Ilion High School - Class of 1945Ilion Sentinel - March 1, 1945Describes Bombing of German Retreat From Belgium BulgeArticle 14Source pdf file is here Illion NY Sentinel 1944-1946 (1) - 0435.pdf on fultonhistory.com
Describes Bombing of German Retreat From Belgium Bulge Fighter-bomber pilot in a crack Ninth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt group which destroyed or damaged almost 500 German tanks and motor vehicles in four consecutive days of flying over the Ardennes salient, is 1st Lt. Jacob L. Cooper, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Cooper, E. North St. A veteran of the Normandy campaign, the 21-year-old Valley aviator likened the scene of hundred of German vehicles pulling out of the Belgium bulge to the clotted roads of northern France after the battle of Falaise. "You could point your nose down anywhere and find German trucks or tanks on the road," he said. "Even the small secondary roads twisting around the wooded mountain gorges of the Ardennes were loaded with traffic headed back toward Germany. Our group kept up a steady stream of Thunderbolts over the battle front." As flight leader for a four-man formation, Cooper led a particularly effective attack against six enemy vehicles racing eastward in the Prum area. Dropping his bombs in an accurate cluster on the trucks, he destroyed three of them; then added another kill when he returned for a withering low-level strafing assault. On a later mission in the same afternoon, his flight destroyed a 28-car freight train loaded with war supplies. "It was covered with flames and burning fiercely when we turned for base" the young pilot related. Joining his present fighter-bomber unit when it was operating from southern England, Cooper has flown from various airstrips and captured German air bases in Normandy and southern France, and is presently stationed in Belgium. His group has won special commendations from the Commanding Generals of both the First and Ninth U. S. Armies for spearheading attacks of American ground troops. While blasting defended positions in the Aachen area, he sustained flak bursts in his aircraft's wings and fuselage, but was able to make base safely. He has been awarded the Air Medal with 12 oak leaf clusters. A graduate of Ilion high school, he worked at the Remington Arms plant before undergoing training in January 1943. He received his wings and was commissioned a second Lt. at Aloe Field, Victoria, Texas in November 1943. He has been overseas since April 1944. A brother, Edward C. Cooper, is a staff Sgt. in the Army Air Force, stationed at San Antonio, Texas.
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