http://www.cooganresearchgroup.com/crg/index.htm

23 December 2012

COOGAN story 

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appearing in "St. Petersburg Evening Independent" [FL], 18 AUG 1944,
PAGES 1 & 6 (COLUMN 4):

LOCAL FLIER SAVED
BY DARING STUNT

Lt. Bob McGrath
Was Co-Pilot On 
Crippled Fortress

Lt. Robert McGrath, former Florida Power corporation advertising
manager, now a Fortress co-pilot, and other members of the crew of
a crippled Flying Fort owe their lives to Lt. Robert Callahan, 
Cleveland, Ohio, who acted as bait for a German flak battery in his
Mustang fighter to save the shot-up B-17, a U.S. Eighth Air force
announcement said today.

Lieutenant McGrath, after the ship was back in an R.A.F. base, was
quoted by the Associated Press as saying:

"I have never seen such courage in a man.  He flew up there like
crazy, teasing hell out of those German gunners below, just begging
them to fire at him."

The Ohio pilot succeeded in drawing the ground fire from the Fortress
and safely flew on to Britain, the official dispatch said.

The Fortress, piloted by Lt. Johnnie Winslett, Montevallo, Ala., was
shot up and the navigator, Lt. Robert Coogan, Forest Hills, N.Y., was
wounded in a recent raid on Munich.

Faltering on the return trip and rapidly losing altitude, the 
crippled bomber was spotted by four Mustangs.  Three took positions
above Callahan, who flew in close to give the Fortress' pilot 
directions.

Then, spotting a Nazi flak nest on the French coast, Callahan darted
ahead to divert its fire.

The fighter planes guided the bomber to an R.A.F. base near a 
hospital, where the navigator now is recovering.

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