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Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], William B. Spitzer, Compiler, Research Papers Regarding World War II Airman Kingsley Spitzer, A&M 4145, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Kingsley Spitzer was born in Mathias, Hardy County, West Virginia. He served in the United States Air Force during World War II in the European theater of operations. He held the rank of technical sergeant and was top gunner and aerial engineer on the Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress "Situation Normal". During his service, he flew 18 bombing missions over Germany. Spitzer was killed in a plane accident in Wales, United Kingdom on December 29, 1943.

Scope and Contents

Research papers compiled by William B. Spitzer of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia regarding the service and death of Technical Sergeant Kingsley Spitzer, crew member of the B-17 Flying Fortress "Situation Normal", during World War II. Includes photographs, correspondence, clippings, books, and other material. William B. Spitzer was the brother of Kingsley Spitzer. Most of the material in this collection was originally arranged by William B. Spitzer in two notebooks, one of which is referred to by the folder labels as the "blue notebook" and the other as the "black notebook". The material has been retained in its original order and given item numbers based on its arrangement within the notebooks. Material from the notebooks (located in box 1) includes newspaper clippings regarding death of Kingsley Spitzer; photographs of Kingsley Spitzer and other airmen (see folders 2 and 6); research notes of William B. Spitzer; photocopies of military records regarding Kingsley Spitzer's service; correspondence with other researchers; material regarding trips to Wales to visit the site of Kingsley Spitzer's death; and artifacts (piece of plane wreckage, grass transplanted from crash site, and an iron-on patch of the unit insignia). Other material in the collection (located in box 2) includes a letter of condolence from President Roosevelt, blueprints for a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and four books regarding the role of B-17 Boeing Flying Fortresses and their pilots in World War II.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Spitzer, Kingsley.
• Spitzer, William B.
• World War, 1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American