Joseph M Cook was born in Illinois in 1924 and went to High school in Berwyn, Illinois. Although his preference would have been to study astronomy, he graduated in 1941 and started his training in engineering.



Following the attack on Pearl Harbour he enlisted in the Army Air Corps hoping to train as a pilot of P.38’s. During training he flew the VT13 but he was assigned to multi-engine aircraft.

Joe was based with 392nd Bomber Group at Wendling Airfield, Norfolk, UK flying B.24’s. He crewed up in the auditorium with 2nd Lt Robert (Bob) Johnson as pilot and 2nd Lt Joseph Waters as navigator.



Joe said, “You’d get up every day and strapped in every day and flew to a place where you could have been killed. I wasn’t afraid of dying. On a bomb run death was like an old acquaintance, not fear, – no illusion. On a bomb run day you were woken up at 4am then you’d go to mission board - then listen to the presentation.



“The B24 was a complicated machine to fly over an unfriendly environment. Built on the edge of technological feasibility .The machine stretched all the parameters. It was difficult to fly. The B24 had a tricycle undercarriage – you flew down the runway until the tyres screeched. B24’s would break in 2 when ditching. It was a tough plane to fly. It was built to carry bombs and was heavier than B17. It was on the edge of all parameters.”

On his 15th and last mission on 7th October 1944, the aircraft, “Madame Shoo Shoo”, was hit by flak near Kassel and six of the crew bailed out after an engine caught fire.



“I landed hard in a ploughed field. I relaxed. My head flipped back in a furrow. I got up and got rid of the parachute and ran towards the Allied lines but didn’t know where I was. The Germans caught up. I was wearing a heated suit. There were no bushes. It was an empty field so I was very visible. Three or four came over on horse-back and the farmer wanted to shoot me. Another older man pushed the shotgun aside. I had a foolish grin on my face. I wasn’t frightened – it all seemed unreal I felt detached. We were then marched off. I got caught. I was surprised I wasn’t killed. I spent rest of the war in the Stalag Luft prison camp.”



On his release and back in Chicago, Joe flew the AT-6 in readiness for a further deployment. However, the war ended and he returned to his studies qualifying as a design engineer. For thirty years he worked on engineering design projects.





Shot down 7 October 1944 in B-24#4294966. Prisoner of War (POW).