William W. 'Bill' Murphy

 

Remembering A Hero - By Steve Blake

(From the 7/04 issue of Lightning Strikes. Submitted by,

Charles C. Walker/95th - Friend)

 

It was a little after 5:30 on the afternoon of April 8, 1944. Three Bell P-63 King

Cobra single-engine fighters from the nearby Santa Rosa Army Air Field were

high above the Napa River where it flowed through the city of the same name,

in Northern California's scenic wine country. Suddenly, one of them fell from

the sky and crashed into the river, killing its pilot, Lt. William w: Murphy. The

number two man in that formation, 2nd Lt. Charles C. Walker, later described

what happened for the official accident investigation report: "We were on an

authorized local elementary formation and simulated strafing mission. Our

three-ship formation climbed to approximately 14000 feet. Lt. Murphy signaled

for echelon and peeled off. We followed in string and Lt. Murphy pulled up and

peeled off again. This time Lt. Murphy went into a spiral or spin at

approximately 11000 feet and spun all the way down and crashed. At no time

during the flight were we doing any violent maneuvers." The wreckage of the

P-63, with the pilot's body still inside, was pulled from the river the following

day. An autopsy determined that Lt. Murphy had died instantly of massive

head injuries. It was sad but unfortunately not unusual for a WW II combat

veteran like Bill Murphy to be killed in a flying accident after returning

Stateside. As was so often the case, its cause was found to be "pilot

error"-specifically, "exercising poor technique in failing to recover from a

voluntary maneuver." 1" Lt. William Woodrow Murphy, ASN 0-659478, was

from Jamaica, Long Island, New York. He was born on April 18, 1919 into a

large family that eventually included 13 children (Bill had four sisters and eight

brothers). He entered the Aviation Cadet Program in 1941, completing Primary

training at Oklahoma City in December of that year and Basic at Randolph

Field, Texas two months later. Murphy received his wings and commission on

April 29, 1942 (Class 42-D) after Advanced training at Lubbock, Texas. Bill

Murphy was one of a large group of replacement P-38 pilots that joined the

82nd Fighter Group in North Africa in April of 1943. On April 17 he was assigned

to the group's 95th Fighter Squadron. He completed his 50- mission combat

tour five months later, on September 11. Murphy was awarded the DFC for his

participation in one of the 82nd's biggest missions, for which it received the

second of its three Distinguished Unit Citations-a B-25 escort to the Naples

area of Italy on September 2. After leaving the target following the bombing

the American formation was attacked by a large number of enemy fighters,

precipitating a huge air battle over the Mediterranean Sea. When it was over,

ten of the P-38s had been shot down, but none of the B-25s. The 82nd FG pilots

were credited with 23 enemy planes destroyed, five probably destroyed and

eight damaged, of which Lt. Murphy shot down an Me 109 and an Italian Macchi

202, his only air victories. He was also awarded the Air Medal with four oak leaf

clusters. As was true of most of the pilots returning from overseas tours at that

time, Murphy was assigned to train other, fledgling, fighter pilots, preparing

them for combat. In his case it was with the 434ili Base Unit, a Fighter

Replacement Training Unit (Single Engine), at Santa Rosa. Coincidentally, the

unit's operations officer, who participated in the accident investigation, was

1st Lt. Wilbur "Will" Hattendorf who had served with Bill in the 95ili FS in North

Africa. Lt. Walker completed his advanced fighter training shortly after the

accident and by June was in Italy, where he was assigned to the 95th Fighter

Squadron! "Chuck" Walker's stay with the 95th was much shorter than Lt.

Murphy's, however, as his P-38 was shot down over Hungary the following

dramatic death became part of the city of Napa's historical lore, but, as is so

often the case, the memory of it gradually dimmed as the decades passed.

Recently, however, some local historians and civic leaders took a close look at

this tragic event. Specifically, they contemplated some statements in a

detailed article about it that had appeared in the April 14, 1944 edition of The

Napa Journal. That story said that Lt. Murphy's "plane suddenly went into a

vertical dive. It twisted into a spin, and appeared headed directly for the

Conner hotel at Main and Third streets. The pilot, however, managed to pull it

over toward the river, thus averting a crash that might have claimed many

lives on the busy streets. The Third street bridge was thronged with war

workers returning from local war plants. Witnesses stated that Lieut. Murphy

almost had the plane under control again when it struck the water. A few

hundred more feet of altitude might have saved him. It was thought that he

could have bailed out of the falling plane and saved himself by parachute, but

chose to guide the disabled craft away from the busy streets, although it cost

him his own life." On an even more personal, and very poignant, level, the

article revealed that, "Across the nation, at Jamaica, N. Y., a sequel occurred

to the crash here. Mrs. Lillian Murphy, mother of the flyer, received a box of

Easter flowers, ordered by telegraph by her son. Only a half an hour later,

another messenger rang the doorbell, this time with a telegram from the war

department, telling of his death." The aforementioned civic leaders also noted

that several days after the accident the Napa city council officially recognized

Lt. Murphy's "supreme courage." In a tribute to him, the mayor had declared

that, "Napa owes a deep debt of gratitude to this brave officer, whose heroism

long will be remembered here." And so it was and is-and as of very recently in

a very tangible way. It was finally decided that a plaque telling about Lt.

Murphy and his sacrifice on behalf of the city of Napa should be placed close to

the crash site. Thus, on the after- noon of May 22, 2004, that plaque, which had

been installed on a railing next to the river near where Lt. Murphy lost his life,

was dedicated in a formal ceremony. The guest of honor was none other than

Lt. Murphy's wingman on that fateful day, Charles Walker, who was

accompanied by his wife Ines. Chuck remembered Murphy as a very nice

person and a tough instructor. On the ground he was just "one of the guys" and

participated in unit sports and get- togethers. He also remembered that Lt.

Murphy wasn't feeling well that day and someone had offered to take his flight,

but he refused-"he was the type of person who carried his own weight." The

ceremony was the dramatic climax of a daylong special celebration the theme

of which was "Day of History at the Historic Napa Mill," in an area of the city

adjacent to the Napa River that contains some historic buildings and now, Lt.

Murphy's plaque. It was reportedly quite impressive and included brief

comments by a lieutenant colonel representing the USAF and nearby Travis Air

Force Base, the owner of the Mill, and Chuck Walker. There was also a flyover

by a WWII era SNJ "Texan" trainer piloted by a Navy veteran of Operation Iraqi

Freedom, a presentation by the Honor Guard from Travis, and a playing of the

national anthem and taps by the base's band. William W. Murphy, a P-38 pilot

and a hero both overseas in combat and in vital Stateside service, has finally

been remembered properly, for generations to come.

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