Pvt. Peter Spoganetz Mil#: 42011161 Enlisted: 24 August 1943, Newark, NJ A-Company, 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division
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It was September 17th, 1944 during the liberation of the
area between Valkenburg and Heerlen. Peter Spoganetz
died in front of one of the few houses at the junction
of the hamlet Koulen. Dismayed inhabitants asked
for his name and when it was applied to them by one of
his comrades it was told more or less phonetically to
them and misspelled,
Thus he
became later also chiseled into the marble plaque which
to this day recalls the young hero from New Jersey. The plaque on the wall of this house is a tribute to the young American Private Peter Spoganetz.
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Bčr and Roos Simons in front of there house Placing the white marble plaque was an idea of Bčr and Roos, Peter Spoganetz had been lying dead on the sidewalk in front of there home on September 17th, 1944
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Text on plaque : P. SPOGENETS usa
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In the hamlet Koulen hell broke loose again "A tank that accompanied the infantry turned in the morning of September 17th ’44 on the intersection from Walem left towards Klimmen, soon from the direction Termaar/Klimmen came in grenade fire and a soldier sitting on that tank was hit in his shoulder". The strange thing was that the grenade didn’t exploded, but rolled into my carpentry workshop. There was the grenade later gingerly removed. But by the power of the grenade the shoulder of that soldier was shattered. Mortally wounded he fell from the tank in front of the Simons house. The soldier was Peter Spoganetz. He was later covered with a sheet and laid in front of the Simons house door, later that day Americans had him removed. A few years after the liberation the family of soldier Spoganetz came to visit the place where Peter was killed. Story Harrie Kickken (right), resident of Koulen.
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(Following
message is never formally confirmed or proven and has I think
some incorrections, I'm now trying to figure out what happend
exactly with Peters body, I personel think that he's first been
transferred to the Temporary Cemetery Fosse, Belgium and later
to Margraten Cemetery The Netherlands. I hope his IDPF gives
some more additional information)
Peter
Spoganetz was on 19 September 1944, together with 6 German
soldiers buried in a meadow behind the patronaat building in the
Houtstraat. (Picture) Members of the Order Police gave last
respect to the dead. |
Peter's gravestone on Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, NJ where he on December 16th 1948 was finaly buried. Unfortunately, here again a minor error occurred, date on his gravestone says Sept. 16th while he was KIA on the 17th
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Peter's gravestone and Family monument This is the plot for both Peter Spoganetz and Catherine Spoganetz-Olasin (1889-1974). The inscriptions are for "Son Peter" and "Mother Catherine Olasin" |