RAF Pilot Douglas Cooper of Strabane, Co. Tyrone, who as a POW was involved in the famous ‘Wooden Horse’ tunnel escape

 

By Con McGrath

 

Herbert Douglas Haig Cooper was born in Strabane in 1917 and attended the local Church of Ireland school in Strabane before moving on to the Prior in Lifford for his secondary education. He moved from there to Portora Royal in Enniskillen as a boarder in 1934.

It had been hoped that the young Douglas would pursue a career in banking but already his interest was deeply embedded in aviation and he managed to flunk the entrance examination for the bank. Despite reservations his father, Herbert, accepted the young Douglas’ wish to join the Air Force and he signed up in late 1936. After periods of training at Brough and Sealand, Douglas was awarded his Wings in June 1937 and assigned to RAF Station Waddington in Lincolnshire in October of that year.

On the outbreak of war in September 1939, Douglas Cooper was busy training new crews for the expected aerial war with the Germans and it was not until January 1940 that he was involved in actual combat when attacked over the North Sea by German planes, managing to make it safely back to base.

In February he volunteered to help bring twelve Bristol Blenheim Mk 1’s to Finland to unofficially help in the war against the Russians. This entailed clandestine flights to Norway and landing on a frozen lake near Helsinki, to a rapturous welcome from the Finnish forces. After being feted for two days Cooper and his aircrews were brought to Sweden and eventually brought from there back to Scotland. Douglas was later to receive the Finnish Medal of Winter War 1940 for his part in the delivery of the aircraft.

In the late spring of 1940 much of Cooper’s time was spent on reconnaissance work but it was becoming increasingly clear that the German advance on western Europe was a major threat. In May Douglas was part of a bombing expedition to Maastricht to halt the German advance there and they managed to inflict continued damage on German positions along the Dutch and Belgian coasts during the British army’s retreat to Dunkirk as well as moving inland to attack enemy positions in occupied northern France.

By June he and his crew had completed 30 operations and were entitled to a well earned rest. Douglas was then assigned as an instructor to training new pilots in the Blenheims and he was to remain at this task until February 1941 when he was recalled to operational duty at Watton in Norfolk, where his immediate superior was a fellow Ulsterman from Ramelton in Donegal, Miles Villiers Denlap.

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