B-17 belly gunner Alan E. Magee
On January 3, 1943, 360th Bomber Squadron, 303rd Bomb Group, aboard the B-17F Flying Fortress 41-24620 “Snap! Crackle! Pop!”, with Sergeant Alan E. Magee as belly gunner, took off from Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, UK, for a bombing mission over the “Flak City” of St Nazaire.
A torpedo storage area close to the submarine pens was the target. Heavy flak and fighter assaults caused damage to the aircraft and ignited an internal fire once it was over the target area. Only three crew members—one without a parachute—were able to bail out. That was Magee, crashing twenty thousand feet through the glass, and falling on the St. Nazaire train station’s steel girders. While he was taken to Stalag 17B in Braunau, Gneikendorf, he survived and kept all of his limbs.
Magee’s obituary
The incredible story of Magee is told in his obituary, which can be read on American War Memorials Overseas, Inc.;
‘No. At first, I didn’t believe it, either. Someone could survive after falling 20,000 feet from a plane without a parachute? And he was a San Angeloan? It sounds too wild to be true. I still have a lot of questions I’d like to ask, but after hours of research, I’m finally feeling sure enough about this incredible tale to share it with you. And at the end of my career, if someone asks me if there was anyone, I’m sorry I never got to interview for a story, I’ll tell them, Sure, Staff Sgt. Alan Magee.
‘Let’s start from the beginning.
‘I found out about Sgt. Magee earlier this week in an e-mail from San Angeloan Chris Taylor. My sister in Ohio sent me this and thought I would forward it on to you, he wrote. The story told about Alan Eugene Magee, born Jan. 13, 1919, in Plainfield, N. J. Magee joined the Army Air Corps in 1941, after Pearl Harbor, and, because he was short and thin and could fit into small, cramped spaces, he became the ball turret gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress.
Magee escapes from the plane
‘So far, so good.
‘I should detour here for a reminder that when you do research on the Internet, you take your chances. While all the stories I found about the sergeant include the same basic facts (he survived a 20,000-foot fall without a chute during a bombing mission over Saint Nazaire, France), details vary. Most of the accounts agree on these points: The Army Air Corps assigned him to a B-17 nicknamed Snap! Crackle! Pop! His seventh mission was a daylight bombing run over Saint Nazaire, France, on Jan. 3, 1943. During the mission, the bomber was hit. Magee was injured in the attack. The crippled plane began to fail.
‘Somehow (accounts vary) Magee escaped from the plane. But without a parachute. (Some accounts say he forgot it in the confusion. Some say the chute was disabled by the enemy fire. Others claim he was thrown from the plane unconscious, or before he could put on the parachute.) He fell four miles. He fell through the glass roof of the Saint-Nazaire railroad station. And survived. Some accounts theorize falling through the glass broke his fall. Others claim sliding along the sloped roof slowed him. One theory claims an explosion from a falling bomb occurred in the station at the same time Magee was dropping into it, and the shock wave broke his fall. The TV show MythBusters even tested the theory during its fourth season but gave it a thumbs down.
B-17 belly gunner Alan E. Magee survives
After being taken prisoner by the Germans, who treated his severe wounds (reports of the wounds differ), he became a prisoner of war. (Two crew members parachuted to safety. In the crash, seven more people perished.) After being released in May 1945, Magee was awarded the Purple Heart and the Air Medal for his meritous conduct.
‘He worked in the airline industry, retired in 1979, and moved to northern New Mexico. Magee led a pretty good life; a friend once told a New Mexico reporter. He returned to Saint Nazaire with his wife, Helen, in 1993 or 1995 (accounts vary) for the dedication of a memorial plaque for the crew of his plane. At some point, the Magees moved to San Angelo. He died here. A short, simple death notice in the Standard-Times says that he died on Dec. 20, 2003, in a local hospital. It said there would be no services. Magee’s body was cremated and remains buried in Pioneer Memorial Park in Grape Creek, TX. His wife and a sister in Houston were listed as survivors.
‘On the Internet, I found something Sgt. Magee was quoted as saying when he returned to France in the 1990s and saw the glass-roofed railroad station where he landed after falling from so far, so fast, so long ago. “I thought it was much smaller.”’
For more information about war memorials honoring Americans overseas, visit American War Memorials Overseas, Inc.
Photo by U.S. Air Force and War History Online