Just in case you haven't come across them - a few interesting articles you may like to read -
Albany NY Times Union - 7 March 1943
3 Yanks On RCAF Casualty List - OTTAWA - March 6 (AP)—
Royal Canadian Air, Force casualty list today reported two Americans killed on active service overseas and one previously reported missing now reported a prisoner of war.
Killed on active service were Sgt Robert Dale Fattig son of William Fattig, Indianapolis, Ind., and Sgt. Irving Louis Sanitsky, senior Mrs. Simon -Sanitsky Flushing, Long Island. The airman now a prisoner
is Sgt. William David Wendt, son of Mrs. A. W. Wendt, Westport Minn.
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.htmlThe Long Island City NY Star Journal - 9 March 1943 has a pictire of Sgt Irving Louis Sanitsky.
Flushing Flier Killed; Downed 5 Nazi Ships
A Flushing Hier, Sergeant Irving Louis Sanitsky, 22, of the Royal Canadian Air Force was reported killed in action overseas on Feb. 25, according to an announcement today by the Canadian government.
Sergeant Sanitsky, who lived at 170-07 3,lrd avenue, Flushing,was a rear gunner In one of
the huge British bombers and hadmore than 250 hours of combat flying.He was credited with downing five enemy planes and one "probable."
One of the real veterans of the air, Sanitsky was dubbed "Lucky"by his squadron males for having
come through so many air battles and dangerous missions unscratched..
Since the first of theyear he had been trying to get atransfer to the U. S. Navy Air Force.
Foresaw 'the End' The thought of impending death appears to have been In the filer's
mind. In one of his last letters to his mother, Mrs. Simon Sanitsky, he wrote:
"Things ar e beginning to get a bit closer to the end, I guess. What end, I just don't know."
Born in Chelsea, Mass., Sergeant Sanitsky was president of his high school class there and later studied aviation mechanics at. the NYA school at Quoddy, Me.
He Joined the RCAF in April1941. and was promoted to sergeant in March 1942. He was shipped to
England in a huge convoy in May and Immediately went into almostdally combat runs over the continent.
The flying sergeant's feelings toward the part he was playing in the war were expressed in a letter
received by his mother after she had been Informed of his death etc etc..........
Sergeant Sanitsky is survived by his mother and a younger brother.
Sawyer, 18, a second-term student at Bayside High School. Sawyer hopes to follow in the footsteps of his dead brother, not as a gunner, but as a pilot
http://www.fultonhistory.com/Fulton.htmlSandra