Abbeville veteran became POW on Valentine's Day '43

Valentine's Day holds a special place in many peoples' hearts as a day to celebrate love and friendship.

But for Abbeville resident and World War II veteran John McMahan, Valentine's Day is a special anniversary for a very different reason.

"It was on Valentine's Day in 1943 that I became a guest of the German Army," McMahan said, and he would remain a "guest" - otherwise known as a prisoner of war - with the German Army for more than two years.

McMahan, now 90, was born in Elbert County, Ga., in 1914.

When he was just a year old, his parents, who had lived in South Carolina for years prior to his birth, returned to Nation Community, in the eastern part of the state.

As he was growing up, McMahan found work on his father's farm, "doing whatever needed to be done," he said. "I plowed, picked cotton, picked peas, chased cows - all of that."

When he was 18, McMahan went to work at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in Switzer, south of Spartanburg, making $25 a week in soil conservation and warehousing. After 18 months, McMahan, by then a mess sergeant, was transferred to a camp in Pennsylvania.

In 1936, after two years in the CCC, McMahan came home to South Carolina. But rather than return to farmhand work for his father, McMahan decided to join the U.S. Army.

"I had no idea that there was going to be a war when I joined," McMahan said. "I was just getting off of the farm."

After a quick stop at Ft. Bragg, N.C., McMahan was ordered to report to Ft. Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone. While stationed at Clayton, McMahan traveled to nearby Corozal where he trained to be a cook and baker for the Army.

When he returned to Ft. Bragg from duty in the Panama Canal in 1938, McMahan re-enlisted with the Army as part of the 1st Field Artillery Observation Battalion. By then, hostilities were escalating between European powers, and McMahan said the soldiers realized what was about to happen.

"We figured we were going to get involved in the war," he said.

"Our duty was to locate enemy targets for the artillery."

The soldiers trained with heavy observation equipment in Louisiana and Georgia for months before returning to Ft. Bragg, where he was stationed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

"When that happened, the thing that crossed our minds first was that it was a horrible thing to happen to those boys over there," he said. "The second thing was that we knew we were in the war now, and that all this training was going to turn serious - and it did."

In 1942, McMahan and his comrades boarded trains to Pennsylvania. There, they were "re-outfitted from the skin out," McMahan said, laughing. "They threw away everything we had and gave us new."

After a train ride to New York, McMahan boarded an English passenger ship going to Perham Down, England.

Soldiers trained on English observation equipment, using microphones to capture sound from enemy artillery and determine its location. McMahan said he was not involved in active combat while in England, but in war, danger is never far away.

"The English towns were bombed and we observed some of that," he said. "We were quartered in big tin buildings, and they had bullet holes in the walls and the windows had been shot out."

In early 1943, McMahan headed to the northern African coast aboard his battalion's equipment ship. While on board, McMahan worried about his and his fellow soldiers' safety.

"We were on a freighter loaded with ammo, and I questioned one of the ship's officers about why we didn't have life jackets," he said. "He said we didn't need life jackets. The floor of the hull where we were sleeping was covered with ammo. He said that if we got into trouble with a torpedo, we wouldn't need life jackets - we would need parachutes."

In Africa, the troops reported to a bivouac area on the edge of the Sahara Desert, before going into position with Combat Command B in the battle zones between Faid Pass and Kasserine Pass in Tunisia

On Feb. 14, 1943, before dawn, McMahan said the men became aware that something was terribly wrong.

"It was about four o'clock in the morning, and everybody was asleep except for some of us around the command post. We had sent a scouting team out in the vicinity of the pass, and they reported that there were about 30-40 tanks moving out of the pass. We became aware that we were under attack by a big force," he said, adding that, at first, some of the men didn't believe that German forces could be that strong in the area. "When daylight came, the scouting team's report was verified. There was a (German tank) division coming out of the pass."

McMahan said the attack was so swift the American men barely had time to react.

"They overran everything we had. You could look down the valley and count up our tanks from the columns of smoke rising. They had destroyed our tanks and whipped us thoroughly."

McMahan said the troops who had avoided capture at the pass tried to flee back, but the unit had become disorganized.

"I was riding in a Jeep at the rear of the column (of soldiers), and we had pulled up beside of a pit in the village. When I looked up, it looked like a bomb was coming right at me, and we all dived into the pit," he said. "I was the last one in, but when I got in, everyone was fighting to get out. We had jumped into one of the pits where the (villagers) dumped the remains of their latrines. I thought it was funny for me because I was on top."

The soldiers climbed out of the pit and into the hands of the German troops, who were waiting in tanks just above the men.

"The tank commander pointed a pistol at me and informed me that, for me, the war was over," McMahan said. "And that was the beginning of my free tour of Germany, Italy and Sicily, courtesy of the German army."

The men arrived in Germany in the spring of 1943, and reported to Stalag VII A, in the southern part of the country. McMahan was soon elected by his fellow POWs to be a camp confidence man, a liaison between German authorities and the prisoners.

"The treatment wasn't awful - they didn't bother us. We did have lousy food," he said. "My biggest problem was trying to get enough food, and trying to get our people to doctors."

McMahan said the soldiers faced filthy living conditions, with as many as 400 men sharing two or three water spigots for eating, drinking and bathing.

Authorities at Stalag VII A grew tired of McMahan's constant complaining about living conditions, and he was shipped to Stalag II B near the Polish border.

"When I got there, I was amazed. The GIs had an organization working with the Germans that was unbelievable," he said. "They had it set up so that a few boys were working as chaplains and were allowed to visit the work detachments for spiritual work. They had convinced the Germans that this was needed to get the most out of the GIs."

McMahan said American men were even working in the kitchen and at the Red Cross warehouses.

"There was no comparison between VII A and II B, but that doesn't mean we didn't run into tough times. They had some of our boys killed and shot down like dogs," McMahan said. "But the set up of that POW camp beats anything that has ever been before or after. The boys accepted the fact that they were POWs. We knew who had the guns, and if we wanted to live to make it home, we had to do what they told us."

After a month at II B, McMahan reported for duty on a German farm away from the prison. But when guards discovered that II B's confidence man was a Jew, McMahan was asked to return to the prison to take over the position.

In January of 1945, as Allied forces began to pull ahead in the war, McMahan said the German troops at II B evacuated the camp. The POWs began a long journey across Germany.

"On the day President Roosevelt died, our boys were walking in columns on a road, and our air force flew over and strafed us," he said, adding that the Americans must have thought the soldiers were German troops. "We were in a combat area, and we were a column of people marching, and who else could it be? They made one run and then pulled off - they must have recognized who we were."

McMahan said the men scattered after the strafe, and two guards remained with his small group.

The POWs convinced the guards to travel with the men to an area where American GIs were preparing to gain control.

"We hid in a barn until the GIs overran us," he said. "We came out, and we were finally sent back home again."

McMahan opted to remain in the Army until he retired in June of 1962. Although his experience was harrowing, he said he was able to live through his years as a POW by finding humor in life.

"I was able to laugh. That is the way we made it through it - to see the funny side of life. Some of those boys had treatment so bad that it was impossible for them to laugh, but I never had a day of that," he said. "We had to laugh and know that the good Lord was watching over us."