Maurice Cooper

Maurice Cooper
Maurice Lea Cooper
Born 18 December 1898
Dublin, Ireland
Died 2 October 1918
Northeast of Gitsberg, Belgium
Dadizeele New British Cemetery Moorslede, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch Aviation
Years of service 1917 - 1918
Rank Captain
Unit No. 13 Squadron RNAS/No. 213 Squadron RAF
Awards Military Cross

Captain Maurice Lea Cooper was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories.[1]

Although Irish-born, Cooper was educated in York.

He joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 29 April 1917 and was commissioned a Flight Sub-Lieutenant. He was posted to 13 Naval Squadron to fly a Sopwith Camel. He destroyed an enemy two-seater on 5 December 1917, aided by fellow aces John Pinder, George Chisholm MacKay, and John Paynter. On 29 January 1918, aided by MacKay, Paynter, John Edmund Greene, and Leonard Slatter, he destroyed a seaplane. On 12 March 1918, Cooper shared another victory with Greene, MacKay, and another pilot. On 1 April, Cooper flamed a German two-seater seaplane at Zeebrugge, killing M. R. Behrendt and D. R. Hauptvogel. On 7 July 1918, he, Charles Sims, and four other pilots drove down an Albatros D.V. On the 30th, he drove down another D.V at Bruges. That made his tally four enemy planes destroyed, three of which were shared wins, and two driven down out of control, one of which was shared.[2]

During this string of triumphs, he had become a flight commander, and won a Distinguished Flying Cross on 15 June 1918. However, his luck ran out on 2 October 1918. While bombing an enemy troop train, he was hit by ground fire and spun in to his death.[3]

References

  1. ^ http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/ireland/cooper4.php Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  2. ^ Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920. p. 121. 
  3. ^ Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920. p. 121. 

Above the Trenches: a Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915-1920. Christopher F. Shores, Norman L. R. Franks, Russell Guest. Grub Street, 1990. ISBN 0-948817-19-4, 9780948817199.


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