Cecil William “Bill” Simmons joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in October 1940 and is considered to be the first North Carolinian to get his wings with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Bill was born in October 1920 and grew up on Holly Avenue. He graduated from R. J. Reynolds High School and learned to fly at the Winston-Salem airport. He made his first solo flight in October 1939 and was the third youngest pilot in the state when he earned his license.
Bill began his training with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the winter of 1940, mostly on ice-covered fields. He was one of 12, out of the original 276 pilots who started the training course, who finished the course in May 1941.
Bill visited relatives in Winston-Salem in May 1941 and was sent overseas in June 1941. He was promoted to the rank of flight officer one year later. At the time of his promotion, Bill had completed 26 raids over German soil. He was just 4 flights away from the 30-flight furlough which would have involved a transfer to either the Canadian or United States instruction forces.
In the early hours of June 30th, 1942, his four-motored Stirling bomber plane, along with other men and airplanes, was headed to destroy Bremen. This was Bill’s 30th mission. Either on the way there or on the way back, the plane was hit and it plunged into the North Sea, presumably killing all aboard. The body of a companion in his airplane washed ashore in Holland five days later. Bill was initially reported as “missing,” and was even thought to be a prisoner of war. At that time, he was believed to be the first Winston-Salem or Forsyth County man to be reported missing in the European theatre of operations since the United States went to war.
Seven months later, Bill was declared dead and his father was notified of his death. He is listed as being buried in Amsterdam.
A few weeks before his death, the London Daily Mail featured Bill in a double-page article. This was shortly after he led 1,250 planes to Cologne. Bill and his flight buddies supervised the delivery of more than 360,000 pounds of powerful explosives to Bremen, Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Emden, and other cities.
Photograph courtesy of Forsyth County Public Library Photograph Collection.
