Bombardier in B-17 for first time since WWII

Taking a tour of World War II era planes recently were, from left, Ken McKay, former bombardier D.B. McKay, Harry McKay and Robert Neal Harwell

A local group provided a special treat for a lifelong Mangham resident and World War II veteran in Monroe on March 4.

D.B. McKay, who served aboard a B-17 in World War II, was provided a special “incentive ride” Thursday during an aircraft exhibition at the Monroe Regional Airport. The exhibition was part of the Wings of Freedom Tour sponsored by the Collings Foundation. The event showcased a B-17, a B-24 and a P-51 and offered what it calls a “flight experience” aboard the aircraft for a fee.

McKay’s aircraft was shot out from under him over Europe; he received extensive burns, but survived and returned to his Mangham home after the war. According to Mangham Mayor Robert Neal Harwell, McKay said he had not been inside a B-17 since leaving Europe following the war.

“Wilfred Earl Burgess, Noble Ellington, Ken McKay, Harry McKay, a few others and I decided to try to let Mr. D.B. relive a part of his past,” Harwell said.

Dan Boies “D.B.” McKay was stationed at Thorpe Abbott Air Force Base in England. In August 1943, he was on his seventh mission with a flight of about 120 B-17 aircraft in groups of 25. His plane was hit before he got to his target and he bailed out, badly burned.

He landed in a field with German workers, who held him prisoner with a pitchfork until German soldiers arrived. They took him to a prison hospital in Frankfurt, staffed by British war captives. He spent about three months there. Thereafter, he was shipped to a POW camp at Moosburg, Germany for about a year and a half until Patton’s 3rd Army tanks arrived about 3 p.m. one afternoon. The German guards, who knew liberating forces were on the way, had fled the night before.

While McKay was a POW in Moosburg, amazingly, he was briefly reunited with a hometown friend, Bennie Hixon, who went on to be an educator and principal at Mangham High School.

In Mr. Hixon’s own words:

“I was in Camp Chaffee, Arkansas when I first heard that D.B.’s plane had been shot down and that he was a POW in Germany. He had suffered burns, but that’s all I knew.

“We had both been born in Mangham in June 1923, Dan Boies McKay and Bennie McLain Hixon (our mothers’ maiden names as our middle names), D.B. about 15 days my elder. We were together in school from Grade 1 to graduation, 1929 to 1940, but saw each other seldom, if at all, until 1945.

“Our 14th Armored Division didn’t get overseas until November 1944, probably a year after D.B. had to bail out of his B-17. I was a member of the 14th Armored Division band and as such was attached to the Division MPs under Patton’s command. We went up front to bring German POWs back to our stockade (always just a few miles behind the fighting) or we were posted as road guides toward the front for those moving that way.

“As May 1945 approached, our job with prisoners became easier, though their numbers increased. What was left of Hitler’s Finest often came to us. We also crossed paths with many freed allied POWs, at which times I always asked them if anybody knew Dan McKay. Somewhere along the way, somebody did. ‘He’s still back at Moosburg,’ the newly freed former POW told me.

“Our unit had just gone through Moosburg the day before. I got permission to hitchhike back there to see if D.B. had left yet. There were no German administrators or guards to help locate D.B, so I just walked down the lane between the barracks calling his name. Someone pointed to his location.

“Although it was a joyous occasion, we didn’t jump around hugging and dancing. It is still one of my greatest memories.”