Born in Taft, California 1st Lt Kreutz studied Business Administration while attending Oregon State College. While serving with the Army Air Corps’ 321st Bomb Group, 448th Bomb Squadron, his B-25C #42-64655 he was a bombardier on was shot down over Italy. The Missing Air Crew Report # 4193 covered this incident. He was survived by his wife.
From the 321st BG~448th BS War Diary:
Excerpt from Casualty Questionnaire:
Hough, William S., 2Lt, navigator, 448th BS
Capt. Crowell had leveled the airplane off on the bomb run and Lt. Kreutz was adjusting his sight on the target. The plane was hit by two direct A.A. on the tail assembly, and lost the complete unit. Then the plane climbed out of control and fell off on its back. Capt. Crowell succeeded in getting the ship off its back and out of a spin with the use of ailerons and engines alone. At his command I bailed out through the front hatch, and as I left he was still attempting to hold the aircraft under control in order to give the rest of the crew a chance to jump. The bombardier, Lt. Kreutz had the presence of mind to close the bombay doors before trying to climb up the narrow, slippery crawlway that leads from the nose to the pilot's cockpit.
As I passed underneath the ship I had a clear view of the damage; the entire rear from the bombay aft was riddled and the entire tail assembly was gone. It is my belief that the gunners were either killed or too badly injured to try to jump. After my chute opened, I watched one other chute open up and then the ship crashed by the outskirts of a small Italian town. I landed in an orchard about two miles from the crash, and it was around five minutes after I had landed that the ship blew up. I succeeded in getting rid of my chute and making my way to a hiding place in a drainage ditch some distance from where I had hit the ground. Somehow, although I heard several patrols and actually saw four Fascist soldiers, I was not discovered. I was unable to contact the other member of my crew and I thought it best to start out of the vicinity by the escape route upon which we had been briefed. The rest was my personal troubles and did not include the rest of the crew.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3597921
http://57thbombwing.com/321stHistory/321_BG_1944-04.pdf (pg 129)
https://oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71b965k#page/5/mode/1u... (pg 5)
https://oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx719v350#page/432/mode/... (pg 437)
https://oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71bn37g#page/11/mode/1... (pg 11)
https://oregondigital.org/catalog/oregondigital:fx71bm025#page/13/mode/1... (pgs 13, 15)