July 30, 2023 – nearly one year ago – marked the appearance at this blog of a post about WW II Army Air Force Captain Seymour M. Malakoff, a 9th Air Force C-47 pilot (see The Invisible Airmen – The Invisible Jews: Captain Seymour M. Malakoff and the Crew of C-47 “Butchski II”, 1944). The impetus for the post was an article published in The New York Times on February 4, 1944, which, typical of news items about soldiers in most any military conflict, presented biographical and anecdotal profiles about each member of the Captain’s crew, concluding upon a theme of steady resolution in pursuit of a larger military endeavor. All well and true; all well and good. Curiously though, inescapable in the hindsight of eighty years passing – and I’m certain evident even in 1944 – a singular quality of Capt. Malakoff’s crew remained unaddressed, undiscussed, and unmentioned by the Times, even in the most guarded, oblique, and passing manner: This was the fact that – whether by chance, or, an anonymous decision arising at a higher level of command – four of the five members of the Malakoff crew, including the Captain himself, were Jews.
Given the nature and context of the Second World War in terms of the physical survival and future of the Jewish people, and especially, contemplated from the vantage of 2024, the silence about this aspect of the Malakoff crew might be deemed remarkable. Yet, given the nature and ethos of the article’s venue – this was The New York Times after all – and the tenor of the times (temporal times, that is) in terms of the ambivalent self-perception and even the physical security of the Jews of the United States in the somewhat Brokawishly and Spielbergianly romanticized 1940s – even during the Second World War! – the yawning silence about this aspect of the Malakoff crew in both the general and Jewish press was not – in retrospect – all that remarkable. To the extent that the article was noticed, it seemed that only the famed (or, infamous, depending on how you look at him) radio personality Walter Winchell drew attention to the story, but, despite his prominence, even his comments were passing and truncated.
(But, getting “off-topic”, I must ask: In light of the forces arrayed against the Jewish people globally and particularly throughout the – willfully? – dessicating “West” since October 7, 2023 (and to be honest, insidiously commencing decades earlier, amidst the ephemeral currents of post-WW II complacency, prosperity, and self-delusion), it’s not just the Times that remains unchanged (barring a new ownership, it seems congenitally incapable of change), but the times, as well.)
Anyway, getting back “on-topic”…
Captain Malakoff did not survive the Second World War. He and his entire crew – co-pilot, navigator, radio operator, and crew chief – were killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when their C-47 was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. (The crew’s entire “stick” of paratroopers managed to successfully parachute from their plane, C-47A 43-30735 (otherwise known as “CK * P” / chalk # 37 / “Butchski II“.) They are all buried within the continental United States. As can be seen from the original blog post, the crew of June 6, as covered in Missing Air Crew Report 8409, was not the Captain’s crew as reported in the Times. That crews seems (?) to have been broken up and its members allocated to other crews in the 75th Troop Carrier Squadron some time between the February publication of the Times article and the June invasion of France.
The Captain’s original crew members all survived the war. The sole casualty among them was crew chief S/Sgt. David Lifschutz, whose C-47 was shot down during a resupply mission to Bastogne, Belgium, on December 26, 1944. Captured, he returned in mid-1945 after liberation from a POW camp.
And yet, with this, Captain Malakoff’s story does not end.
Not long after creating the post, I was happily surprised to have received the following message from Nancy Plevin, Captain Malakoff’s niece:
“This was just sent to me. Seymour Malakoff was my uncle – my mother’s brother. I learned some things from this blog.”
And so, from Nancy, I in turn learned more about Captain Malakoff. She sent me several wonderful images of her uncle, scanned to a remarkably high standard. These images appear in this post, and and I want to express my appreciation to her for her help. Thus: “Thanks, Nancy!”…
And more: In May of this year, I received a message from Robert Tucker, co-pilot 2 Lt. Thomas A. Tucker’s nephew. Robert’s communication transformed his uncle from a nominal “name and serial number” to a person with a true identity. Robert, who’s long been researching the history of the Malakoff crew, wrote, “Through my research and books I came across the book DDay Plus 60 years by Jerry McLaughlin and reached out to him and he put me in contact with S/Sgt Walsh’s family and this story just took off. Bottom line I was able to track down Malakoffs family (Ms Plevins) and at the time had the opportunity to actually speak with Seymour’s sister who was still living was still living at the time. She was 92 yrs old and sharp as a tack! She was able to fill in some of the blanks and told me my uncle was a replacement pilot 3 days before the invasion. The original co pilot [Lt. James Philip Wilt] came down with appendicitis so my uncle got the call. This is just some of the information I have uncovered and too much to list here.”
Robert’s photos of his uncleare included here as well. Thanks, Robert!
Now, on to the photos…
As revealed by the Gosport Tubes connected to his earphones, and to a lesser extent by his fluffy white scarf, this photo of Seymour Malakoff was almost certainly taken during the Primary or Basic stage of his pilot training. I don’t know the names of the flying schools he attended during those two early stages of flight training, but I learned that he graduated from Advanced at Randolph Field, Texas (see the New York University document below) on May 20, 1942, upon which he received his wings and commission as a second lieutenant.
This one’s about as candid as candid can be: Here Captain (or then Lieutenant?) Malakoff at the controls of a C-47, time, place, altitude, and destination unknown.
Identical in style and format to the image of Capt. Paul Dahl’s crew in the earlier post, this image shows Captain Malakoff, at center rear, with other C-47 crewmen. Though the mens’ names don’t appear on the back of the original print, the airman at lower right seems – looks like – certainly appears to be – S/Sgt. Robert Donald “Donny” Walsh, Capt. Malakoff’s radio operator on the D-Day mission. If so (and I think this is so), then with the exception of the Captain standing at rear left (there was no other Army Air Force Captain aboard Capt. Malakoff’s plane on June 6), the other crewmen might well be flight engineer Sgt. Paul B. Jacoway at lower left, and, probably navigator Edward Gaul standing at right.
This image of S/Sgt. Walsh, by researcher Matt M, appears in the sergeant’s biographical profile at FindAGrave. S/Sgt. Walsh was buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, Mo. (Section OPS3, Grave 2307E) on July 2, 1949. He was 23 years old on June 6, 1944. If you examine the portrait very closely, you’ll see Sgt. Walsh’s signature at lower right: “Love, Don”.
Here are Robert’s two photographs of his uncle. Note that in the first photo – below – Thomas A. Tucker is identically attired to Seymour Malakoff in the top picture: He’s wearing a flight helmet with Gosport Tubes and has a fluffy scarf around his collar. The Gosport Tubes reveal that this portrait was taken while he was an aviation cadet…
…as does this image; the giveaways being the winged propeller cap insignia and collar devices with a similar design. Given Robert’s statement about his uncle joining the Malakoff crew only three days before D-Day, and, the very different facial features of the man in the upper right of the Malakoff crew photo, that man is probably navigator 1 Lt. Eugene E. Gaul.
A resident of Buffalo, Lt. Tucker’s name appeared in a list of Batavia-area military casualties published in The Daily News (of Batavia) on July 25, 1944, which I discovered through FultonHistory.com. The list appears within the “This End of the State” column, at upper right…
…and here it is close-up, with Lt. Tucker’s name surrounded by a blue box. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo in 1948.
Along with a very short article in the Forverts on June 29, 1944, Captain Malakoff was the subject of a commemorative biography published by the New York University School of Law some time after the war’s end. A transcript of the biography follows these images. Note that the NYU essay includes excerpts of the Times’ article of February 4, 1944.
Class of 1941
SEYMOUR M. MALAKOFF
was born in New York City on October 24, 1916. After the usual preparatory education in the schools of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he attended Pennsylvania’s State College and the Washington Square College of New York University. He graduated from the New York University School of Law in June 1941 with honors and received his LL.B. degree.
He joined the Army Air Corps in August of 1941 and was successively stationed at Camps Upton, Wheeler, and Pine Bluff. He received his wings and his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Corps at Randolph Field and then proceeded to Camp Lubbock, Texas, for advanced training. He then became an instructor in the technique of flying formations and served at Camps Wisconsin, Louisville, Kentucky, and the Sedalia Army Air Base. He then proceeded overseas and was stationed in Great Britain as an Air Corps Troop Carrier pilot, with the rank of Captain and as operations officer of the 75th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 435th Air Group. His was the lead-off plane of the troop carriers on the operation to invade Normandy, France, on “D” Day, June 6, 1944.
The New York Times ran the following article:
At a United States Troop Carrier Station in Britain – All the twin-engined transport planes on this station look alike in their war paint – but one is really different. Its two chief points of difference are the white lettered name ‘Butchski’ on the nose and the fact that its entire crew of five are all from New York.
When the invasion starts and the Troop-Carrier Command begins shuttling combat soldiers from bases to actual fighting fronts ‘Butchski’ will become an “overseas branch of the Bronx Express,” according to its crew. The skipper is quiet, youthful-looking Capt. Seymour M. Malakoff. The plane is named for his nine year old brother, James, whose nickname is ‘Butchski’”.
He was killed in action on June 6, 1944, while participating in the invasion of France. In recognition of his achievements as a combat carrier pilot, he received a Presidential Citation, the Purple Heart Medal and the Air Medal.
The lady below, standing next to the Captain’s matzeva at the Normandy American Cemetery, St.-Laurent-sur-Mer, France, is a member of a French family who have voluntarily taken on the tasking of tending his grave. With the exception of “Laurence”, who I learned about from Nancy, I don’t know their names. The picture says much, without the use of words.
One more thing: I know little about Seymour M. Malakoff – the person; the individual; the man – other than what is presented in these two posts. But, one thing is remembered by Nancy: “I … am struck by the fact that Seymour enlisted before Pearl Harbor. I had never thought about that, and it’s especially interesting in light of my mother telling me that Seymour was a pacifist so entering the war was very difficult for him, but he believed it was his duty.”
Acknowledgements
I’d like to express my appreciation to Nancy Plevin and Robert Tucker for contacting me, and, so generously providing me with such compelling and nicely scanned photos.
Here’s Three Books
Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947
Gardner, Ian, and Day, Roger, Tonight We Die as Men: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day, Osprey, Oxford, England, 2010 (see pages 153-155)
Rust, Kenn C., The 9th Air Force in World War II, Aero Publishers, Inc., Fallbrook, Ca., 1970