 1918. William was called Bill by his family and friends.

With the war’s end that fall, the demand for American industrial goods began to decline. On Good Friday 1922, mine workers walked off the job, early efforts to unionize. Melvin, a coal mine operator, likely geehawed with company practices of low wages and long hours. Strikers held out until the next spring but meaningful reforms were a decade away. With the advent of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the United Mine Workers’ organization was successful in 1933.

The Gahagen family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1930, though their residency proved temporary. Four years later, Melvin, Sylvia and their children made their way back to Windber. On Saturday, August 25, 1934, Melvin was on a downtown street when he collapsed. He died from a coronary embolism before emergency workers could transport him to the Windber Hospital.

Sylvia, Huge, Ruby and Bill, 15, relocated to Florida after Melvin’s death. Unlike their Pennsylvania home, the Sunshine State realized economic benefits of tourism as Americans’ automobile ownership grew exponentially during the 1930s. Bill graduated from Fort Lauderdale High School and attended military training camp in 1936 at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

While a student, Bill, 22, registered with the United States Selective Service on October 16, 1940. Sixteen million young Americans were added to draft-ready rolls as the country prepared for war. He pursued his college education in Pennsylvania at the Indiana State Teachers College and received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Supervision in May 1941. But Bill’s life would take an unforeseen journey.

Gahagen entered United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as an Air Cadet in November 1941. In less than one month, the United States declared war on Japan after the island empire attacked Pearl Harbor, Wheeler and Hickam Fields on December 7, 1941.

In 1942, Bill received his basic pilot’s training at Shaw Field, South Carolina and advanced training at Spence Field in Georgia where he was commissioned Second Lieutenant. 2LT Gahagen attended pilot instructors’ school at Maxwell Field, returning to Shaw as an instructor. His tenure at Shaw was brief.

Seek. Attack. Destroy.

On active duty, 2LT Bill Gahagen was attached to the 5th Fighter Squadron, 52nd Fighter Group, 63rd Fighter Wing, 12th Air Force. With its mission-directed motto, “Seek. Attack. Destroy,” the 52nd Fighter Group trained with P-39 and P-40 aircraft in stateside maneuvers. The Group’s air echelon arrived in England in July 1942 and the ground echelon in August. It received Spitfire aircraft and, as part of Eighth Air Force at that time, the 52nd flew missions from England to France into the fall of 1942.

The pilots of the group flew Spitfires from Gibraltar to Algeria during the invasion of North Africa on November 8, 1942. The remainder sailed from England and arrived after the Algeria-French Morocco campaign.

The 52nd FG was assigned first to Twelfth AF and to Fifteenth after May 1944 and served in combat in the Mediterranean Theater until the end of the war. its squadrons continued to fly escort, patrol, strafing and reconnaissance missions to help defeat Axis forces in Tunisia. After participating in Sicily’s conquest, its squadrons attacked railroads, highways, bridges, coastal shipping and other targets to support Allied operations in Italy.

The Thirty-ninth Mission:

On February 19, 1944, the Italian sky was clear. Pilots departed from Corsica with unlimited visibility to the Orvieto area in a sweep over Viterbo installations. Once airborne, 1LT Gahagen moved his Spitfire MA-890 into position with the squadron’s planes. A seasoned pilot, Bill had completed 38 missions with the 52nd Fighter Group. Shortly before 1320 hours, the group was attacked by enemy fighters. In the ensuing aerial combat, Gahagen’s plane was damaged severely by heavy anti-aircraft fire, forcing him to return to Corsica.

As he pulled away, Bill noticed that a group member was under persistent attack and in imminent danger. With no regard for his certain peril, Lieutenant Gahagen intercepted the enemy, destroying an Axis plane. At 1345, witnesses reported that his Spitfire was last seen battling multiple enemy craft against overwhelming odds. According to the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) #2689, it was believed that he disappeared over the Tyrrhenian Sea near Civitavecchia, Italy, his fate uncertain.

Bill’s family received War Department notification that he was missing in action. For his courageous actions on February 19, 1LT Bill Gahagen received the Silver Star posthumously. He was awarded the Purple Heart, Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, the World War II Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal and European Campaign Medal.

His memorial cenotaph rests in Section C Site 30-F at Arlington National Cemetery. His name is inscribed permanently at Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, Toscana, Italy. Bill was survived by his mother, brother and sister.

In June, 1946, the U.S. War Department made a Finding of Death (FOD) for 1LT Gahagen who had been listed as missing in action since his mission over Italy.

As part of the Stories Behind the Stars Project, this story documents the life of an American hero of World War II. SBTS is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? These stories will be accessible via smartphone app at any war memorial or cemetery. If you notice erroneous information or have additional information to contribute, please contact drbaker50@charter.net or feedback@storiesbehindthestars.org. Stories Behind the Stars: https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/ Pamela C. Baker, Ph.D., Contributing researcher and writer.

SBTS Profile/Pennsylvania/Somerset

References:

Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1920 United States Federal Census.

Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1930 United States Federal Census.

Ancestryinstitutions.org. 1940 United States Federal Census.

https://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/492

https://ww2db.com/aircraft_spec.php?aircraft_model_id=9

https://www.bcg.com/publications/2010/growth-automakers-accelerated-out-great-depression

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22428409/william-douglas-gahagen

https://www.fold3.com/memorial/529869363/william-d-gahagen

http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/magnificent-fight-unionism-somerset-county-strike-1922/

Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents. Various Florida Newspaper Sources, Collection of wildwood12, 2021.

“Silver Star Awarded to Marianna Officer,” 1944, Pensacola News Journal, Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday, November 21. Collection of wildwood12, April 14, 2021.

U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946.U.S. Defense, POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Unaccounted for Remains, Group A, (Unrecoverable,) 1941-1975.

U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current. Photograph, Cenotaph, Collection of Hope.

U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999. Indiana Teachers College, 1941.

U.S., Veterans’ Gravesites, c.a. 1775-2019.

U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947.

William D Gahagen