An Extraordinary Story of Survival in the Darkest Days of WW II
ALMOST A LIFETIME
By John McMahon
Shamrock Publications
ISBN 0-96844-540-3
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
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SALTSPRING ISLAND resident John McMahon, is a Second World War hero who survived death against all odds and he has an incredible story to tell.
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Every Remembrance Day at 9:20 PM, John McMahon will find a quiet spot in his garden on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia to be alone and remember six young men who died over 60 years ago.
I met John on a recent visit to Salt Spring Island at the Saturday market in Ganges where he had a booth marketing his book Almost a Lifetime.
This book is a true story about McMahon's experiences during the Second World War as a member of the Royal Air Force (RAF) when he was taken prisoner of war in Germany.
John McMahon has an extraordinary story of survival to tell about this period of his life when he miraculously cheated death...not once, not twice, but three times.
McMahon is a friendly quiet spoken man, a positive thinker with barely a trace of his native Belfast accent. Without knowing his background, it would be hard to imagine that this 86-year-old senior is really a Second World War hero.
John McMahon, nicknamed "Paddy Mac" by his comrades, joined the RAF at 19 years of age. He has an incredible memory for detail as he recalls that rainy February night in 1943 as though it were yesterday. He was a 21-year-old RAF flight engineer aboard a Lancaster bomber that was shot down over Holland at approximately 9:21 PM.
"I remember that I got up to check the fuel in the four tanks. This had to be done every so often otherwise if the fuel was not evenly distributed in the four tanks the plane would tilt," McMahon recalls.
"The pilot told me that we had just crossed into German territory and I got up at that moment to check the fuel. It was at that instant that our plane was hit, right where I had been sitting. I was tossed into the nose of the plane and I grabbed a pipeline above my head as the plane tumbled and plummeted towards earth."
Directly across from him, Canadian Murray Magdar, the plane's navigator, was also clinging to a pipeline. "I will always remember Magdar's incredible big brown eyes," McMahon said, "we were hanging on for dear life and we both looked at each other and knew that we would soon die."
McMahon lost his grip on the pole and was thrown through the airplane's escape hatch, he doesn't recall opening his parachute but somehow it opened and he landed in a Dutch farmer's field. As the plane had been spiralling towards earth, it ended up back in Dutch territory.
John McMahon was the only survivor of that seven-man crew.
After the crash, John was taken by the Dutch farmer into his house, where he was given food and his wounds were attended to. Soon the German soldiers arrived at the house to take him prisoner. At almost the same time, the Luftwaffe Military Police arrived and said that since John was in the airforce, they would take charge of him.
"This was a lucky break for me," McMahon said, "since I learned later that had the German soldiers taken me prisoner, they would probably have shot me. The Luftwaffe transported me by train across Germany to a prison camp, Stalag V111 near the Polish border."
For the next 23 months, McMahon lived as a prisoner of war. In his book, Almost a Lifetime, he documents the terrible conditions in the prison - the overcrowding, inadequate food and hygiene, the physical and mental suffering and death that were all part of prison camp life. In the same camp, there were servicemen from Ireland, England, Scotland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In 1944, Hitler ordered all the prisons closed and the prisoners were suddenly told that they were being moved on a march west to freedom. On January 21, 1945, approximately 35,000 prisoners marched out of Stalag V111, malnourished and inadequately dressed to face one of the bitterest winters that Germany had experienced in 50 years.
The prisoners marched along secondary roads so as to avoid detection and were herded into barns and sheds at nights. If they slipped and fell into the snow banks along the icy roads, they were given two seconds to get back on their feet, if not they were shot.
After 12 days and 200 miles, the prisoners reached Gorlitz Prison Camp, where they were allowed some food and rest.
By this time, John McMahon was so weak, he was only able to stand with support. Shortly after the march resumed McMahon, along with many other prisoners, developed dysentry which was caused by malnourishment and their weakened condition.
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JOHN McMAHON
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As a result, McMahon soon fell back in the line of marchers and lost sight of his friends. Disorientated and delirious, he fell into the snow.
"I was going in and out of consciousness," John recalled, "the next thing I remembered were these two strong arms that lifted me up into a horse-drawn cart and I was delivered to a Red Cross hut.
"When I finally woke up, I asked the doctor who had saved me from death on the icy road and he replied....a horse.
"Apparently, a German woman was driving the cart along the road to get supplies and when the horse came to where I was lying on the road, he wouldn't step over me. It was this woman who brought me to the hospital. She had previously lost her husband and only son in the war."
Thanks to this unknown woman, McMahon escaped being one of the estimated 20,000 prisoners of war who died on the "Long March."
John McMahon was three years old when his mother died and he credits her spirit as the one protecting him through his many near miraculous escapes from death.
McMahon returned home to Belfast to marry his childhood sweatheart. He later emigrated to Montreal, then to Edmonton, and finally to the West Coast where he lives on Salt Spring Island with his daughter, son and grandson. His wife is now deceased.
For more information about John McMahon's book Almost a Lifetime, call him at (250) 537-1835, or e-mail: shamrock@saltspring.com.
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