1st Lt. William H. Alm
United States Army Air Corps (1942-1943)

William Henry Alm was born on March 29, 1919 to parents Margaret and Henry Alm of at 2425 Pioneer Avenue. He had two sisters, Virginia and Thelma Ann, and two brothers, James and Robert. The Alm family, originally from McKeesport, moved to Brookline in 1925. Henry Alm bought the business at 826 Brookline Boulevard, at the corner of Stebbins Avenue, and renamed it Alm's Pharmacy.

William attended Brookline Elementary School and graduated from South Hills High School. He then went on to college and, when war was declared, enlisted in the Army on January 26, 1942. William entered the Army Air Corps and received a commission as 2nd Lieutenant. After flight training, he received a promotion to 1st Lieutenant and was assigned as a P47 Thunderbolt pilot in the U.S. Army's 328th Fighter Squadron, 352nd Fighter Group of the U.S. 8th Air Force.

The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was often refered to as the "Mighty Jug," or the "Flying Milk Bottle." It was a big plane, three feet wider than the P-51 Mustang and four feet longer. At more than 10,000 pounds empty, it was about fifty percent heavier than the Mustang and nearly twice the weight of of the British Spitfire. Its primary armament was eight .50-caliber machine guns and in the fighter-bomber ground-attack role it could carry five-inch rockets or a bomb load of 2,500 pounds.

Once assembled, the Fighter Group sailed from New York Harbor for the United Kingdom on July 1, 1943. Four days later they arrived in Scotland. From there they traveled to their home base at Bodney, England. The group flew it's first mission on September 9, 1943, an uneventful sweep over the North Sea to escort B-17s returning from a bombing run.

On a flight only five days later, on September 14, 1943, William went missing. As one of a group of eighty-three fighters returning from a mission sweep over the Knokke/Calaise, France area, the formation entered a large cloud bank. The squadron leader reported that when the planes emerged on the other side, William's was not in the formation and never returned to base. His was the only plane not to return from the mission.

A P47 Thunderbolt with the early markings of the 328th Fighter Squadron

After an investigation into William's disappearance, the official report stated that either his aircraft had a mechanical failure or he was suffering from anoxia (lack of oxygen) and crashed into the English Channel fifty miles east of the Blackwater Estuary. At age 24, Lt. William H. Alm's body was lost at sea.

By war's end the unit had switched from the P47 Thunderbolt to the P51 Mustang and earned the title "The Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney." During the course of the war, the 352nd Fighter Group flew a total of 420 missions, 59,387 operational combat hours, destroyed 776 enemy aircraft. The group and had twenty-nine aerial aces. After returning to the United States at war's end, the unit was deactivated.

Here in Brookline, 1st Lieutenant William H. Alm was listed as Missing In Action on October 9, 1943, as reported in the Pittsburgh Press. The Alm family spent the nearly two years hoping for the possibility that William had somehow survived the crash and was being held as a prisoner by the Germans.

As time passed those hopes dimmed. After the war in Europe ended, the Defense Department changed Alm's status to Killed In Action. As the Alm family and the Brookline community mourned William's loss, a Gold Star appeared in the window of the Alm family home at 2425 Pioneer Avenue.

Lt. William Alm's name is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial at Coton, South Cambridgeshire District, Cambridgeshire, England.

* Written by Clint Burton: March 27, 2018 *

The Brookline War Memorial

Listed below are many of the sons of Brookline who gave their
lives to preserve freedom and contain aggression during
World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.”
General George S. Patton
 

World War I (1917-1919)

The World War I Memorial - Washington D.C.

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World War II (1941-1945)

The World War II Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Korean War (1950-1953)

Korean War Memorial - Washington D.C.

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Vietnam War (1965-1973)

Vietnam War Memorial - Washington D.C.

The Brookline Monument - The Cannon

<Brookline War Memorial> <> <Brookline History>