1916 – 19 December 1940

Samuel Cooper was born in 1916 and was from Nether Westcote, Kingham, Oxfordshire.

He was granted a short service commission in July 1938.
Confirmed as a Pilot Officer in February 1940, he was posted to the Middle East, where he joined 80 Squadron in Egypt.

He accompanied the unit to Greece late in 1940.

On 19 November 1940, 'B' Flight of 80 Squadron, which recently had arrived to Greece to reinforce the Greek fighter forces, flew up to Trikkala during the morning. After refuelling, nine Gladiators took off, led by three Greek PZL P.24s, for an offensive patrol over the Koritza area. Squadron Leader William Hickey led the Gladiators.
When they neared the Italian airfield at Koritza the PZLs were obliged to turn back due to their short range. The Gladiators flew over Koritza were Italian anti-aircraft opened up. Flight Lieutenant 'Pat' Pattle, who were leading the second section, sighted four Fiat CR.42s climbing towards them from the starboard beam.
It had been arranged beforehand that the Gladiators would not use their radiotelephones unless it was absolutely essential, because they had discovered in the desert that the CR.42s used a similar wavelength; by listening in to the Gladiators, the Italians received prior information of an attack. Pattle warned Hickey of the presence of the CR.42s simply by diving past the Commanding Officer's section and pointing his Gladiator towards the Italian aircraft. Hickey acknowledged that he understood by waggling his wing and Pattle withdrew to his position at the head of his section.
As Hickey’s section dived towards the four CR.42s, Pattle noticed a second group of two more CR.42s and took his section, consisting of Pilot Officer 'Heimar' Stuckey and Sergeant Charles Casbolt, to engage these. Pattle went for the leading CR.42, which attempted to evade the attack by diving steeply and slipping from side to side. Pattle followed, closing in rapidly, but he didn't fire until the CR.42 straightened out and thereby offered a steadier target. From 100 yards astern, he lined up the CR.42 in his sight and opened fire. The CR.42 steepened its dive; the pilot had apparently been hit, because he fell forward over the control column. Pattle pulled away, as the CR.42 went straight down to crash about two miles west of Koritza, bursting into flames on striking the ground. Stuckey, following close behind Pattle's Gladiator, smiled and gave a thumbs-up signal to Pattle signifying confirmation of the victory.
The two Gladiators, now completely alone, climbed up to 15,000 feet immediately over the airfield, and saw a dogfight in progress a few miles to the north. Heading in that direction, they were soon engaged by five CR.42s and two G.50s. One of the G.50s came at Pattle in a head-on attack, but broke away much to early, the tracers passing yards below the Gladiator. A CR.42 had a go next, but Pattle quickly snap-rolled, up and over the Italian aircraft, and came down perfectly in position fifty yards behind the CR.42. A short burst and the cockpit of the CR.42 became a mass of flames and it fell away burning furiously. After this combat he noticed that his air pressure were so low that he couldn't fire his guns and he soon returned to base.
80 Squadron had been involved in combat with Fiat CR.42s of 160^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T., which were patrolling over this area, and with G.50bis from 24^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T., which were escorting bombers in the same area.
Totally in this combat the British pilots claimed nine and two probables shot down. Apart from Pattle's two CR.42s, Stuckey claimed one G.50, which crashed, and one CR.42, Flight Lieutenant 'Shorty' Graham claimed one G.50 and one CR.42, Pilot Officer Cooper claimed one shared CR.42 with Pilot Officer William Vale, who also claimed one additional CR.42, Sergeant Charles Casbolt claimed one G.50 and finally Flying Officer Sidney Linnard claimed two CR.42s as probables.
In the combat was Stuckey hit and wounded in the right shoulder and leg, but managed to get back to Trikkala from where he would be despatched to hospitals in Athens.
Three CR.42s and one G.50bis were actually lost. In 160^o Gruppo Sergente Maggiore Natale Viola (363^a Squadriglia), Maresciallo Giuseppe Salvadori (363^a Squadriglia) and Sergente Maggiore Arturo Bonato (393^a Squadriglia) all failed to return, as did Tenente Attilio Meneghel of 355^a Squadriglia, 24^o Gruppo. A fourth CR.42 flown by Sergente Maggiore Walter Ratticchieri was hit and the pilot was wounded in both legs. One CR.42 pilot, Sergente Maggiore Luciano Tarantini, claimed a Gladiator shot down, two more being claimed as probables, one by Capitano Paolo Arcangeletti, the other by a G.50bis pilot.

At 14.30 on 2 December Flight Lieutenant 'Pat' Pattle was off again, this time at the head of 12 Gladiators to undertake an offensive patrol over the front lines in support of the Greek Army. Near Premet two Ro.37bis were seen 1000 feet below. Pattle led his flight (Pilot Officer Cooper and Flight Sergeant ‘Mick’ Richens) down. He levelled out just behind and beneath the left-hand aircraft and waited for Cooper to get into position astern the second unsuspecting reconnaissance aircraft. They opened fire simultaneously and both Italian aircraft fell in flames. One man was seen to bale out of Cooper’s victim.
This was two more Ro.37bis from 72^o Gruppo O.A. in which Capitano Gardella/Capitano Fuchs and Sergente Leoni/Sergente Vescia were all killed.

Shortly before midday on 19 December Squadron Leader William Hickey led 14 of 80 Squadron's Gladiators up to Yanina, followed by the ground party in a Ju52/3m. After refuelling, l3 of these fighters were off to patrol over the Tepelene area where five S.79s of the 46^o Stormo were seen, escorted by CR.42s and G.50bis. The British pilots at once engaged the bombers, believing that they had shot one down (no loss was actually suffered), but return fire struck N5785 and it went down in flames, Pilot Officer Cooper being seen to bale out. Squadron Leader Hickey thought that he had shot down one of the escorting CR.42s, which now attempted to intervene, but he then went down to land on a waterlogged field near Argyrokastron to look for his missing pilot. With the aid of some Greek soldiers, the badly wounded Cooper was located, and was transferred to hospital in Argyrokastron, where he died that evening. Meanwhile Sergeant Edward Hewett’s N5827 had been hit and badly damaged by AA fire, and he was obliged to force-land 20 miles north of Yanina during the return flight; this Gladiator was later salvaged.
No escorting CR.42s were actually lost in this combat.

At the time of his death Cooper was credited with 1 biplane victory, this one being claimed while flying Gloster Gladiators.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
	19/11/40	½	CR.42 (a)	Shared destroyed	Gladiator		Koritza area	80 Squadron
1	02/12/40	1	Ro.37bis (b)	Destroyed	Gladiator		near Premet	80 Squadron

Biplane victories: 1 and 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 and 1 shared destroyed.
(a) In this combat 80 Squadron RAF claimed nine and two probably destroyed while 160^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T. lost three CR.42s and got one damaged while 24^o Gruppo Autonomo C.T. lost one G.50.
(b) Two Ro.37bis from 72^o Gruppo O.A. shot down after two claims from 80 Squadron. Capitano Gardella/Capitano Fuchs and Sergente Leoni/Sergente Vescia were all killed.

Sources:
Ace of Aces: M T StJ Pattle - E C R Baker, 1992 Crécy Books, Somerton, ISBN 0-947554-36-X
Air war for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete - Christopher Shores, Brian Cull and Nicola Malizia, 1987 Grub Street, London, ISBN 0-948817-07-0
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Those Other Eagles – Christopher Shores, 2004 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-904010-88-1