Sigmund Spritz

Optometrist, ex-POW

Sigmund Spritz, who as a prisoner of the Germans during World War II credited his survival to the American Red Cross packages that occasionally reached camp, died Wednesday of an upper respiratory infection at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident, a retired optometrist, was 76.

He'd been a navigator aboard a B-24 bomber that was hit by flak during a raid over Ludwigshafen, Germany, forcing the crew to bail out over Melun, France.

Mr. Spritz parachuted into woods and stayed there for three days before being taken to the home of a farmer who hid him for several days.

"About 30 people came the next day bringing gifts to me. They treated me like a god,'' he said in a 1965 Evening Sun interview.

The local priest provided him with false identification papers and the identity of a deaf-mute from a town whose records had been destroyed by Allied bombing. Contact was made with an English woman living in Paris who had French underground connections, and he was sent there -- but not before spending several #F terrifying hours waiting for the train surrounded by German soldiers.

He avoided capture in Paris for nearly three months until an escape attempt went awry. A British torpedo boat with which he had rendezvoused hit a reef and began to sink. The boat drifted back to the French coast where its occupants were arrested. He convinced a Gestapo interrogator he was a flier and not a spy and was sent to jail in Paris.

After spending time in several camps, he and several thousand other prisoners were marched through a blizzard, packed aboard stock cars and shipped to Nuremberg and eventually to the Mosseberg prison camp, where his ordeal of 20 months came to an end when the camp was liberated in May 1945 by Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army.

He said he'd liked the dark German bread that his captors fed him but never learned to like the soup they called "green death,'' which was a camp staple. He attributed his survival to the Red Cross packages that contained powdered milk, canned butter, cigarettes, matches and soap. They were "the difference between starvation and life,'' he said.

Born and reared in Baltimore, he was a 1933 graduate of City College and earned his bachelor's degree from Towson State College in 1940. He taught elementary school before enlisting in the Army Air Corps in 1941. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant in 1945 and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

He continued his education after the war and graduated in 1949 from the Illinois College of Optometry in Chicago and established an optometric practice in Dundalk from which he retired in 1987. He worked as a part-time optometrist at Montgomery Ward until retiring again in 1993.

He headed the Dundalk-area Red Cross chapter in 1965 and had volunteered with the organization for many years.

He also enjoyed reading history and mystery novels and took history and literature classes at Goucher College and Catonsville Community College. He and his wife of 44 years, the former Dorothy Libin of Chicago, also enjoyed visiting Elderhostels in the United States.

Services were held Friday at Sol Levinson & Bros. Funeral Home in Baltimore.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Nancy Spritz of Pikesville, Vikki Spritz of Tucson, Ariz., and Alice Spritz of Los Angeles; and four grandchildren.

Sun, The (Baltimore, MD) - Tuesday, January 11, 1994

WW2 USAAF

328 Sq - 93 Bomb Group

Aircraft B24 42-7614 "BUCKEYE" (testimony William "Bill" HANSEN. Name chosen because three crew's airmen came from Ohio) shot down by enemy flak 7 January 1944 near Melun, Seine et Marne, France, on return road from bombing mission over Ludwigshafen, Germany.

The B24 left Harwick 8h30 the 7 January 1944. Position in formation: high left element. Superchargers were not functioning properly but pilot managed to get the motors to run normally.

The B24 was first hit by flack over Germany before bombing. Cooling of engine N°4 seemed damaged. Target reached at 11h00 and bombs dropped.

On return road, engine N°4 was hit by Flack and stopped. The B24 left the formation and lost speed and altitude. Engine N°2 stopped too, hit on another Flak area. Fuel tubes were broken, crew's men had to use their oxygen masks to protect them from the gas fumes. The B24 passed over the Eiffel tower and turned. It was later hit several times by more Flak near Melun. The radio exploded: inter-phone an compasses no longer functioned. The Engineer (LONG) was hit on the right leg. Radio operator (SPELLMAN) was hit by little fragments of Flak shrapnel's on the stomach. One engine was on fire. Pilot gave the crew order to bail out. It was approx 13h15.

Two men dindn't and were KIA when the plane crashed in Montgermont woods at Pringy, Seine et Marne, France. It is possible that they were KIA before the crash as HENSEN told it into an interview.

Germans continued to open fire on airmen during their chute, fortunately without success.

Crew members:

*PILOT 2Lt James R CARNAHAN, ASN O-736472, POW

*COPILOT 2Lt Edward C MILLER, ASN O-806491, ESC

*NAVIGATOR 2Lt Sigmund SPRITZ, ASN O-682256, POW

*BOMBARDIER 2Lt William "Bill" HANSEN JR, ASN O-741514, POW

*RADIO OPERATOR S/Sgt Willis E SPELLMAN, ASN 15107422, WWA/ESC

*TOP TURRET GUNNER S/Sgt Warren Hall LONG, ASN 15329104, WIA/POW

*BALL TURRET GUNNER Sgt Jay W STEARNS, ASN 35515624, KIA

*WAIST GUNNER S/Sgt Robert Kenneth FRUTH, ASN 15329708, ESC

*WAIST GUNNER S/Sgt Daniel J PARVESE, ASN 12168556, POW

*TAIL GUNNER S/Sgt William D WAHRHEIT, ASN 32504330, KIA

PLEASE I AM LOOKING FOT THEIR FAMILY, TESTIMONIES, PHOTOS, FOR A MEMORIAL BUILD AT PRINGY WHERE THEIR PLANE CRASHED, THANKS