P-47 Fighter Pilot Ed Cottrell Passes Away at Age 103
Cottrell ended the war with sixty-five combat missions under his belt in his trusty P-47.
As The National Interest has recently reported, World War II fighter pilots (not to mention WWII veterans in general) are a dying breed. In the first three months of 2025 alone, we’ve solemnly published articles on the passings of Col. Perry Dahl (who flew the P-38 Lightning), Capt. “Duke” Hedman (America’s first WWII ace, who flew P-40 Warhawks with the famed Flying Tigers), Capt. John Angel Chu (one of Duke’s fellow Flying Tigers), and Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway (the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot).
And now another aerial warrior has just joined the ranks of his comrades in Fighter Pilot’s Heaven: Lt. Col. (USAF, ret.) Ed Cottrell, P-47 Thunderbolt pilot, age 103.
Ed Cottrell’s Early Life
Edwin Cottrell was born on January 17, 1922, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Like many young boys and girls of his generation, he was imbued with a passion for aviation at an early age, which eventually led him to enroll in the Civilian Pilot Training Program during his sophomore year at Slippery Rock State Teachers College (now known as Slippery Rock University), where he earned his pilot’s license in 1941 after thirty hours of flight training in a Piper Cub.
Lt. Col. Cottrell’s WWII Service
As luck would have it, a few short months after Ed earned his pilot’s license, the Pearl Harbor raid spurred America’s entry into World War II, and upon receiving his draft notice in August 1942, Cottrell chose to join the U.S. Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force). He underwent primary flight training in Chico, California, cutting his teeth on the PT-13 Stearman, followed by advanced training at Luke Field in Phoenix, Arizona, where he piloted the AT-6 Texan and had brief stick and rudder time in the P-40.
“After graduating and receiving my commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, I returned to Slippery Rock and married my sweetheart, Millie. We spent two weeks together before I reported to Wendover Field in Utah for my final training … At Wendover, I caught a glimpse of the most beautiful aircraft I’d ever seen. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was bigger, more rugged, and more robust than any fighter I’d known.”
As far as I can ascertain, Cottrell wasn’t credited with any air-to-air victories during his WWII service. But he certainly expended his fair share of ordnance against Nazi German ground targets in Western Europe, which underscores the additional value of the P-47 as a fighter-bomber (more on this in a moment). As a member of the Ninth Air Force’s 48th Fighter Group, 493rd Fighter Squadron, stationed at Cambrai Air Field near Paris, France, his primary mission was to provide close air support (CAS) for Allied ground forces, doing so via dive-bombing and strafing runs against enemy positions.
This was exemplified on December 6, 1944, when, during inclement weather with visibility reduced to 200 feet, Cottrell participated in a mission to relieve American ground troops in Jülich, Germany. Flying at treetop level at 300 miles per hour, his squadron successfully executed skip-bombing runs that enabled those troops to advance, earning the 493rd Fighter Squadron a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions.
Arguably the single most memorable incident from Ed’s wartime service was his tale of survival that took place on December 17, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge. On that day, then-Lt. Cottrell and his squadron mates were tasked with the mission of stopping a column of Tiger tanks on its way to Bastogne. Ed picked up the story from there:
“We spotted the Tigers in the woods and swooped down to dive-bomb them. Our Squadron Commander led the way. I came in second. We dropped our bombs and then pulled up . . . right into a group of Messerschmitt Me-109 fighters.”
Ed’s fighter sustained a 20 mm cannon shell hit from one of the 109s, severely damaging his engine and spraying his windshield with oil. In one of the memorable stories of chivalry and humanity emanating from that war, Cottrell was unexpectedly escorted back to friendly lines by two of the Luftwaffe pilots who, rather than shooting him down, flew alongside his crippled aircraft before peeling off:
“I climbed out of the plane, got down on my knees, and kissed the tarmac … ‘Thank you, Lord,’ I said … Later, I learned I lost my roommate Art Sommers. He got shot down and killed on that same mission. I miss him to this day.
In recognition of his wartime contributions, he was awarded La Légion d’Honneur (The French Legion of Honor), which is the highest distinction that can be conferred by the Government of France on French citizens and foreigners.
Cottrell’s Warbird: The P-47 “T-Bolt” as a Ground-Pounder
Going back to what I said earlier about the qualities of the P-47 Thunderbolt—aka “T-Bolt,” the “Jug,” and the “Flying Bathtub“—as a fighter bomber, David Kindy of Smithsonian Magazine goes so far as to call it “the best ground-attack aircraft America had at that time.” This is corroborated by the late aviation historian Robert F. “Bob” Dorr, a highly prolific author who noted in his superb 2008 book Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht that P-47 units destroyed a mind-blowing 86,000 railroad cars, 9,000 locomotives, 6,000 armored fighting vehicles, and 68,000 trucks!
Ed’s Post-WWII Life
Cottrell ended the war with sixty-five combat missions under his belt. Returning home to meet his newborn daughter, he was discharged from the Army Air Corps on July 24, 1945. Cottrell later joined the Air Force Reserves, serving for an additional twenty-eight years and finally retiring at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
It wasn’t until the age of ninety-nine that Ed returned to the former battlefields of Europe, whereupon he visited the grave of another fallen comrade, Ted Smith, who, like Art Sommer, was shot down during the Battle of the Bulge.
Bravo Zulu. Rest in peace, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Cottrell, ‘til Valhalla.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Shutterstock.