One of the WWII Fallen of Madison County, Alabama

William Echols Spragins Jr. was born March 20, 1923 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was the only child of William Echols Spragins Sr. and Elizabeth (McMullen) Spragins. His father was born in Huntsville, Alabama and was a World War I veteran, serving in the Engineer Corps, and worked as Chief Engineer of the Alabama Public Works Administration and as a farmer. William’s parents were divorced sometime between 1930 and 1940 and he lived with his mother in California and spent some of his summers with his father in Huntsville. In 1940, he was living with his mother in Los Angeles and attended Los Angeles High School, where he was president of the senior class, valedictorian, and captain of the varsity basketball team. He attended Stanford University where he was president of the freshman class and captain of the freshman basketball team.

William left Stanford during his sophomore year to enlist in the Army Air Forces Aviation Cadet Program. He completed flight training and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant on 23 May 1944 at Douglas Army Air Field in Arizona. After additional combat readiness training, he was assigned in December 1944 to the 568th Bomb Squadron of the 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy) as pilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress. The 390th was based in Framlingham, England and had been flying combat missions over Europe since August 1943.

2Lt Spragins saw his first combat with the 390th on a 20 January 1945 mission to bomb the marshaling yards at Heilbronn, Germany. He did not have long to reflect on his first mission, as the 390th was back in the air the next day, 21 January 1945, tasked to bomb targets in Mannheim, Germany. 2Lt Spragins was piloting B-17G 42-107176, named "The Uninvited Missionaires". About two hours into the mission on the way to the target, the aircraft experienced an engine failure and was unable to keep up with the bomber formation. At that point the aircraft was easy prey for German fighters and flak so 2Lt Spragins had no choice but to return to base. Upon approaching his home air field at Framlingham, 2Lt Spragins was instructed to fly out over the North Sea to dump his bombs rather than land with a full bomb load. The aircraft was last seen headed in an easterly direction away from the field and was never seen again. The crew of nine were presumed missing in action in the North Sea and were later officially declared dead.

William Echols Spragins is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridgeshire, England and at the Huntsville Madison County Veterans Memorial.

Thank you 2Lt Spragins for your service and your sacrifice, you will not be forgotten.

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story. SBTSProject/Alabama/Madison.

If you noticed anything erroneous in this profile or have additional information to contribute to it, please contact me at bob.al@storiesbehindthestars.org.

Sources:

1930 United States Federal Census
1940 United States Federal Census
The Huntsville Times, 29 Jul 1945
The Montgomery Advertiser, 7 Aug 1945
https://390th.org/interactive-library/collections-portal/
A brief history and brief genealogy of the Andrew Beirne, William Patton, William Echols, V, and Robert E. Spragins lines, by William Echols Spragins, et. al.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56294579/william-echols-spragins

William E Spragins Jr