Hill Parham Cooper

First Lieutenant Hill Parham Cooper was killed in action on April 9, 1943 in Tunisia during the North Africa Campaign in World War II.  He was 22 years old.

Hill Parham Cooper was born on May 20, 1920, in Henderson, North Carolina, the son of James Crawford Cooper Sr. and Lucy Parham Cooper.  He was a graduate of Fishburn Military Academy at Staunton, Virginia and of Davidson College. He married Rosalind Brummitt of Henderson in January, 1942. 

1LT Cooper was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1942 and was deployed to the North Africa Theater of War in April, 1942 serving with the 135th Infantry, 34th  Division in the Allied force that invaded North Africa on November 8, 1942 for Operation Torch.  The Operation consisted of a three-pronged series of coordinated Allied landings in French North Africa intended to cut off the escape of General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Corps after its defeat by the British at El Alamein. Elements of the 34th landed at Algiers. The operation was successful and the 34th, joining with other Allied forces, pushed eastward into Tunisia with the objective of drawing off German Panzers defending the Marketh Line in southeast Tunisia so the British could break through the line.

Stiff opposition by reinforced German troops was encountered in Tunisia. Many of the battles were for possession of mountain passes leading eastward, and particularly fierce fighting took place in February and April 1943. The 135th was engaged in fighting at the Fondouk Gap in early April, and 1LT Cooper was killed in action in the fighting on April 9, 1943.

First Lieutenant Hill Parham Cooper is buried in the North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial in Tunis, Tunisia.

Last edited: 8 June 2026