Stalag 17-B: Staff Sergeant Azzan C. McKagan

HENRY SMULL > ABIGAIL SMULL BROWNLEE > SARAH JANE BROWNLEE MCKAGAN > BENJAMIN MCKAGAN > AZZAN WILBER MCKAGAN > SSGT AZZAN C. MCKAGAN

B-17G (McKagan flew on the B-17F)
with view of village outside of
RAF Alconbury, Summer 1943

Henry Smull was one of the original four Brothers Smull of Brush Valley in Centre County, Pennsylvania. He remained in Centre County for his lifetime, unlike his brothers Jesse (Chester County) and Peter (Illinois). Generations later, a descendant of Henry, would be tested sorely during World War II.

Azzan C. "Mac" McKagen was born 25 Jul 1920 in Proctor, St Louis County, Minnesota to Azzan W. McKagan and Josephine Moe. In 1940, he lived in Granville, Milwaukee, Wisconsin where his father was a welder in a factory. He attended Rufus King High School in Milwaukee. Azzan joined the Army from Madison County, Florida on 06 Sep 1941 and was a high school graduate.

He served as a ball turret gunner on a Boeing B-17F, tail #42-29884 and was a staff sergeant assigned to the 326th Bomb Squadron, 92nd Bomb Group (Heavy) stationed out of RAF Alconbury on that day. Most of the 92 BG had moved to RAF Bovingdon in May of that year. On his "22nd-and-one-half mission," his crew flew out of Alconbury with their group and began the assault on targets along the Ruhr.

According to McKagan, they had dumped their load and were on the return, when German fighters assaulted the American aircraft. You can read his account here:

"Wing Flaps Jammed
In the last fatal flight, the wing flaps on the plane were jammed down, slowing up the bomber over Cologne. The pilot put the heavy bomber into a 378--mile-per-hour dive straight down to force the flaps back up, and then leveled out at 3,000 feet for the run home. The crippled plane, with one engine shooting flaming oil, was picked on by a horde of lightning-fast German fighters. McKagan was knocked to the floor of the ship five times by gunfire and once when a German 88-millimeter shell exploded a few feet behind him inside the ship and riddled him with shrapnel. In the desperate duel with the German fighters, McKagan was hit in the right shoulder by a machine gun bullet which throw the socket out of joint and made the arm useless.

McKagan parachuted from the plane and landed 20 feet in front of the world famous cathedral of Cologne, where he beaten into insensibility by German civilians. He was rescued by two German privates who took him to a camp and threw him into a dungeon for four days, during which his wounded arm festered.

Finally, he was transferred to a German hospital run by Catholic Dominican sisters who prevailed upon a doctor to operate on the arm. The doctor said he would have to amputate, but McKagan refused. Through the pleas of the German sisters, the doctor agreed to try to save it, which he finally did. Four operations without anesthesia were necessary, however, and McKagan said the paid was beyond endurance  and he fainted a number of times. It was necessary for the doctor to extract shell projectiles from the bone and surrounding flesh and then put the arm back into the socket. Today the arm is good, but motion with it is limited.

Was Sentenced to Death

McKagan said he was sentenced as a saboteur by the Germans because he did not have his dog tag along and could not identify himself to the gestapo. They ruled he was to be shot, but at 3 am, Christmas Day, he was loaded into a train and taken to another shack and two days later transferred to a camp at Krems, Austria, in a box car loaded with 88 Allied prisoners..."

Waukesha Daily Freeman January 16, 1946

326 BS, 92 BG Patch

According to the Dutch record of the capture, the plane emergency landed in The Netherlands, in the province of Limburg in the village of Sevenum, not in Germany. There was also a church in the town square, lost due to bombing in the latter part of the war. All ten of the crew survived the rough landing or bailouts; nine of them were immediately captured and made POWs. The tenth, pilot Capt H. C. Johnson, evaded capture, but was later captured in Den Hague, Netherlands. The 303rd BG Hell's Angels record said they were shot down over Haltern, Germany which is about 70 miles from Cologne.

Officers and enlisted men were often sent to different camps. Mac ended up in an enlisted location. He was shipped to Stalag Luft XVII-B outside Krems, Austria.  Four of his crew would end up with him there: SSgt Harold D Broyles, SSgt Rudolph J Antala, SSgt Herbert W. Jackson, and TSgt Paul A Dicksinson. SSgt John Treon (tailgunner) ended up in Stalag Luft 4 in Pomerania. Capt Hans C Johnson and co-pilot 2Lt Donald Weir were placed in Stalag Luft 3 in Bavaria along with RW gunner Carlos  T, Gutierrez. The three of them would later be moved to Nuremburg-Langwasser). Navigator 2Lt Robert Doolan was put in Stalag 7-A in another Bavarian location.

A previous crew assigned to the 359BS. Azzan fourth from left back row.

At its peak in later 1944, over 138,000 prisoners were held in Wehrkreis XVII facilities, of many nationalities. To learn about the camp, its history, photos, a great journal, and its treatment of prisoners, visit this story.  

 James D. Pearson, Charles D. Edwards,
Junior Townsend and Azzan McKagan
Taken while in technical school before he
headed for Europe

He flew a TWA flight to New York on 18 Sep 1944. His son reports he was repatriated in a prisoner swap. He was then selected to go on a bond drive tour and then a Red Cross ex-POW tour and talked to families and others about his experiences. "The trip covered 22 states," and the highlight for him was his trip to Hollywood, where he and his fellow former POWs were invited to a party at "Pickfair," the legendary home of actress Mary Pickford (which she built while married to Doublas Fairbanks). He met several movie stars while there. He was the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross (the 3rd highest award), the Air Medal, and the Purple Heart with 3 oak leaf clusters.

According to his son, during this time, he made friends with Gen Hap Arnold.

Now returned to "the world," he tried to start a "Barbed Wire Club," for former POWs in the Milwaukee area as some others had done in other cities to provide a place for the men to talk about experiences they couldn't really talk to others about. I don't know how successful that effort was. But he did also go to school and attended Carroll University for a year, studying insurance. He married Rose Mae Baker, who, according to their son, worked at the Pentagon, on 11 Apr 1945 in Alexandria, Virginia. His son said that Gen. Arnold loaned them his staff car for their honeymoon.

SSgt McKagan was allowed to join the regular army under a program where partially disabled combat veterans could reenlist. He first was assigned as a trainer at Aberdeen Proving Grounds before being shipped to Germany, where he died in a jeep accident in 18 July 1947. 

Stalag XVII-B, Krems, Austria

'Barbed Wire' Clubs Planned, Amarillo Daily News June 17, 1946Carroll Student Missed Death as Nazi Prisoner, Waukesha Daily Freeman January 16, 1946
Two Wounded in War Join the Regular Army, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Wed, Mar 5, 1947
Azzan McKagan, Obituary, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Sat, Sep 20, 1947
Sgt McKagan Death is Told, Hurt in Accident, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Thu, July 24, 1947
Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945 (SGLO):  http://www.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/12-08-1943-sglo-t2788a-boeing-b-17f-42-29884-jw-j/
8th Air Force Operations History: http://www.8thafhs.com/index.phpAmerican Air Museum in Britain: http://www.americanairmuseum.com/unit/854WW2POW Info: http://www.ww2pow.info/index.php?page=directory&rec=93048
NationalArchives.gov: File unit: World War II Prisoners of War Data File, 12/7/1941 - 11/19/1946 
Verliesregister 1939-1945 SGLO page 81
303rd Bomb Group Hell's Angels page: http://www.303rdbg.com/359johnson.html