James Francis Cooper
James Francis Cooper
Warrant Officer
Royal Canadian Air Force
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Warrant Officer James Francis Cooper served with great bravery as a rear gunner aboard Lancaster bomber 2865R during the Second World War. A member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Cooper was part of a mixed Canadian and British crew from 16 Squadron RAF, based at RAF Syerston near Newark, Nottinghamshire. On the night of September 5, 1944, Cooper and his crewmates took off for a bombing mission over Bremen, Germany—one of 252 aircraft deployed that night in a major operation by RAF Bomber Command.
Their Lancaster, code-named “R-RQ,” never returned. It was intercepted and shot down by German night-fighter ace Helmut Lent, flying a heavily armed Dornier Do-217J. During the approach over the Dutch coast, Lent’s cannons struck the Lancaster with fatal force. The aircraft crashed near the village of Warffum, roughly five miles southeast of Leeuwarden in the Netherlands.
Of the seven crew members aboard, only four survived the crash—Navigator Sergeant J.P. Bredin, Wireless Operator Flight Sergeant A.B. Farmer, Engineer Flight Sergeant V.E. Booth, and Mid-Upper Gunner Flying Officer D.N. Mullins. These men later became prisoners of war. Pilot Officer Peter Nilson, Bomb Aimer Flight Sergeant J.E. May, and Rear Gunner James Cooper were all killed. Cooper, whose rear turret position made him one of the most vulnerable in any bombing raid, died in the crash and was initially unaccounted for, with his remains not recovered for decades.
His courage, composure, and service exemplified the gallantry of RCAF aircrew during the perilous bombing campaigns over occupied Europe. The loss of Lancaster 2865R and its crew was long remembered by local Dutch civilians, who eventually spearheaded a recovery operation. Led by Dutch engineer Evander Broekman and the Special Works team from Leemans, the aircraft wreckage was recovered from beneath 25 feet of peat and water in the Alde Feanen National Park in 2003.
James Francis Cooper’s remains were never recovered, but his sacrifice is etched into the legacy of Dutch-Canadian remembrance. The freedom Holland regained came at a heavy price—one paid in part by young airmen like Cooper who never returned home.
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Beaupre, Quebec
Photo & Story: Timothy Young, Faces to Graves
