Dad was the navigator in the plastic capped nose of a plane, to fly at 08:00 hours with a group of guys who were in the 303 Bomber Group of the US 8th Air force in a plane called “Red.” […]

As they continued on their ship was hit. […] Smoke filled the plane so the instrument panel couldn’t be seen, and they had to turn out of formation. […] Then came the worst hit in the right wing, behind engine number four leaving holes throughout the plane. Chutes were grabbed and flight suits taken off as the crew prepared to bail out. […] By proper procedure my dad was the first one out of the plane, he left behind a 45 pistol but pocketed this silk map. […]

He looked through the clouds to the forest from three miles up, then thought about the fire in the wing. The plane exploded. His last thoughts were of the nine guys behind him, and then he jumped. Dad was focused on the pull cord of his parachute. […] He didn’t remember waiting, but he may have counted to ten to clear the plane before he pulled the ripcord. The parachute (that the guys had named “Mae West”) opened on his chest, with silk straps flapping in his face. Then there was a tremendous jolt.

Dad landed in broad daylight, smack dab in the middle of a soccer field in Germany. Citizens, police, soldiers, kids, and stray dogs saw him. They were running down the street towards him as he landed. […] Lopsidedly and feeling that he hadn’t had enough oxygen he ran through the snow into a cave near the soccer field. […]

In the cave, he ripped the inside of his jacket sleeve and stuffed the silk map down into the elbow. The Gestapo was a concern, but mostly he worried about the citizens who could pull him apart from limb to limb. […] The parachuting artist had landed smack dab in the middle of Germany with only the Geneva Convention to protect him. […] This began decades of my dad, Franklin McMahon, parachuting into areas of intense world change, to draw and paint his impressions.

This belongs in the WWII Museum

Exhibited by Margot McMahon

Transcript edited by Sarah Crawford