David Janofsky
August 27, 1921 – April 12, 1944 (KIA)
Lt. David Janofsky was born August 27, 1921 in Bronx County NY to Herman Janofsky and Celia Becker Janofsky. His older brother was Murray Janofsky, who became “Jan Murray,” a well-known comedian and actor in the 1930s through the 1980s.
At the time he registered for the draft in February 1942, David Janofsky was a student at the Saunders School of Aviation in Yonkers, New York. His enlistment date is unknown. After stateside training, his crew -- with Eugene T. Schiappacasse as pilot and Lt. Janofsky as co-pilot -- was assigned to Combat Crew Replacement Center in Bovingdon, England, and then on to Horham, effective March 8, 1944.
The crew’s first mission from Horham was March 23, 1944. On the crew’s fifth mission, April 11, 1944, all ten men aboard “Miss Raps-O-D,” parachuted into the Baltic Sea after their plane was damaged by German fighters. Only Lt. Janofsky survived, but only briefly.*
According to mission records on the 95th website, “At 1218, near Kolbert, Germany, the aircraft was damaged by rockets from German fighters, the aircraft winged over to the left and climbed slightly before the all ten crew members bailed out. The next day the body of co-pilot 2nd Lt David Janofsky was brought to Svaneke by the cutter Anna to which the German ship Josef Stadtlandhad transferred the body. [Lt.] Janofsky was buried on 14 April 1944 in Svaneke Churchyard by the Army chaplain of the German Wehrmacht.” [Svaneke is a small town on the eastern coast of the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark.] Lt. Janofsky was the only crew member whose body was recovered.