Ken Spatz never met his father, a B-17 aircraft waist gunner with the same name, who died in World War II. But last week he visited the site where the B-17 crashed and collected a memento — his father’s long-lost high school ring.
Andy Cox, a British farmer and metal-detecting enthusiast, discovered the ring about a decade ago in a dump on a friend’s property, near a disused WWII-era airfield in Ridgewell, England. The 1941 class ring was from a high school in Birdsboro, Pa.
It was among many other items, he said, “everything from U.S. Army toothbrushes to bits of aircraft and dog tags.”
Cox said he was unable to find the owner of the ring until he met Todd Peterson, a Pennsylvania police officer, two years ago on Facebook.
“I explained to him about this ring and I would like to try and get the records for the school for that year,” Cox said. “He gave me the list of names, and there was one guy in there, Ken Spatz, and I traced him back on the unit’s roster.”
Kenneth L. Spatz, it turned out, had been assigned to the 381st Bomb Group, a unit that flew B-17 Flying Fortresses from the former Royal Air Force station known as RAF Ridgewell, between June 1943 and April 1945. He and seven other crew members on board a B-17 named Smashing Thru were killed when their plane crashed after both engines failed.
Peterson managed to locate Spatz’s son in Pennsylvania and asked him if he’d be willing to talk to a man from England.
Cox said he called Spatz that night and emailed him photos of the ring.
“I told him the ring is yours and it belongs with you,” Cox said. “He said, ‘Don’t post it because that’ll be the one thing that gets lost. We’ll come and collect it.’”
Last week, Spatz and his wife began a pilgrimage through Europe, visiting various WWII historical sites. They ended their journey in England.
Cox and his friends planned a whole day of events for Spatz and his wife after picking them up from the Ridgewell train station. They went to see the reconstruction of a B-17 cockpit and the Ridgewell Airfield Commemorative Museum. Their last stop was the crash site, now a farmer’s field, where Cox gave the 1941 class ring to Spatz.