Georgiy Viktorovich Yanovsky

[James A Pratt III]

I am looking for info on a Russian WW I aviator and exile Georgiy Viktorovich Yankovsky or Jerzy-Witold 1888-1944. In 1941 his was in the Yugoslav armed forces. He later joined the Russian Corps in Yugoslavia. One account has him being killed while attemting to land a bomber damaged by Yugoslav partisans, alternate sources place his death at Sarajevo in 1943. Any one have any info on him?

[Boris Ciglic]

After the collapse of the Whites he escaped to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and in 1926 got accepted into the Air Force in the rank of 2nd Lt under the name Djordje Jankovski. At the time of German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he was a Capt in reserve and test pilot in DFA aircraft factory in Kraljevo. Following the occupation, he was officially a prisoner of war on leave and test pilot of Dornier Werke and Wiener Neustädter Flugzeugwerke, his job being to test ex-Yugoslav aircraft which were sold to Independent State of Croatia. After the outbreak of the uprising in Serbia, when the uprisers threatened Kraljevo in September 1941, he began to fly combat missions on behalf of 749.Inf.Rgt. with Yugoslav booty aircraft at hand under the name Georg Jankowski (and still a POW on leave). By the end of November he completed 94 sorties and dropped some 32.000 kg of bombs - mainly if not all with Breguet XIXs. On most of these flights Oblt. Anton Mader, 749.Inf.Rgt. adjutant flew as his observer. This recommended him for his next duty, that of a pilot in Generalluftzeugmeister flight at Zemun. In March 1942 he was accepted into the Croat Air Force as a Capt under the name Juraj Jankovski. He perished in a crash of a Caproni Ca.311 M on 6 September 1944 near Banja Luka, after it had been sabotaged by ground crews affiliated to the Partisans. He held the rank of Maj.