Tomorrow, on the 71st anniversary of his death, I will drink a toast in memory of one of Arkansas' greatest heroes of World War II -- Major Pierce W. McKennon. Destroying at least 20 German aircraft -- along with a host of other daring exploits -- earned McKennon the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Unit Citation and the French Croix de Guerre.
McKennon was born Nov. 30, 1919, the youngest of three sons of Clarksville dentist Parma McKennon and Inez Winningham McKennon. Soon after his birth, the family moved to Fort Smith. According to historian James J. Hudson, McKennon had a "happy-go-lucky" childhood during which his mother encouraged his interest in music. While still a student at St. Anne's Academy in Fort Smith, he won several piano contests, and the University of Arkansas offered him a music scholarship upon graduation.
During his first semester at Fayetteville, McKennon switched his major to pre-medicine, but chemistry and German language classes proved very challenging, and he never completed his degree. In the winter of 1940-41, with war raging in Europe, McKennon volunteered for the U.S. Army Air Corps.
In retrospect, it is difficult to imagine, but McKennon "washed out" as a student pilot. He was told that "flying just isn't in you." Within a matter of weeks, however, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. McKennon worked hard, and he excelled. Before long he was promoted to Sergeant Pilot and transferred to Scotland and later to London. McKennon considered the Royal Canadian Air Force "further advanced than we are, and at present an all round better air force." However, eventually he followed many other American RCAF pilots into the U.S. Army Air Corps after the United States entered the war.
In both Canada and the United Kingdom, "Mac" was known for his skills at the piano as well as aviation. Another pilot described McKennon as "tall and well proportioned, fast [and] agile. He had an acute sense of mimicry and gift for slapstick. Every moment was a rhythm. At the piano in the lounge during periods of bad weather, Mac was a one-man morale section... what chance did a fellow like Beethoven have at Debden [Air Base]."
As a member of the 335th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Group, McKennon initially flew a Spitfire V and later a P-47 Thunderbolt. He thought the "Bolt" was a "sweet kite." Powered by a heavy and powerful radial engine and armed with eight 50 caliber guns, the Thunderbolt was excellent at high-altitude performance but not as maneuverable as the lighter Spitfire.
McKennon flew his first mission on May 13, 1943, when his squadron escorted bombers raiding German positions in St. Omer, France. Three days later, his second mission almost proved fatal when his plane was attacked by four "Hun" fighters who "shot up my tail assembly pretty bad. I went into a vertical dive, and nothing can catch a Thunderbolt in a dive. I turned up [while going] at least 700 miles per hour ... shot across Holland and eluded them."
McKennon's first kill took place on July 30, 1943, when he came to the rescue of an American bomber "being clobbered" by two German fighters. He singled out one of the planes, "cut my throttle and dived on him." McKennon later described the harrowing encounter: "He [the German pilot] spotted me coming down, broke away immediately and went into a diving turn starboard. I shoved everything forward and went after him, closing rapidly all the time. He turned into a sharp climbing turn to port. I gave him a two second burst [of fire] that missed, but closed to within about 150 feet and got in a three or four second burst... Something flew off his port side, and large quantities of white smoke came pouring out. He flicked violently to starboard, and I almost [collided with] him. I passed within a few feet of him and saw his engine afire with long streamers of flame and smoke."
In March 1944 the 4th Fighter Group transitioned to a much more advanced plane, the P-51 Mustang. McKennon named his new plane the "Ridge Runner," which he had decorated with a snorting Arkansas Razorback.
The Mustang was capable of flying great distances -- and now the Americans took the air war deep into the Nazi homeland. On March 4, 1944, McKennon made his fifth kill -- and thereby earned the title of "Ace." The confrontation was part of a huge American attack on Berlin, the German capital. McKennon singled out one German fighter and pursued him all the way to the large Templehof airport, downing the plane while at an altitude of only 500 feet.
McKennon later described the kill in understated language: "[It was] the biggest show I have ever seen -- Jerries all over the place -- got an ME-109 -- he hit the deck." That evening a fifth German cross was painted on the nose of McKennon's "Ridge Runner."
McKennon survived having his plane shot down on two occasions. In August 1944, while performing strafing runs on German locomotives some 20 miles behind enemy lines near Neuweiler, France, he was forced to bail out when his plane was hit by flak from anti-aircraft fire. He was rescued by the French resistance, and while in hiding he assisted the French partisans in sabotage activities -- for which he was later awarded the French Croix de Guerre.
Near the end of the war, in March 1945, the recently promoted Major McKennonwas forced to bail out again when flak destroyed his engine. Amazingly, another American pilot managed to land his plane within a few yards of McKennon, and they managed to squeeze into the tiny cockpit and they alternately shared the single oxygen mask. The rescue was later dramatized in a movie, Fighter Pilot.
After the war McKennon was transferred to an air field in Texas where he instructed student pilots. He was not happy with this assignment, saying on one occasion that "there are two things I fear -- flak and student pilots." On June 18, 1947, the newly married 26-year-old flight instructor was killed while on a training flight near San Antonio.
Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].
NAN Profiles on 06/17/2018