I wrote this story in ca. late 2002 and originally published it in Aviation Review, Vol. 5, No, 5. John McNaull’s son Mike was a co-worker of my father, Mason Mount. I am indebted to Mike and my father for arranging the interview and to John both for taking the time to conduct the original interview and the additional time to review the article for accuracy before publication.
Mr. McNaull was a mechanic in an ordinance maintenance battalion for wheel vehicles and track vehicles in the 12th Armored Division in World War II. He told of some of his aviation-related World War II experiences. First, some background is in order.
At the beginning of the war, he worked for an International Harvester dealer in Ashland, Ohio. When our government needed tank technicians, they contacted International Harvester first and then other companies. He enlisted in July 1942 and was sent to Chrysler’s tank school.
He was sent next to Camp Campbell (now Fort Campbell). There he was in the First Maintenance battalion as assistant leader of 18 people. This maintenance section would do all types of repair jobs on tanks on the spot. After 2 years of training, he was sent to the European Theater of Operations and remained in Europe from mid-November ‘44 to Jan. ‘46.
He related various aviation-related incidents he saw. When the call went out for an air strike, he was astonished at how fast fighter cover – P-47s – arrived. He read in recent years that after a pilot flew a certain number of missions he was assigned to a ground division for ground cover. P-51s were not on ground cover; their liquid-cooled engines made them more vulnerable. (He said that P-38s were used mostly for photography for mapping.)
He also told of a bombing mission to Strasbourg where he saw 800 planes come over in four waves. He realized that these had 3200 engines and held 8000 people; he could not guess the ground crew size.
He was astonished at the bravery of the dive-bombing P-47 pilots, who would dive several times over a target. When one P-47 was shot down between American and German lines, a platoon of tanks went to rescue the pilot. They succeeded; once back he wanted to stay, and did for a day.
Once his unit captured a bridge on the Blue Danube river at Dillengen. They held it with 1500 men until an infantry division was sent to help hold it. The Americans sent air cover. When they made too wide of a sweep, the nine German Me-109s made a pass over the bridge. The American aircraft chased them away. Over the next several days the Germans tried again. During this period at least 6 planes were shot down.
Once while going down a German Autobahn, his unit discovered several Me-262s with empty tanks in perfect condition, camouflaged and hidden in the woods along the road. Another person took a picture of him on the wing examining it.
While he was still on the wing, the order was issued to not touch the Me-262s; he believes our Air Force wanted to study the aircraft.
When Göering and Von Braum were captured in May 1945, his group held them prisoner for a time.
After serving some time in Germany after the war, he returned to New York in February 1946. He was astonished at the lights – Europeans just freed from blackout regulations still kept cities dark at night.
When they were in the docking areas no tugboats came to meet them because they were on strike. (The tugboats docked the bigger ships, but his carried only 500 men.) Because they were a smaller ship, they could dock on their own power. But while near the dock, a tugboat came out and intentionally rammed their ship, breaking the rudder. They were forced to sit out all night, until ferries (not on strike), could take them to shore the next morning. (If the men would have had guns with them on board, the tugboat wouldn’t have made it back to shore.)