The legacy of Lt. Phillip McCullough

Remembering a late World War II hero from Saugus

By Janice K. Jarosz

Young Phillip McCullough, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard J. McCullough, was born in Saugus, Mass., on May 26, 1916, at 137 Main Street. He attended local elementary schools, graduated from Saugus High School in 1941 and enrolled in college.

Shortly after he learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he left school and on January 14, 1942, enlisted in the Army Air Corps as an Aviation Cadet. He then went on to become a pilot of the famous fighter P-47, Thunderbolt. During his career First Lieutenant McCullough engaged in a number of dogfights around a crippled U.S. Fortress plane and downed planes when they attacked it.

Lt. Cullough stated: “The Fort was staggering along, out of formation and down pretty low when the Jerries attacked it. My wingman and I dropped them from above and had dogfights all around the Fort. I got two and my wingman got one and we were able to drive the others away.”

In 1944, his commanding officer awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross medal at an air base in England for his flights over enemy territory, according to an announcement from Major General Will E. Kepner, Command General of the Eighth Fighter Command.

McCullough was a veteran of many air missions and was awarded a Medal for “meritorious service” in aerial flights and the completion of 10 operational sorties over enemy-occupied Europe. A former General Electric employee and member of the G.E. Flying Club, he was a pilot before entering the Army Air Force, having 95 solo hours to his credit.

On March 20, 1944, the War Department notified his parents that Phillip was missing in action. Ironically, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in action just three days before he was reported missing. (He sent a letter to his parents three months later.)

Here’s a report from Senior American Officer Darr H. Alkire, dated April 2, 1948, on Lt. Phillip E. McCullough, which was sent to the War Department.

“To Whom it May Concern:

“I met with Lt. Phillip E. McCullough, USAAF at a German POW interrogation center at Frankfurt, Germany April of 1944. I was with him constantly from that time until we were liberated at Stalag VII, [Moosburg] Germany on April 29, 1945.

“When I first met him, he was in poor condition as a direct result of imprisonment in Belgium, where he had been kept in solitary confinement for a protracted period. That meant starvation and unbelievably filthy living conditions.

“From Frankfurt we were transferred to Stalag III, Sagan Germany on April 27, 1944. There, conditions at the camp grew steadily worse. By December 1944, we were on quarter rations, terribly overcrowded and with little or no heat, despite the bitter cold.

“Lt. McCullough soon developed a severe chest cold and was bedridden for weeks. He occupied the bunk above mine, and I can personally attest to the facts that he was a very sick man. Because of the approaching Russian armies, we were forced to evacuate the camp in January of 1945. Still sick, he collapsed on the march and was taken to the new camp in a cattle car with other sick and wounded prisoners.

“The new camp at Stalag XIII, located at Nurnberg, was a filthy, vermin ridden hole. In a report dated February 25, 1945, First Lt. Richard Brady stated the following about the conditions found at Stalag XIII, D.

“The POW camps are within the railroad lines and are being bombed day and night. There are no slit trenches or shelters for POWS to use. They are kept in overcrowded barracks at gunpoint.

“Inadequate food and clothing leading to starvation. Vegetables are full of worms, unhealthy and are contributing to the lowering of any resistance to disease. Permission is requested to distribute soup and food, and it was possible to have it served warm. Very Little clothing replacements as prisoners have only the clothing they wore from Sagan.

“There is a lack of heat, bedding, and lighting. Four hundred and fifty men must depend on two water outlets. Rats, mice, lice, fleas and bedbugs throughout the camp with no disinfectants available. There is also a shortage of medical supplies, and garbage and debris disposal are inadequate.

“In his final statement Lt. Brady wrote the following: It goes without saying Lt. Phillip McCullough’s present condition can only be laid to the filthy, starving conditions under which he lived for more than a year.”

WRITER’S NOTE: Lt. McCullough was liberated at Stalag VII, Moosburg, Germany, on April 29, 1945. He returned to his hometown at the end of the war, opened a machine shop, which he had for many years, and passed away on November 11, 1978, at the age of 62.

(Special thanks to Lt. McCullough’s niece Natalie [Dixon] Agreste and his late nephew Michael Moorehouse for their contributions to this article.)