Sam (Shmuel) Pomerance, the son of Philip and Esther-Zelda, was born in New York on 23rdSeptember 1910. He completed his degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of New York, and was employed as a production manager of an aircraft manufacturing plant.
In March 1948 he left the USA and immigrated to Israel where he volunteered as a pilot in the fledgling Israel Air Force.
He was the initiator of the ambitious plan to ferry British Spitfire fighter aircraft from Czechoslovakia via Yugoslavia to Israel in heroic non-stop flights, known as the “Velvetta Operations.” The extra long-range fuel tanks needed to make the record-breaking non-stop long flight were his idea and improvisation.
In September 1948 he successfully flew one Spitfire to Israel, but in the second operation, Velvetta II, his plane crashed in adverse winter conditions into a mountain in Yugoslavia on 18thDecember 1948.
He was laid to rest at Nachlat Yitzhak military cemetery on 9th January 1949. He was promoted to Wing Commander posthumously.
Researcher’s addition:
He left a widow, Elsie, who had flown in a Skymaster from Czechoslovakia to Israel at the same time. After the initial shock on hearing the tragic news, she recovered her composure, and said, “If Sam had to go, I am glad it was this way – for a cause in which he passionately believed.”
Source: Translated from the Yizkor website by Joe Woolf, with the addition of researcher’s note from Henry Katzew’s book “South Africa’s 800”.