Promoted to the rank of flying officer, Williams flew with No. 225 Squadron all through 1944 from a number of airstrips in Italy, Corsica and southern France. On 23 October that year he took off from Peretola with Flying Officer Stanley Waldman (brother of TV producer Ronnie Waldman) as wingman, to carry out a tactical reconnaissance to the Bologna-Ferrara-Cento-San Giovanni in Persiceto area. What happened on that mission was later narrated by Williams himself: