Leo K. Kornoely was born on May 5, 1924 in .Missaukee County, Michigan. He was the son of Henry Kornoely and Frances Maybel Kidder Kornoely. He served in the 563rd Bomber Squadron, 388th Bomber Group, Heavy, as a Staff Sergeant and Engineer of #42-97241 "The Expectant Father" aircraft during World War II.

On the morning of April 11, 1944, the crew was told they would be going on their first mission of the war. The target was an aircraft plant for German fighters in Pozen, Poland. The bomber group left with 24 aircraft on this mission and only 3 returned. The 11th of April 1944 was the worse single day loss of the war. In all, over 159 bombers were shot down that day.

During the flight to the target the bomb group was attacked by several fighters that fired rockets at them so the fighters were out of range of their guns. One of the fighters got to close to the group and Leo was credited for shooting it down. The target at Pozen was covered by clouds so the bomb group could not hit its target, so a secondary target was chosen, a German airfield in Rostock Germany. Upon reaching the target the airfield was bombed and the group then turned to go home.

The lead section which consisted of three planes including Leo's was attacked by four German fighters and their plane was hit starting a fire in the radio compartment that quickly spread to the entire rear of the plane. Leo had tried to put out the fire with a fire extinguisher but it was a hopeless effort. The pilot gave the order to bail out and four crewmen in the rear of the plane did just that. One of them was rescued, and the other three were presumed dead, Leo among them. Only one of the three bodies were recovered.

The pilot and others in the front of the plane stayed in the plane and crash landed near the Baltic Sea coast in the town of Warnemunde just outside of Mecklenburg Germany. The six crewmen that stayed with the plane were recovered by a fishing boat and turned over to the German Army. Leo's body was never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing, Cambridge American Cemetery, Cambridge, United Kingdom. He was one of the many brave Americans of the 388th Bomber Group who lost their lives in aerial operations against the German forces from June 1943 - August 1945.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov