Veterans Day: Sharing memories at Flying Heritage Collection museum at Paine Field

Published 10:29 pm Wednesday, November 11, 2009

EVERETT — The job Elden Williams did during World War II wasn’t one of the most heralded, but it was one of the most important.

When Williams was first told that he would fly reconnaissance missions, he wasn’t happy.

“To be honest, I was totally teed off,” he said. He’d rather have been flying fighter bomb missions.

His superiors, however, impressed upon him the importance of gathering information about the enemy. He soon found out they were right.

Williams, now 87, of Lynnwood, flew 37 reconnaissance missions from Belgium and Germany in the last year of World War II, in a modified P-51 Mustang for the U.S. 9th Air Force.

Williams and British Royal Air Force reconnaissance pilot Ellis Knowlton recounted some of their experiences in a Veterans Day event at the Flying Heritage Collection museum at Paine Field on Wednesday.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen also spoke at the event. About 100 people attended.

The museum, established by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, features restored World War II era fighter planes from the principal combatant nations in the war.

The importance of the role of all soldiers and veterans was the theme of the event. Williams said reconnaissance pilots were largely responsible for turning the war in Europe once and for all in the Allies’ favor.

At the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, in the winter of 1944, “we were in deep, deep doo-doo,” he said. Snow and bad weather kept Allied troops from knowing where German forces were concentrated.

Two reconnaissance pilots set out with clouds so low they had to fly as close as 30 feet from the ground. The pilots eventually spotted the German troops.

As a result, when the weather cleared, the Allied forces knew where to direct their attacks and destroyed or damaged thousands of German vehicles, locomotives and pieces of artillery.

“From that point on it was just a race to Berlin,” Williams said.

Williams himself sometimes flew weather reconnaissance, determining where it was worthwhile for Allied forces to venture. He didn’t like these missions, but they saved fuel, oil and aircraft wear and tear, he said.

He had a couple of harrowing missions but was never shot down. One time, he was chased by German fighters and had to go into a nosedive to escape. When he hit 500 mph, the controls locked up on him.

“I was at that point when the guy was shooting at me,” he said.

He had to cut the power, pull back on the stick and activate flaps to pull out of the dive, he said.

Knowlton, also 87, of Vancouver, B.C., flew British Spitfires on reconnaissance missions in Italy. His power cut out on one flight, but just as he was faced with either bailing out and being captured or crash landing in a minefield, the engine restarted.

“Fortunately it was a decision I didn’t have to make,” he said.

Another vet who showed up at the event wasn’t part of the panel. Poldi Meindl, 81, who lives in Burnaby, B.C., was in the Hitler Youth during the war. Toward the end of the war, at age 17, he was enlisted to fire artillery at Allied planes. He hit a British plane that started to go down, he said, “and he pulled out of the dive and got away.” Meindl has always wanted to know who the pilot was but has been unable to learn his identity, he said.

Gregoire and Larsen both spoke of the importance of honoring and caring for veterans.

Larsen said improvements have been made in funding for veterans, but there are still 131,000 homeless veterans in the United States.

Gregoire said her husband, Mike, is a Vietnam veteran and has made honoring veterans a top priority.

The governor said the same perseverance shown by the generation that faced the Great Depression and World War II could come in handy with the economic difficulties of today.

“They showed us what courage and generosity can do for the common good,” she said.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.