LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Ronald Jack COOPER DFC
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 43281 (RAF)
Born: Date, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: Acting Pilot Officer – 10 April 1940
Unit: No. 38 Squadron (RAF)
Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC)
Died: Air Operations: (No. 38 Squadron Wellington IC aircraft Z8736), near Derna, Libya, 26 November 1941, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Sidney Augustus Cooper and of Hessie Muriel Cooper (nee Horken), of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Column 241, Alamein Memorial, Egypt
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Flying Officer Cooper was an Australian Cadet accepted for training by the RAF who embarked for the UK on 12 August 1939.
Wellington Z8736 took off from Landing Ground 09 at around 1700 hours to attack Derna. The aircraft sent a distress message when a few miles from Derna. Severe electrical storms were reported by other crews. All are commemorated on the Alamein Memorial.
The crew members of Z8736 were:
Flying Officer Ronald Jack Cooper (43281) (RAF) (Pilot)
Pilot Officer Peter Eastman (67078) (RAFVR)
Flight Sergeant George Joseph McKhool (R/54027) (RCAF)
Sergeant Thomas McNeill (759285) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Lemuel Peaker (1101853) (RAFVR)
Sergeant Arthur Donald Wren (1180206) (RAFVR)
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Gunby, David and Pelham Temple, Royal Air Force Bomber Losses in the Middle East and Mediterranean Volume 1 1939-1942, Midland Publishing, 2006
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990