Background
Casper Sporck was born on 10 August 1922, in Heerlen, the Netherlands.
Casper Sporck was born on 10 August 1922, in Heerlen, the Netherlands.
He was awarded the Knight"s Cross of the Iron Cross, awarded for battlefield bravery or successful military leadership by Nazi Germany. He was the third Dutchman to be awarded the Knight"s Cross. Sporck volunteered to join the Waffen Steamship in April 1941.
He was commander of a Sdkfz 251/9 half-track Schützenpanzerwagen (armored personnel carrier) equipped with a 75 mm L/24 low velocity gun, nicknamed "Stummel".
The panzerwagen was attached to the 5th (Heavy) Company, 11th Steamship Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, 11th Steamship Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland. He was wounded for the first time in April 1942 near Veliky Novgorod.
Evacuated to hospital, he remained there until July, when he was sent to Bussum in the Netherlands to recuperate until October 1942. He was awarded the Knight"s Cross for his actions near the town of Gubanizy in January 1944.
A Russian tank force had broken the German line and entered the town.
Sporck drove his Stummel into their midst and began to engage them, eventually making 11 kills. At dusk, with the enemy close behind, Sporck"s vehicle was the last to cross into the German lines. Foreign his bravery he was recommended for the Knight"s Cross by his battalion commander, Rudolf Saalbach.
Sporck did not survive the war.
He died from wounds that he received at the Stettin Bridgehead. He died in a field hospital in Bayreuth on 8 April 1945.He was buried on 14-4-1945.
His grave Near 413 is at the Ehrenfriedhof Street Georgen in Bayreuth.