ROBERT L. COOK
Patriot, Chapter 1919
Air Force, WWII, Europe
Robert L. Cook was
born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1919. He grew up there and graduated
from William Penn High School in the Class of 1937. He then attended
Gettysburg College, participating in the Army ROTC program, and was
commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, Infantry, upon graduation in June 1941.
Bob entered active duty on August 13, 1941 and was posted
to 3rd Armored Division at Camp Polk, Louisiana for about six weeks, during
all of which time the division was in the field engaged in “war game”
maneuvers along the Texas and Louisiana borders. He was next sent to Fort
Knox, Kentucky for several training courses in the Armored Forces School,
following which he was assigned to the cadre of 5th Armored Division, also
at Fort Knox. In June 1942, after being promoted to 1st Lt, he was
transferred to the 9th Armored Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. In October
1942, Lt Cook was selected for pilot training “in grade,” and ordered to the
San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center at Lackland Army Air Field.
Bob Cook went through
Primary Flight School at Corsicana, Texas, Basic Flight School at Majors
Field in Greenville, Texas, and then did his advanced flight training at
Ellington Field in Houston where he received his pilot’s wings in June
1943. From there he was ordered to Clovis, New Mexico for B-24 (the
“liberator,” heavy bomber) transition training.
The 455th Bomb Group was activated at Clovis on July 8,
1943 and Bob Cook
was the first pilot assigned when the group was formed. Bob was in the
group’s 743rd Bomb Squadron and they trained for combat at Clovis and
Alamogordo, New Mexico, and Salt Lake City, Utah, before moving to Langley,
Virginia where all elements of the group were assembled for the first time.
The 455th began their deployment to Europe on Christmas Day 1943. They flew
the southern route, from Florida to Brazil, to Africa, and from there, up to
Cerignola, Italy. Upon arrival, the group became a part of the 304th Bomb
Wing, 15th Air Force.
The 455th operated from San Giovanni Air Field about five
miles outside Cerignola. Bob remembers that they were set up in tents in an
olive grove and that the airstrip and facilities were not well developed.
The 455th Bomb Group was soon in action, flying its first combat mission on
February 16, 1944. The group would go on to accumulate a total of 255
combat missions before flying their last on April 25, 1945, however, Bob’s
most memorable mission was on April 20, 1944 and it put him out of action
for two months. Here are the details.
On that mission to attack Trieste Harbor installations
and shipping, about 40 German fighter planes closed in on Bob’s bomber
formation, ten of the ME-109’s at first and the others later, reportedly
concentrating their fire on Bob’s aircraft. The Nazi fighters made repeated
firing passes with aerial rockets, 20 mm cannon and machine guns that badly
damaged the B-24 causing it to drop behind in the formation, and attracting
still more concentrated attacks as the crippled plane staggered back towards
its home base. The top turret and tail turret were completely shot out of
the ship. Tail gunner S/Sgt Leslie Stockdale was severely wounded, and left
waist gunner, Sgt Grover Jenkins, had wounds to the face and right arm from
flying shrapnel, but the bomber continued defensive fires from its workable
gun positions. Finally, the Germans broke off their attack leaving the
heavily damaged Liberator to limp along unmolested with hydraulic system
completely out, wheel brakes and landing flaps unworkable and with the
rudder control cables severed. It was later estimated that were more than a
thousand holes of all sizes blown through the cabin, the wings and other
parts of the plane and the hydraulic fluid, sloshing around in the bomb bay
had caught fire but was extinguished by the crew.
The engineer, T/Sgt Abe Aziz spliced the rudder cables
back together with a bit of string restoring a degree of control but could
do nothing further. Without the severely wounded gunner on board, Bob would
have unhesitatingly given the order to abandon ship, but his decision was to
bring the plane in to home base, without flaps, without brakes, and almost
rudderless. The big Liberator touched down on the runway at well over 100
miles an hour, rolled the length of the runway, kept rolling 300 yards
beyond, then plunged down a 50-foot embankment and crashed into a gasoline
trailer. The trailer was carried an additional 100 feet before the plane
came to a stop. A raging fire immediately broke out and spread rapidly.
All of the crew managed to get clear of the wreckage
except for pilot, Bob Cook,
who was pinned down at his controls. The co-pilot helped evacuate
navigator, 2nd Lt David Woodlock, who was dazed from the crash. S/Sgt Henry
Paris, ball turret gunner, whose left foot was broken in three places,
helped critically injured Stockdale, the tail gunner, from the wreck. The
right waist gunner, slightly wounded S/Sgt Ralph Friese and the other
members of the crew made their way through a hatch way that had been opened
by Sgt Brewer, radio operator, just before the landing.
Meanwhile, back in the plane, pilot Bob Cook was still
trapped in the cockpit and flames were leaping around him. Ammunition was
exploding in the burning plane and there was imminent danger that the gas
tanks would explode. The navigator, Lt. Woodlock attempted to help Bob,
whose flak suit was already aflame, but still dazed from the crash, could
not get him out by himself. At this point an ambulance had arrived and
Captain Harold Schuknecht, flight surgeon, without hesitation climbed up to
pull Bob out. By this time the fuselage was enveloped in flames and fire
was spurting out of the waist window and the cockpit, but Schuknecht grabbed
Cook and yanked him out through the cockpit window. The flight surgeon and
the navigator dragged him away from the wreck, rolled him on the ground and
smothered the flames from his flight suit. A minute after they had gotten
safely away, the gasoline tanks exploded, and there was little left of
either the plane or the trailer.
Bob later said, “I had one hand pinned around the control
wheel at the impact, and part of the instrument panel had jammed forward,
hampering movement of the arm. Both legs were wrapped under the seat which
had gone forward and I could not move them. The fire was getting hot and I
was getting desperate. I figured it would be better to injure my hand than
burn to death so I gave my hand a good jerk. It came clear but the jagged
metal tore huge gashes in my flesh. I struggled to get my feet clear, but
it was no soap. My clothes were on fire but I only felt the heat and not
the flame. My flak suit was absorbing most of the punishment. It was
Captain Schuknecht’s help that freed me.”
Lt. Robert Cook was
hospitalized for treatment of his injuries and burns, and then was put on
ground duty until June 10th before being cleared to go back on flight
status. While he was waiting, some of his buddies asked him if maybe he
really didn’t want to go back to flying again, to which he replied, “I love
flying, it isn’t me that doesn’t want to fly, it’s those Germans that don’t
want me to fly.”
Bob was promoted to Captain, and in a ceremony in the
743rd Squadron’s officers club, the bomb group commander, Colonel Kenneth
Cool, presented his award of the Distinguished Flying Cross “for
extraordinary achievement in aerial flight as pilot of a B-24 type
aircraft.”
Shortly afterward, in September 1944, he returned to the
United States for 30 days R&R which he spent at Miami Beach. He then was
reassigned to the Army Air Field at Fort Worth, Texas. Following that, he
had subsequent assignments at Selmon Field, Alabama, and at Goodfellow Field
in San Angelo, Texas. His last posting was to the Air Inspection Department
at Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was discharged on
November 26, 1945.
Postwar, in civilian life Robert pursued a career in investment banking, but
he remained in the reserves and retired in the grade of Major from the U.S.
Air Force Reserve in 1961. He retired in 1984 from the U.S. Department of
Commerce, Economic Development Administration. He has been a life member of
the Military Order of the Purple Heart for ten years and this month, Texas
Capital Chapter 1919 proudly salutes
Patriot Robert L. Cook.
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