Robert Cowper (RAAF officer)

At the end of the year, Cowper and his navigator/radar operator, Flying Officer Bill Watson, were transferred to No. 89 Squadron, based at Abu Sueir in Egypt, also operating Beaufighter night fighters. The squadron had a detachment stationed on Malta and in January 1943 Cowper and Watson were sent there. While flying their Beaufighter to Malta, they ran out of fuel over Tunisia and had to bale out. Walking for four days, Cowper and Watson reached the Allied lines and from there were transported to Malta.[2][5][6]

In March, Cowper's detachment was integrated into No. 108 Squadron for the aerial defence of the Nile Delta.[7] Cowper and Watson regularly flew patrols to the north of Tunisia before the squadron switched to intruder patrols to the Italian island of Sicily. On the night of 18 April, Cowper made his first claim, for a Messerschmitt Me 210 heavy fighter that was damaged over the town of Marsala. Following the Allied invasion of Sicily in July, the squadron flew cover for the landing beaches. Cowper destroyed a Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber on the night of 11 July but his Beaufighter was damaged by debris from the exploding Ju 88. He and his navigator baled out; the latter, flying in Watson's stead, was lost at sea while Cowper, suffering severe cuts and a broken nose, apparently was in free-fall for some time in a state of unconsciousness before awaking and opening his parachute. He was spotted and picked up by a hospital ship, HMHS Aba, after spending several hours in the water.[2][6]

Cowper was back at No. 108 Squadron within a few days and on 21 July shot down another Ju 88. His tour of operations ended the following month and he returned to the United Kingdom.[2][5] He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) at the end of August; the citation, published in The London Gazette, read:

This officer has completed 68 sorties and has displayed great courage and determination. During a sortie in January, 1943, Flying Officer Cowper was compelled to make a forced landing behind the enemy's lines but he displayed great resource in outwitting the enemy and regained our own lines on foot. One night in July, 1943, he engaged a Junkers 88 and caused it to explode. The enemy aircraft disintegrated and a large portion struck and so disabled Flying Officer Cowper's aircraft that he was forced to leave it by parachute. He was later rescued from the sea and rejoined his squadron to resume operational flying. Since then, Flying Officer Cowper has destroyed another Junkers 88.

— London Gazette, No. 36152, 31 August 1943[8]

Promoted to flight lieutenant,[3] Cowper was posted as an instructor to No. 63 OTU at Honiley. In March 1944, he was transferred to No. 5 Tactical Exercise Unit at Annan, Scotland. He returned to operational flying with No. 456 Squadron, a RAAF unit, in May.[2] It was based at Ford, carrying out night patrols over the south of England using de Havilland Mosquito Mk XVII heavy fighters. Once Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy, commenced on 6 June, it flew at night over the landing beaches.[9]

Reunited with Watson as his navigator and radar operator, Cowper destroyed a Heinkel He 177 heavy bomber west of Cherbourg on the night of 9 June. He carried on with his patrol and shot down a Dornier Do 217 medium bomber as well. In both instances, he reported seeing glider bombs being carried by the aircraft that he attacked.[2][6][10] Then on 14 June, with Watson providing directions from his radar equipment, he shot down a Ju 88, the bomber going down into the sea. His last aerial victory was a He 177, shot down to the south of Selsey Bill on 5 July.[2][6] This was one of three aircraft of this type destroyed by pilots of No. 456 Squadron that night.[9]

Later in July, No. 456 Squadron became involved in Operation Diver, the RAF's campaign against German V-1 flying bombs targeting the south of England. Cowper made a claim for one V-1 destroyed but this was subsequently awarded to an anti-aircraft unit. The later months of the year were relatively quiet as the squadron reverted to night patrols over England. At the end of the year it moved north to RAF Church Fenton and in the following months saw more action dealing with incoming Luftwaffe night fighter attacks on bomber bases in England.[9] Cowper, promoted to squadron leader at the start of 1945, was awarded a bar to his DFC in February.[3][11]

No. 456 Squadron began operating from RAF Bradwell Bay in March as bomber-support, a duty it performed until the end of the war in Europe. Cowper was the squadron's final commander, leading it from May until 15 June 1945 when it was disbanded.[9] He ended the war credited with having destroyed six German aircraft and damaging one.[2]