Pilot Officer H Rosofsky

Links of Long Standing

Several joined well before war was declared including amongst others, TH Archbell, AS Ainslie, I Bocock, CBE Burt-Andrews GL Cruickshanks, G Chater, IB Difford, FA Harte, GDL Haysom, CB Hull, GLB Hull, AG “Sailor” Malan, EJ Morris, MT Pattle, H Rosofsky, JF Roulston RN Selley, HWL Sheahan CR Taylor and FL Watson.

The Dreaded Telegram

Weekly issues of “The London Gazette”, first published in 1665, announced British military appointments, awards and promotions during the Second World War. South African airmen were a fractional percentage of the announcements. The 1938 January 25th and June 14th issues included Oliver Carlisle Hume, Norman Leonard Lewis, John Ing and Harold Rosofsky. By sad coincidence, all early casualties. Eighteen-year-old Hume from Port Elizabeth and Lewis, who was from Johannesburg, commissioned as “acting Pilot Officers on probation” in January with service numbers 40394 and 40399.

The Dreaded Telegram

Pilot Officer Rosofsky flew No 9 Squadron Wellingtons, possibly participated in the September 4th 1939 North Sea sortie when the squadron lost 10 aircrew but four days later, Rosofsky and 4 crew members lost their lives when their Wellington, destined for bombing practice, crashed after taking –off 2.On September 9th Mrs Bertha Rosofsky, a widow living in Killarney Johannesburg, had the unwelcome distinction of receiving the first Air Ministry Telegram sent to South Africa confirming her 26- year-old son had been killed in a flying accident.

The Dreaded Telegram

Harold Rosofsky, the first South African RAF airman and of Jewish faith to lose his life in the Second World War, was educated at King Edwards in Johannesburg. Thought to have disguised his faith in the event of capture, he was buried in the Honington All Saints Parish Churchyard with his crew but 76 years later, the Star of David replaced the Cross on his headstone.

The Dreaded Telegram

No 9 Squadron Wellington pilot Harold Rosofsky the first to lose his life, Lt CW McGregor and 23-year-old Mosquito pilot Flight Lt Robert Ogilvie DFC, who commissioned in August 1939 and failed to return from a March 24th sortie were among the last and are remembered on the “Roll of Honour” at King Edwards in Johannesburg.

Spirits in the Sky

55 573 of 125 000 Bomber Command aircrew lost their lives, 9 838 became “POW’s” and 8 403 were wounded. At least 300 South Africans served as Bomber Command airmen an estimated 176 of whom lost their lives. No 9 Squadron Wellington pilot, Pilot Officer Harold Rosofsky the first to lose his life and the last, No 139 Squadron Pathfinder Mosquito pilot, 23-year-old Flight Lt Robert Ogilvie Day DFC, were coincidently educated at King Edwards in Johannesburg and frame names like Begbie, Bartholomew, Deas, Goodman, Hamman, Hirschfield, Howe-Brown, Lourens, McKendry, McGregor, Wing Commander JD Nettleton VC and Major Edwin Swales VC DFC.