Piper L-4H Grasshopper, Wickers Cross, Stackallan, Meath

On the 5th of May 1944, one of the stranger incidents of the wartime landings occurred. At 9:30 that day, not one but two military aircraft landed in a field at Stackallen, County Meath belonging to Captain K Allison. These were perhaps the most harmless of the aircraft that visited Irish shores during the war. On the other side of Ireland, an aircraft of a much more warlike complexion landed near Foxford, County Mayo, you can read the story of that landing at this link.

The Irish military later recorded that the two aircraft had been observed west of Brackenstown (North County Dublin) moving south and later were heard by military posts in the Dublin City area circling around and then heading North. They later landed around 9:30 in the morning on May 5th.

The two aircraft turned out to be US Army Piper L-4 Grasshopper spotter aircraft. And they themselves were harmless and unarmed they would go on to provide deadly support to the US Army during the campaign in Northern Europe and elsewhere they carried out the artillery spotting role with deadly efficiency along with other vital roles such as casualty evacuation and liaison flights.

The two pilots made contact with a local hackney driver and asked to be driven to a petrol station. The enterprising driver, named only as Moran, took the opportunity to take his two passengers to the nearest Garda (Police) station in Navan town where they were taken into the care of the local police and given food and refreshments. The two airmen explained the Guards and later the military that they were flying from Scotland to a place in Northern Ireland which the Irish military recorded as "Blessington Barn" near Fivemiletown. They had had to deviate from their intended course due to weather and found themselves over Dublin. It was after they turned for Northern Ireland and attempted to fly up the coast that they found they would not have sufficient fuel and elected to force land the aircraft.

Captain Teague and four enlisted men were dispatched from the Irish Air Corps with a fuel bowser and dispensed 19 gallons of DTD224 fuel to the two aircraft during the day. There is a hand written memo in the Irish Army file stating that the military authorities were told to allow the aircraft to leave "since aircraft were on a ferry flight and therefore on non-operational work crews and aircraft may be released". This message was forwarded to the Gardai in Navan for notification to Comdt Harrington who was the Eastern Command Intelligence officer and was present at the scene. Finally at 16:20 that afternoon, both aircraft took off again from the field and flew on to Northern Ireland.

The name of the two pilots were recorded variously in the Irish Army report as Lt Jack R Kirkpatrick and Lt Barney or Bernard Coen/Cohen. The Irish officers noted that Lt Coen said his parents were Irish and that he had relatives in Tuam and Ballinasloe, both towns in Galway. This story is recounted in the "The Fighting Grasshoppers" by Ken Wakefield where he identifies the two aircrew as 1st/Lt Jack R Kirkpatrick of the 8th Infantry Division Artillery HQ Battery and 2/Lt Bernard J Coen of the 45 Field Artillery Battalion. At this time, May 1944, the US Army 8th Infantry Division was stationed in Northern Ireland, having arrived in Belfast in December 1943. The Divisions time in Ireland is recorded on a number of websites including this one, The 8th Infantry Division Archives website. The Artilery Units were based at Blessingbourne Estate, just outside the town of Fivemiletown, County Tyrone. This would explain the misinterpreted place name of Blessington Barn recorded by the Irish Army. Today, the estate is a hotel/guest house with surrounding gardens.

Using available military records and family history records it was possible to learn a little more about the two pilots who flew into Wickers Cross that morning.

Jack Reid Kirkpatrick was born in 1914 in Urbana, Illinois to Leslie and Ombra Kirkpatrick. In 1038 he graduated from University of Illinois with BA degree. He went on then to graduate from the University of Illinois, College of Law, on June 1, 1942.  Jack took flight lessons during the summers and got his pilot’s license. He enlisted in U.S. Army on the 2nd of June 1942 at Chanute Field, Illinois and was trained as a “Field Artillery Liaison Pilot”.  In September 1943 he is found at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, in the morning reports for the 43rd Field Artillery Battery and the Headquarters battery of the 8th Infantry Division.  He first appears as a Staff Sergeant but is commishioned as an officer on or around the 20th of the month.  By February 1944, he is found based at Fivemiletown, County Tyrone on detached service from Antrim.  He served in the 43d Field Artillery Battalion of the 8th Division, spending 19 months in the European Theater and participating in the Normandy invasion.  As of late 1944 he had flown 35 combat sorties with 300 combat hours. 

His local newspapers reported much of his 1944/1945 activity hen they could.  The Evening Courier from Urbana publsihed the following on May 11th, 1945:

Kirkpatrick in Push on Ruhr
First Lieut. Jack Kirkpatrick of Urbana observed and called artillery fire on 150 or more German vehicles jammed on a road for more than an hour during the recent Ruhr push, according to a dispatch from the eighth infantry division in Germany.
A flying observer for the "Golden Arrow" division, he became greatly exhilerated by his mission, in which he reported his findings to guns by radio, it was pointed out. The dispatch relates that Lieutenant Kirkpatrick had "a flier's delight served to him in the shape of long lines of retreating enemy columns. "If constant shelling wasn't a grim reminder that this was a deadly battlefield, one could have easily believed that the lieutenant had been granted a discharge as one listened to his repeated shouts of 'I can't stand it-it's wonderful!' over and over again."
Son of Mrs. Ombra Kirkpatrick, 208 West Illinois street, the lieutenant, who led a dance band here when he attended the University of Illinois, left the law school in 1942, to enter service. His outfit was credited with a 45-mile thrust, which split the Ruhr pocket and took more than 48,000 prisoners, hundreds of vehicles and vast stores of materiel.
The division previously fought in the Roer river crossing, the drive to Cologne, Hurtgen forest, Luxembourg, the push through Brittany, and the capture of the Crozon peninsula and the Normandy breakthrough. He holds the Air Medal with three clusters.

On the 16th of July, the Courier carried a long article, with a photo of Jack across two pages:

Artilleryman has Air Medal
Lieut. Jack Kirkpatrick Piloted Cub
Lieut. Jack Kirkpatrick, who served 19 months in Europe with the famous Eighth division field artillery, has the distinction of wearing the Air Medal and four oak clusters to it.
As a liaison officer for the 43rd artillery group he flew more than 300 combat hours to have "a ringside seat" in a cub plane through the actions of his division from D.Day plus 28 in France to V-E Day in Germany.
Directing the fire of the artillery from his seat in the tiny cub, Jack started in the La Haye du Puits region, went on to Reims and then to Brest.
Nazis Outran Artillery
"Brest is a big seaport. We had them cut off all around, but we stayed there nearly a' month cleaning up," said the cub pilot.
"Siegen on the Sieg river was where we went next. We had a tough time there. We lost a lot of lieutenants who served as observers. We pilots often flew, observed and directed fire by ourselves. The Germans were already short on transportation then. They were pulling their guns by hand and they were using cows and horses, but they didn't have many horses. They'd come down the road two and three columns abreast. We'd drop one shell halfway down the road and they'd be blocked. The only place some of them could get away from the shells we sent over after that was in the ditch.

"After we took Siegen the Eighth took those 130,000 or so prisoners in the Ruhr pocket. The next big town was Olpe. There the Germans were moving back so fast  that we could hardly reach them with our artillery. The doughboys and the tanks had come up but the artillery hadn't kept up. I took off with a guy named Miller.  There were Germans as far as you could see. We shot up a mess of them with our artillery until they got so far ahead the guns wouldn't reach. The only gun in the division that would was a big howitzer they pulled up behind a two and one half ton G. M. C. We shot that steadily for over an hour.
Hit by Sniper
"Just before the breakthrough in the Ardennes Bulge we were at the northern tip of Luxembourg, but we exchanged places with the 28th division and went up almost to Aachen. Two days later the December breakthrough came and the 28th took the battering we missed.
"The winter fighting in the Hurtgen forest area was perhaps the worst of the whole war for the Eighth division. The men on the ground couldn't see a thing and it was bitter sold. We were on the east side of the Ruhr river and the Germans were on the west side. We sat there about all winter. We'd send out a patrol or two and bring in prisoners and they'd do the same. We flew around and picked up their positions. Our only heat came from a little outlet off the motor.  Most of the time we flew from 1,000 to 1,500 feet. The temperature drops three degrees each thousand feet.
"The day we took Cologne we were flying around 400 feet. The armor was going down the main thoroughfare and I thought if I stayed behind it, I'd be all right. When I had to circle around the block, a sniper fired on us. Lieutenant Pfefferle, whose father is a judge in Columbus, Ohio, was my observer. He said in a quavery volce, 'are you hit?' and I answered just as shaky. 'yes' but I didn't know where right then. I'd stopped that sniper's bullet in the left cheek of the rear end. It wasn't bad enough to earn the Purple Heart. It was just a scratch.
"We'd been at Schwerin about 18 miles south of the Baltic, around two days when the war ended. We'd cleaned up the Rhur pocket and joined the British second and the 82nd airborne for awhile. The Germans by that time had lost all their transportation. All we did was collect prisoners. We sent out road blocks, a machine gun and four or five men. The Germans were coming in four abreast as far as you could see. We'd search them and then pick out a good open field and herd them into it."
Graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law June 1, 1942, Kirkpatrick enlisted in the army at Chanute field the following day, before he had a chance to try out his profession. For the past year, however, he has had a good deal of experience in military law serving on general court martials.
While Kirkpatrick, who earned his way through law school conducting a campus dance band, says that any man who wants to go on to the Pacific is "crazy," he is ready to go there if he is needed.  After his leave here with his mother, Mrs. Ombra Kirkpatrick, 208 West Illinois street, he will report at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., where the Eighth division is to be reassembled.

Among his awards were,

·        Air Medal with 4 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters.

·        European Theater Ribbon with combat stars for Normandy, Northern France, the Rhineland and Central Europe.

·        Purple Heart for wounds received taking anti-aircraft fire while flying over Cologne.

He was honorably discharged in October 1945, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

Jack passed the Illinois Bar Exam in 1946 and was married in 1947 to Mary Ladd Adams and moved to Galesburg, Illinois where they raised their family.  He remained in the military post war it seems as a National Guard member, being mentioned in 1948 as a Piper L-16 pilot with the 1st battalion, 123rd Infantry based at Illinois University Airport.  Jack served many years as an Assistant States Attorney for Knox County, Illinois, and then Magistrate Judge. 

He passed away in Galesberg in 1977.

Photo kindly supplied by grand daughter, Catherine.

2/Lt Bernard J Coen O-2045158 was difficult to find since his name had been recorded in the hand written portions of the Irish Army report and elsewhere as Coon and Cohen. However it was possible to contact his daughter Mary who confirmed that the story of Wickers Cross related to her father, Bernard J Coen.

Bernard was the son of Nora and Patrick Coen, who had come from Ireland in 1908 from Ballinasloe, in Galway.  Baernard was born in 1914 in  Sioux City, Iowa.  Indeed, his parents origin was recorded by the Irish Army, after he told the officers he had relations in County Galway.

His daughter was able to report: "I have 2 of his 3 flight books and show Barney in Camp Forest, Tenn, USA on 11/16/1943 and next log is Northern Ireland on 2/12/1944. He was flying a Cub - L 4 H with Army markings, engine make Con-65 and doing field work. On 5/1/1944 he notes that he was ferry plane from Wantage, England T.I. (I think it means to Ireland). Noted that back on 5/11/44 back to doing field work in Northern Ireland. On 6/27/1944 he notes Northern Ireland to Normandy and on 5/10/44 he notes Combat missions over France. On 7/13/44 he notes 2 bullet holes wing and turtleback. On the 15th he was back in combat still in France. On 7/27/44 he notes hole in wing. On 8/31/44 he notes two bullet holes in tail. On 9/1/44 notes combat missions Luxenbourg (orders state Beilefeld, Germany). On 11/2/44 he notes combat missions in Germany. On 12/3/1944 his plane was strafed and grounded by ME 109, replaced. New plane was Cub L4-J stating engine was still a con65. He notes he is still in Germany. He remained in Germany until 6/12/1945 and then orders to drive to La Harve, France via Brussels, Belgium. Then on 8/8/45 he was back at Fort Sill, Oklahoma USA in a Stinson-L90 engine LY 190 and he was doing something called Link Trainer. On 8/31 he mentions a Stinson L5E, with engine LY 190. On 8/31 he also mentions a L4 Cub, engine Con65. He flew the L4 Cub to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri USA on 9/8/45. He was there until the end of the month. On 7/9/45 he was to return to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. the US." Then records show that he was an army trainer until he was discharged in September of 45."

Bernard, or as he was known to friends, 'Barney', married his wife Ellen Buckley in Sioux City in November 1939.  They can be found living in teh city on the 1940 census and both were sales people in a department store.

He enlisted in the Army in September 1942 in Omaha, Nebraska.  His local papers published frequent newspapers articles about him advising on the number of sorties he had flown and awards received.

Barney passed away in his native Sioux City in January 1992.

He is pictured here with a liaison aircraft in the background at an unknown location.


Some other photos from Barney's collection are displayed below, sadly no information was recorded as to who was in the photos other that Barney himself is evident. Scroll down to see the photos. If you can identify any of the people, please do contact me.


This image of Barney shows him next to a Civilian registered aircraft. His diary records him flying a Taylorcraft aircraft registration NC36337. This photo dates from 1947 and must have been taken in Sioux City.

And of the two aircraft, the serial numbers 43-30052 & 43-30151 were recorded by the Irish Army. 2/Lt Kirkpatrick was recorded as flying 43-30052 with 2/Lt Coen in 43-30151. These were US Air Force serials allocated to Piper L-4H Grasshopper liasion aircraft. Colin Smith from the Air Britain historian's forum provided the history of the aircraft from their Air Force history cards. Both airframes were distributed from the Air Force to Army Ground Forces in the spring of 1944. They served with the Army for the remainder of the war before being declared surplus in 1946 and were allocated for sale. Nothing is known of the history of 43-30151 after this time but 43-30052 is still flying in 2012. It was sold to France after the war and in 1950, went onto the civilian registration, since then it has been registered as F-OAEB, F-BHEB and finally F-GRVN as she is marked now. You can view a video taken during a flight on this aircraft at the link below.
Vol en Piper Cub - Saint Nazaire - Angers Marcé... by docdecibel

Two photos of the aircraft can be found at this French Aviation website.

Contact was finally made with the owner of the aircraft in 2023

Bernard Coen's wartime images

These four photos were among Bernard's things.

The following two images seem to show Barney, on the left in both photos, with the same person. The second photo is presumably taken in wartime France or Germany. Do you know who this man on the right is, he may have served with the air liaison unit in 8th Infantry Division or have served with the artillery units of this Division.
 



This image below is evidently taken in the German City of Duren which was captured by the 8th Infantry Division around the 25th of February 1945. A tank with a man standing at the turret can be seen in the background with a body of water to the right hand side.




This group photo of soldiers with possibly a nurse is uncaptioned. Barney Coen is the person standing, wearing the helmet. In the background there appears to be the front section of a German Volkswagon Kubelwagen military vehicle, the German equivalent of the Allied 'jeep'. Do you know who these people are, they may have served with the air liaison unit in 8th Infantry Division or have served with the artillery units of this Division

Compiled by Dennis Burke, 2024, Dublin and Sligo. With thanks to the Coen and Kirkpatrick families. And also to the Irish Military archives, B. Boudou, Itallo Battioli and the late Bill Stratton.