William Armstrong

High over the April skies of Vels, Austria, the men of the 332nd Tuskegee

Fighter Group were returning in their P-51 Mustang “Red Tail” airplanes from escorting a group of B-24 bomber planes to St. Polten marshalling yard. A formation of German fighter planes attacked, and in a split second, the Mustang pilots released their airplanes’ heavy fuel tanks to lighten their weight and flew full speed at the German planes. 

One Mustang turned and rushed through the center of the German fighter planes, miraculously avoiding enemy fire. Simultaneously, a second Mustang shot at and hit enemy aircraft. It was hit a moment later by one of the German planes and smashed into the ground below. As the first Mustang turned back to join his formation, a third one was flying above it and was being chased from behind by a German plane. The German

fighter plane fired at this third Mustang and through suffocating clouds of smoke the Mustang plummeted and crashed to the ground. 

The first Mustang was now the only one of the three left, and it sped up and fired from behind at the German plane. But it was too late. Two Mustang fighter pilots of the 332nd Tuskegee Fighter Group had been struck by enemy fire and had hit the ground and died. It was April 1, 1945, Easter Sunday, and William P. Armstrong of Providence, Rhode Island was one of those fallen Tuskegee Mustang fighter pilots. He was only 20 years old. 

Born on Oct. 30, 1924 in Washington, D.C. to Evelyn and George Armstrong, William Armstrong’s father deserted the family when he was a toddler. Soon after, William, his mother and his older sister Evelyn moved to Providence where William’s grandfather lived. 

Once here, Evelyn Armstrong eventually met and married Nelson F. Venter, and the family lived in Providence’s West End neighborhood in a house at 93 Codding St., between where Dodge and Perkins streets are today. Venter was strict and protective of his new family, but he was a kind man and helped Armstrong’s mother raise her two children to become promising young adults. 

After attending Kenyon Street Elementary School and Gilbert Stuart Junior High, Armstrong entered Central High School where according to former American Legion State Commander Robert Miles, an old school chum from those days, Armstrong excelled academically and was a member of the student council. 

Standing about 5’10”, Armstrong was thin, handsome and outgoing when he was around his friends, but when it came to girls, Miles says, he would clam up and suddenly become very shy. 

“Bill didn’t have any serious girlfriends, but he won a lot of them over with that voice,” Miles says. 

Armstrong’s hobby was singing. It was a talent he inherited from his grandfather, Frederick “Bass” Cozzens, who worked at the Providence Journal. Cozzens was nicknamed Bass because of his deep singing voice. 

Armstrong, says Miles, had a beautiful tenor voice. Unlike most teenagers of the 1940s, Armstrong didn’t like to sing popular songs; he preferred more traditional songs. Armstrong’s favorite was the old Irish air, “Danny Boy” whose tune is said to date back more than 200 years. Miles recalls that whenever Armstrong’s mother was around she would always ask her son to sing that song. 

Armstrong was Episcopalian and attended the Church of the Saviour on Providence’s North Main Street. The church held afternoon teas that were popular with the teenagers in Armstrong and Miles’s crowd. Different singing groups showed up to entertain and Armstrong was always asked to sing a solo. 

Miles says Armstrong’s friends used to grumble a lot and kid him because whenever they would bring their dates anywhere Armstrong was singing, the young women would inevitably swoon at the sound of Armstrong’s voice. 

After the teas were over, Miles says the crowd of teenagers would go to Crescent Park, an amusement park and dinner hall on the water in East Providence at the north end 

of Bullocks Point. Miles and Armstrong liked to go there because they had the best seafood dinner around. 

Armstrong graduated from high school when he was 17 in January 1943, and wanted to go to school to become a lawyer. But because of World War II, he put that ambition on hold and entered the U.S. Army Air Force in May 1944. After passing a series of academic entrance exams, Armstrong was accepted for training as a military pilot at the Tuskegee Institute in central Alabama. On Sept 8, 1944 he graduated from Tuskegee Army Flying School and became a flight officer in the elite 332nd Fighter Group. 

Under the command of Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr., the 332nd would come to earn the distinction of being the only U.S. fighter group during WWII to never lose a bomber its pilots were escorting. 

As a fighter pilot with the 332nd, Armstrong’s job was to fly his P-51 Mustang airplane about 5,000 feet above the pilots flying the B-24 bombers. The B-24s sometimes flew at 30,000 feet or higher, and the Mustangs escorted them to and from a target, and sometimes staved off attacks from enemy planes. The Mustangs were fast, agile planes and could quickly zoom in on any enemy aircraft threatening the B-24s below. Shouldering six .50 caliber machine guns on its wings, a Mustang in the trained 

hands of a skilled pilot like Armstrong was a formidable force that most enemy aircraft generally tried to avoid. 

On that fatal Easter Sunday in 1945 when Armstrong’s airplane plunged to the ground, he died a hero’s death, and those back home in Providence were eager to honor him. 

Looking back on his friend’s final flight, Miles remembers talking to Armstrong the day before he left home and asking him what he wanted to do on his last night in Providence. Armstrong wanted to stay home with his family. Miles recalls telling Armstrong to be careful and that he would see him when he came back on leave. 

“But he never did come back and the next thing I heard, the War Department had notified the family that he was missing in action,” Miles says. This happened when 

Miles, who was in the Navy from 1944 to1946, was away. He didn’t hear about Armstrong’s death until he came home. 

Armstrong’s body was still missing in October 1946 when the Eugene Perry Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars dedicated the corner of Cranston and Codding streets as the William P. Armstrong Memorial Square. But because the neighborhood was eventually redeveloped, Codding Street no longer exists and there are no records showing that the memorial square was ever moved to another location. 

The American Legion later honored Armstrong when it named Post 69 on Salem Street after him and Walter S. Gladding, another Providence resident and Tuskegee graduate. 

Armstrong’s stepfather, Nelson F. Venter, was determined to find Armstrong’s remains and after repeatedly contacting the military over a period of several years, 

Armstrong’s remains were finally found. He had been buried in a gravesite in Austria, and Venter had his stepson’s remains transferred to the United States in March 1950, and buried in the family plot at Grace Church Cemetery. 

Armstrong was awarded a Purple Heart, a Presidential Citation, an Air Medal and a Citation of Honor after his death.