Bill Cope
Hickam Field Hawaii
Bill was a newly married Bomber pilot when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7,1941. He graduated from flying school in June 1941 and his first duty station was at Hickam Field, Hawaii.
Bill met his wife, Ruth, while she was vacationing on Oahu. It was love at first sight and they were married at the Hickam Officers’ Club just 10 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was Officer of the Guard December 6,1941. His duty was to line up the all of the B-17’s, supposedly to avoid sabotage but instead enabling the Japanese to get them in one quick attack.
Bill flew search missions around the Hawaiian Islands after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In June 1942 he participated in the Battle of Midway and in August left for Guadalcanal as a member of the 11th Bomb Group.
At Guadalcanal the Japanese had landed three transports on the northern part of the island and were off-loading supplies. Bill’s mission was to bomb the Japanese supply effort. They took off from Espirito Santos and as they were flying over Iron Bottom Sound toward the target the Japanese cruisers and destroyers were shooting at them along with some Zero fighter airplanes attacking from all directions.
Bill knew that that the Navigator and Bombardier in the nose were busy firing at bogies. He was afraid that they would miss the bomb release point on the transports, so he called down and said, "Get ready to get those bombs away!" Apparently, what the crew interpreted was "Bombs Away!" and thinking they maybe had been hit the bombardier dumped the bomb load. Lo and behold, they hit a Japanese heavy cruiser. Official reports stated that it was sunk.
When they got back to their base Bill was apologizing for not dropping on target while crews from other planes were congratulating him for hitting the heavy cruiser. The bombardier would never state whether or not he was aiming at the cruiser, his reply was a simple grin.