http://www.cooganresearchgroup.com/crg/index.htm 11 November 2009 COOGAN story appearing in Missing Aircraft Reports for the 392nd Bomb Group: 18 SEPTEMBER 1944 TARGET: HOLLAND - DZ (Drop Zone - Supplies) MISSING AIRCREW REPORT: #10660 AIRCRAFT: #42-50673 (NO NICKNAME) "Bar-K" 1st Mission AIRCREW: SEWELL * SQUADRON: 579th CREW POSITIONS AND STATUS: P 2/LT Sewell, Wade R EVD CP 2/LT Weise, Everett H. KIA N 2/LT Richards, William J. KIA B 2/LT Bremer, Adolph F. EVD R/O T/SGT Fulton, Lester A. EVD (Allied) EnG T/SGT Barnes, Glenn M. POW WG S/SGT Coogan, Alphonsus J. EVD WG S/SGT Negri, John D. POW TG SGT Leigh, Robert H. EVD AU CPL Floyd, Carlos M. POW # Pax CPL Johnson, Nevin J. KIA + # U.S. Army Air Transportation Tech (Drop Master). + An unauthorized (stowaway) passenger from the 10th Station Complement (who was listed AWOL). MISSION LOSS CIRCUMSTANCES: There were no returning aircrew, eye-witness reports on this loss, however detailed accounts were submitted later by the survivors who managed to evade or be taken by friendly ground troop’s care - and these men were returned to duty soon after this mission. There are no German Reports connected with this crew’s MACA. INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS OF CREWMEN FATES: Extensive and detailed reports, given later by survivors - evaders and ex-POWs alike after returns to duty - are included in this MACR file. For the sake of some brevity, some paraphrasing has been taken with the contents of these statements, however the substance of all is included as follows as transcribed in personal crew member interrogations recorded by 392nd Staff elements, and forwarded to higher headquarters charged with processing MIA files. This latter report cited the statements which had been given by Lt. Bremer, T/Sgt Fulton, S/Sgt Coogan and S/Sgt Leigh who had reported back to England by 28 September - ten days after their mission ...Statement by Lt. Bremer: "At about the IP, the plane received serious hits in the waist and wings from light flak and lesser hits (small arms?) covering the entire plane. Nothing was reported over the interphone. When the bomb bay doors failed to open, I knew that something was seriously wrong. As we reached the drop point, I told the men in the waist to kick out their bundles; about the same time the Pilot asked the Navigator for a heading back to England (as) he wanted to get back as soon as possible. At that time #4 engine was smoking and there were no other serious signs of trouble (and) the ship remained under control. Approximately five minutes after the drop time, #4 engine burst into flames (and) the Pilot gave the order to abandon ship. After the order to bail out, the Pilot pulled up to something less than 1,000 feet; the Navigator Lt. Richards was the first to bail out; Sgt. Coogan in the waist was number two and I was number three...Sgt Coogan and I came down in German territory near Lichtaart, Belgium..and we ran in the opposite direction of the plane’s flight path...(later) a man who lives about ten miles to the north came for us (Belgian underground helper)...(but) he was stopped by the Germans and arrested... (but) we weren’t seen, so we took off by ourselves...and stopped for help at a farm house and fortunately they were associated with the same (helper) organization...and we were returned to England on 28 September....in Lichtaart, I saw the graves of Lts. Weiss and Richards...Lt. Weise was killed by strangulation when he became entangled in his shroud lines...nothing definite on Lt Richards....was told (by Sgt Coogan) that Cpl. Floyd, the Drop Master, was quite seriously wounded, sustaining flak injuries about his head and quite serious injuries to his right arm.... from what I know, I believe...(his) chances of survival are small. Sgt. Negn sustained relatively slight injuries to his legs... (and) Sewell (Pilot) and Barnes (Engineer) crash landed the plane. On the way down they hit a clump of trees..Sewell was seriously injured...fractured skull and severe cuts...was without medical attention for about 24 hours...until (the helpers) could provide a Doctor for him....he was moved to a convent where he was kept until the British amved....Barnes (also) was picked up by the underground, but (was) later captured". The 392nd report corrected the above account somewhat, based on the statement received by Sgt Leigh at the same time. The latter corrected the account, as follows: "...(Sgt) Fulton did not get Cpl Floyd cleared from the aircraft...Fulton attached his (Floyd’s) chute to a static line but could not get him out. So it was (Floyd) and not (Sgt) Barnes who rode the plane in with the Pilot. The underground said that Floyd was taken by the Germans; so he appears to have survived....Barnes did not crash land with the plane but jumped and broke a leg." Added information in the 392nd’s 8-2 office interrogation also reported the following: "...The interrogation of T/Sgt Fulton states that he landed in Belgium in territory held by the Germans..he was on his own from Monday, 18 September to Saturday, 23 September before being taken over by Allied troops...(and) during this time he saw the graves of Lts. Weise and Richards." A further report on the fate of Cpl. Nevin Johson, the passenger ‘stowaway’ from the 392nd, the S-2 covered a statement also made by S/Sgt Leigh, who was quoted:..."a man I knew to be Cpl. Johnson, a member of the ground crew, was on our ship when we took off. After we were hit and the Pilot gave the signal to bail out, I saw Cpl. Johnson bail out. Later I heard that he had bled to death after his foot was injured when he landed. I later saw his grave marked ‘CpI. Nevin J. Johnson’ in Lichtaart, Belgium." On CpI. Johnson’s being aboard this aircraft on the mission as an ‘unauthorized’ crew member, the 10th Station Complement prepared a brief summation of this event (a summary statement prepared by a ‘Miss Stems’ of this unit later), which read in part: "...he stowed away in on the ships assigned to the 579th Bomb Squadron...the ship was mortally wounded by flak and small arms fire necessitating the personnel...to parachute to the ground...Cpl. Johnson parachuted...safely..but upon landing broke his leg.. .was unable to help himself and due to enemy activity around the area....the rest of the crew men were not able to reach him to give him first aid....and (thus) he bled to death as the fighting on the ground was going on rather fiercely and Johnson (had) landed in the middle of (it). How he arranged for the ride; how he got the necessary flying equipment still remains a secret...he is carried on the books as AWOL. (His) transfer to the paratroops had just been approved by this office and sent to higher headquarters when his time came and he went to Belgium....Too bad, but ..card was finally punched out." As a concluding note on the after-action reporting, an 8th endorsement to all the MACA letters and inquires involved on this crew, and addressed from the 392nd to CO, 2nd Bombardment Division, 20 October 1944, stated in Paragraph 3..."Investigation conducted by this Headquarters, in compliance with AR 60-SSO, found Cpl Johnson Killed in Action - Line of Duty, Signed Franklin W. Dawson, Capt., Air Corps, Personnel Officer." This aircrew from the records had completed (20) combat missions at the time of this loss. BURIAL RECORDS: The only initial burial reports came from the evader crew personnel in their later S-2 interrogations by the 392nd Intelligence Staff, which confirmed that: Lts Weise and Richards, and CpI. Johnson were buried in Lichtaart, Belgium. No such record exists in the MACA on CpI. Floyd. U.S. National (overseas) Cemetery record show that Lt. Weise was re-interred in the ARDENNES Plot (Grave B-42-38) and was awarded an Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf cluster. No recovery/reburial record exists for Lt. Richards, Cpl. Johnson, or Sgt. Floyd. NEXT OF KIN DATA IN WWII: MACA information is nearly unreadable. Best known data is: Sewell (Wife, Mrs Wade, Murfreesboro, Tennessee); Weise (Washington State); Richards (Michigan); Bremer (% A.F. Bremer, 577 Johnson Street, Winona, Minnesota); Coogan (New York State); Negri (Michigan); Barnes (Virginia); Johnson (New York State); Floyd (Georgia); Leigh (unreadable); Fulton (unreadable).