Memorial

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T/Sgt Joe P. Cooper graduated from Belmont High School.

Pilot Buecheler, after repatration from POW status rendered this "Casualty Questionnaire" report: the ship had left formation over the target at Hannover, altitude 23,000 feet, around 11.50 hours, due to heavy flak damage. Bailt out of the crew was urgent; the two waist gunners and tail gunner went out through the (aft) camera hatch; Bombardier and Navigator bailed out through the nose wheel door; and Engineer, Co-Pilot, Radio Operator and Pilot went out through the bomb bays, all got out safely. Two other surviving crew member reports were recorded, specifically having to do with the loss of Sgt Cooper, one particularly distressing in speculation. The first of these stated that (Sgt Cooper).."after command to bail out, he was on the catwalk between bomb bays with Engineer and Co-Pilot, and the next time I looked, they were all gone;...there was plenty of flak which could have hit him after he jumped and also he could have been shot after he bailed out...(and) shortly after I was caught, the Germans asked for a list of the crew members... said they had found two bodies in the plane wreckage...I refused to give them this information (and they didn't show me any bodies. Later they asked for the same list, saying they had shot a dark complexioned boy who was running through the woods...this could have been Joe Cooper, but again, they might have been lying". The second survivor stated later on having heard "hearsay"..."yes, I can understand German and a few German people of the Volksturm (German People Army) told me they just shot one of my crew members with black hair. This happened when I was captured the same day, September 12th...they shot all around the woods trying to scare us out and in all probability they shot Joe". This mission was the crew's 20th, according to the Pilot's account.