224116 F.Sgt. Michael Arthur Cook Royal Canadian Air Force 50 Sqd. from:Welland,Ontario,Canada (d.6th Nov 1944) Michael Cook joined the airforce in Hamilton, Ontario on July 22 1943. He was 68 inches tall weighed 132 lbs. He trained in air gunner unit 10 B & G Mount Pleasant PEI . In six months he weighed 143 lb. He completed his training Jan 14 1944 as an air gunner and went overseas. His personal record states he was "fair Material" Motivation fair, very anxious to be part of any aircrew. Athletic build, will probably do well. Later it was written "This chap has tried hard for a long time to get into aircrew, in my opinion he deserves a chance, he has a pleasant manner, he realizes conditions of selection at manning and will do his best to succeed at whatever selected for. Should be good material"
He was posted to Upper Heyford, Burford and St. John, England. He flew in Wellingtons, learning to fly in formation, cross country and in familiarization runs day and night.
In Sept 1944 he started flying in Sterlings on bombing raids and in OCT Lancaster bombers. He was a sergeant by this time with 50 Squadron at Skellingthorpe. Lancaster III were his machines now. He was rear gunner. He flew cross country and on Oct 19th flew to Neuremburg Marshalling yards in Germany on a night run of 8 hours. Two days later he flew to Flushing and on Oct 28th went to Bergen to bomb submarine pens, another 7 hr night flight. He was now up to 150 hours of flying. November 1944 saw him flying exclusively at night to Hamburg. On Nov 6, this the last flight mentioned in his log book, he had flown a total of 100.25 hrs daylight and 90.35 hrs night. The crew of seven left in a Lancaster aircraft and failed to return from an operational attack on Gravenhurst, Germany. It left base at 16.19 hours on Nov 6th 1944; after no further news was received he was declared MIA in Nov 1944. Later it was learned he was shot down over Holland. Dutch people buried the aircrew in Heerde, Holland. An extract from German Tottenliste @264 and forwarded by the International Red Cross states that 7 were killed on Nov 6th 1944. His fellow crew men were Sgt Ralph Dowling,Toronto, Sgt George Dunkleman, Midland, Fred Horning,Toronto, Bob Rennie PEI, George Ferris BC.
They are buried in Heerde Cemetery, 9 miles SW Zwolle, Hollland. There is also a cenotaph in his hometown that bears his name. His brother John visited the grave after the war and John's daughter and husband visited in 2005.
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