Remembering CPL Edward Sapinski

On this day, 99 years ago, CPL Edward J. Sapinski, was born in Poland, on September 30, 1922. He lived in Fairview, Bergen County, New Jersey. After graduating from Sacred Heart Grammar School in Hackensack, he participated in citizenship training activities before he enlisted to join the paratroopers on April 6, 1943. Two of his brothers also fought overseas. His brother Joseph Sapinski was a private first class (PFC) within the Eight Air Force, earning four battle stars while being in combat over Italy, France, and Germany. PFC John Sapinski was wounded twice in combat, in Italy and France, receiving two Purple Hearts. 

CPL Sapinski’s combat experience

CPL Ed Sapinski made two combat jumps, on D-Day in Normandy and into the Netherlands on September 17, 1944. In Normandy, Sapinski almost drowned together with PFC John Cucinotta after making a water landing. Cucinotta told his story to a hometown reporter 50 years after the invasion. “Eddie Sapinski jumped after me and he got his leg tangled in some lines,” John told the journalist.

“His canopy couldn’t open and he came down on top of me. We made a very hard landing in an estuary off Utah Beach. The current swiftly pulled us toward shore and I had to use my trench knife to cut us free. We could hear the screams of the Germans as bullets stitched the ground around us. We crawled up the beach and dug in.” 

Sapinski was Lighlty Injured in Action (LIA) on October 25, 1944. He returned to duty four days later and was able to fight alongside his fellow paratroopers of Fox Company during the Battle of the Bulge, until he was captured at Longchamps, Belgium, on January 3, 1945. He then spent the duration of the war as a guest of the NAZI government at Stalag IX-B, a camp located just southeast of the town of Bad Orb. On April 2, 1945, an American mechanized task force broke through the German lines and liberated the Allied Prisoners of War at Stalag IX-B.

The postwar period

After returning home, Ed Sapinski married Dorothy Helen Tyll on October 31, 1947, in New York City, New York. He died on August 20, 1997, in Garden Grove, California, at the age of 73, and was buried in Westminster, California.

This is a short story about CPL Edward Sapinski, one of Fox Company’s paratroopers, as described in the book: From the Frying Pan to Mittersill, Fox Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (1942 – 1945). If you are interested in learning more about this courageous Fox Company paratrooper, order your copy now!

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