William Carcelli was born in 1920 in Illinois. He resided in Cook County, Illinois prior to the war. He enlisted in the Army on July 25, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. He was noted as being employed as a cranemen and also as Single, with dependents. William served as a 2nd Lieutenant and Bombardier on B-24 "Repulser" (#41-28843), 715th Bomber Squadron, 448th Bomber Group, Heavy, U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. He was Killed In Action when their B-24 was attacked by heavily-armed ME 410 German fighters and crashed.

On the 22nd April 1944, 26 United States Air Force planes took off from Seething airfield to bomb targets in Nazi Germany, but B-24 Liberator 843 “Repulser” was hit as it returned to base and crashed in fields near Kessingland. Part of the 715th Squadron, the men on board were on their third mission after arriving at the south Norfolk air station in the early spring. Hitler’s Luftwaffe took full advantage of its unusually late return to the UK on that fateful night, caused by poor weather before take-off, and sent a force of heavily-armed ME 410 fighters to intercept the bombers.

2LT Carcelli is now buried in the Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov