Margot McMahon

This is the true story of Frank McMahon, artist and WWII US Army Air Corps B-17 navigator. After crashlanding in Germany, he was held captive in multiple Stalag POW camps, the only thing giving him hope in the midst of chaos and human wreckage being his sweetheart back home.

Frank was held at the Stalag where The Great Escape had taken place previous to his capture, and he had to deal with the after-effects, including heightened nerves, stricter conditions, random surprise inspections and prisoners jumped, searched and beaten by the guards for no apparent reason. He had to hide his handmade writing tools in a hollowed out bedpost for fear of confiscation. He was also held at Stalag 13, where Hogan's Heroes was supposed to have taken place. While the comedy show did not have much accuracy (predictably), he said that the Commandant wore a monocle, there was a rotund and goofy guard much like Sgnt. Schultz, and they did in fact have a hidden radio used to communicate with the Underground.

I liked this book very much. As stated in the Introduction, the recollections recorded in this book are "seemingly dim from time and weathering" and "the sentences are halting and provide only a hint of detail... confusingly at first." The pictures spread throughout the book seem somewhat randomly placed, and are sometimes so small that you can't fully read them. However, these flaws only add to the character and genuineness of the work, and I would heartily give it five stars.… (más)

We need more books like this.
Margot McMahon wrote about her father's time in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. He flew in a B-17 stationed in England. His bomber was shot down in early 1945 and he was a prisoner of war until liberated at the end of the war in Europe. Upon returning to the US, he married his high school sweetheart.
McMahon's writing style probably reflects her father's manner of story telling. I am guessing that a lot of what he related to his daughter was painful to remember. But it is good for us to hear stories like this one to understand the sacrifices made by men and women over the past century. Unfortunately there are not a lot of Mac's generation alive anymore to tell these tales. Thanks to Margot McMahon for publishing this.
The book has a lot of pictures, including some of Mac's art work. Most of the photographs do not have any caption to go along with them, which is unfortunate.… (más)