George Fritsche Jr.

LIEUTENANT GEORGE J. FRITSCHE JR, was the son of George and Edna Fritsche. His father was a salesman for a bakery. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1910. In 1920 the family was living at 4417 Master Street in Philadelphia PA. Sometime in the 1920s the family moved to Woodlynne NJ, and by 1930 the family owned a home at 106 Cedar Avenue. George Jr. was working as a repair mechanic of washing machines, according to the 1930 census. Well known as an aviation enthusiast, he joined the Army in 1934. By 1943 he had married, and lived with his wife Kathryn at the Cedar Street address, his parents having relocated to Cecil NJ, where they operated a clam bar.

George Fritsche received his early flight training at Mitchell Field NY. He became an expert in the technique of flying gliders. He served at Dunnellen Field FL as as the flight officer at a glider school. His last posting was with a troop carrier squadron operating at Lawson Field, Fort Benning GA.

Lieutenant Fritsche was killed on November 24, 1943, when the transport plane he was flying crashed during a storm near Tamaqua PA. The flight had originated at Lawson Field. Seven men were lost in the crash, two other men in the plane survived. 

Lieutenant George Fritsche Jr. survived by his wife, parents, sisters Ruth Dempsey and Dorothy Walker, both of Woodlynne, and brothers Frederick Fritsche of Westmont, and Richard Fritsche of Bellmawr. He received a military funeral on December 1, 1943. A mass was said for him at Sacred Heart Church on Broadway and Ferry Avenue in Camden NJ. He is memorialized on the Woodlynne, NJ War Memorial. George Fritsche Jr. was buried at New St. Mary's Cemetery in Bellmawr NJ, where today he rests with his parents.