Memorial

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Pfc William L. Panagakos attended Eastern High School for three years.

He enlisted at Fort Myer, Virginia on 26 August 1943.

He was taken prisoner on 4 October 1944 and was held captive at Stalag II-B in Hammerstein, Germany where he worked as a cook.
The flight was British Hudson V9169 detailed to fly from Luneburg, Germany and transport British former POWs to Brussels, Belgium.

These were nonstop flights continuing night and day, and regarded as an emergency to remove all the POW’s out of Germany as soon as possible.

On this particular flight, there was not enough of the British POW’s available for flight, so American POW’s were boarded.

There were eight passengers on board and five crew members.

Upon landing, the airplane bounced badly and the pilot attempted re-take off, engines gunned, he climbed steeply, fell back in a tail slide, stalled, nosedived to the ground, and burst into flames upon impact. There were no survivors.