In Remembrance of: Lt. William Farrow of Darlington
One of Darlington County’s most famous and best-remembered veterans is Lt. William Farrow of Darlington.
Farrow, 25, was one of the pilots who took part in the famed Doolittle Raid on Japan during World War II – the raid that was viewed by most as payback for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.
The raid was launched in April 1942. Farrow’s plane was No. 16 in the attack squadron.
The raid was successful, but Farrow was captured – one of only eight men captured. After six months as a POW, frequently subjected to torture, Japanese officials executed him.
“My time has come now. I have but once to die. The sooner the better. I wonder what the next world will be like? I’m sure there is one. I am not afraid,” he wrote in a letter that was discovered after the war.
The American public did not learn about Farrow’s execution for about a year, not until President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced it by radio: “It is with the deepest feeling of horror . . . that I have to announce the barbarous execution,” he said.
Farrow was a 1935 graduate of St. John’s High School.
