Almost a Lifetime

This fabulous book is a "Must Read" ! The author, John McMahon,has written his life experiences as a young RAF flier who, onFebruary 2,1943 was the only survivor of seven aircrew men on aBritish Bomber, that was shot down over Holland.He tells of his 2 years in German prison camps and what they endured. The strength of character these men possessed helpedkeep them alive, only to loose many friends on the "death march"where they were forced to walk hundreds of miles in the winter.John McMahon in 1983, some 40 years later, went back to Hollandto find the people who cared for him when his plane went down.And in the next year he dared try to find the German fighterpilot who shot down their Bomber.You must read this book !! It completely opened my eyes to thefact that this was how these men lived and survived in wartime.How their strength and dignity shined in an otherwise hopelesssituation.John writes so personally and vividly, you feel as though youwere there with him, almost wishing you were, so you couldsomehow give those men their freedom back.A really wonderful true story !!

This book is a wonderful true story of a young RAF flier in WWII who is shot down over Holland and spends two years in a German prison camp. It is also the story of how, after 40 years, he tries to find the Dutch villagers who helped him, his fellow prison inmates, and the German fighter pilot who shot him down. McMahon has the ability to put the reader squarely in the young flier's shoes...his detailed narrative and word picture of what it was like to be in a burning RAF Lancaster somersaulting to earth is worth the price of the book. His description of a 200-mile death march and what it took to survive is absolutely riveting. In the late 70's, while a USAF liaison officer in England, I had the privilege of escorting a former WWII 8th Air Force bomber pilot on a visit to the airfield from which he had lifted off on his last mission over Germany. He was the lone survivor when his plane was shot down and he spent years in a German prison camp. I naively thought then that I understood what he must have gone through...having read "Almost a Lifetime", I now realize much more fully the true extent of the extraordinary sacrifices made by our Allied fliers.