John Clarence “Bucky” Egan was a pilot in the 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bomb Group. He was an original member of the 100th, and initially served as its Operations Officer. In June 1943 Egan took over command of the 418th Bomb Squadron, leading his B-17 Flying Forteresses on 12dozen missions, including to Regensburg on 17 August 1943.  He was shot down on 10 October 1943 in B-17 Flying Fortress "M'lle Zig Zag" and spent the remainder of the war as a Prisoner of War. 

John Egan is portrayed by Callum Turner in Apple TV+'s Masters of the Air (2024).  

Biography

John Clarence “Bucky” Egan was considered a role model for the newly arrived air crews joining the 100th Bomb Group at Thorpe Abbotts.

Egan's career began in March 1940 as a Flying Cadet at Randolph Field Texas, where he met his friend Gale Cleven. In April 1942, he was sent to the 29th Bombardment Group as an Instructor, and then in August 1942 was posted to Gowan Army Air Field as Operations Officer for the 100th Bomb Group. 

In May 1943 Egan flew with the advance party of the 100th Bomb Group to England, completing two missions with the 305th Bomb Group at Chelveston, before taking over command of the 418th Bomb Squadron at Thorpe Abbotts in June 1943.

Egan, known for wearing a white sheepskin flying jacket, flew on 12 combat missions with the 100th Bomb Group, usually in the co-pilot's seat. As later described by navigator Harry Crosby in his memoir “A Wing and a Prayer” he and Gale Cleven were 'Air Corps raunch, their hats cocked on the back of their heads, ...both wearing white scarves, the souls of romanticism....hated discipline'. In “Splasher Six”, the post-war newsletter of the 100th Bomb Group group, Egan was described as 'a lean dark young man with a wisp of a 27 but looked older. He could turn on the charm and turn it off whenever he liked”. He frequented the local pub in Dickleburgh. Where he sang songs in the bar with the locals. His nickname “Bucky” was acquired when as a cadet he reminded a colleague of someone known as Bucky.

Egan took part in the Regensburg shuttle mission on 17 August 1943. He described the experience later “We were under fighter attack for three and a half hours and saw three Fortresses immediately around us shot down between the German border and the target. No one turned back, although some of us thought we were as good as dead”. 

Upon landing in North Africa after the mission, Egan commented, “I never saw such a feeling of fraternity as when we landed. Everyone shook hands and slapped each other on the back, then stamped on the good solid earth”.

On the Munster raid of 10  October 1943 Wgan was Command Pilot - sitting in the right-hand seat - on John Brady's lead crew in “Mlle Zigzag” when they were attacked by over two hundred FW 190's which harried them for 45 minutes. Lt Robert Rosenthal’s “Royal Flush” was the only plane that got back to base. 

Two days earlier, Egan's best friend Cleven had gone down on a raid over Bremen and - according to Crosby - Egan had the following day badgered their commanding officer demanding to lead the next mission and avenge his buddy. When Egan eventually arrived at Stalag Luft III, Cleven reportedly greeted him with the words 'What the Hell took you so long?' The two would spend the  next eighteen months as prisoners of war.

During the winter months 1944 to 1945 as the Allies were advancing from the west and the Russians closing in from the east. Red Cross parcels were few and far between, the weather was particularly severe and the prisoners saved rations and made preparations for all eventualities. On  17 January 1945 the Germans broadcast news of the Russian advances, and on the evening of  27 January 1945 the order came for the camp to evacuate. An estimated 10,000 men marched out of Sagan in a line fifteen miles long.

The men from Sagan were on the road for five days and nights - Egan recalled one night spent in a “building so infested with bugs that the bunks and straw mattresses were moving by themselves”, before being entrained for Moosburg. 

After the end of the Second World War, Egan remained in the US Air Force.. In late1945 he married Josephine Pitz who had been a Women's Air Service Pilot (WASP)  assigned to New Castle Air Force Base ferrying B-17s, PT-19s and C-47s. Egan later served in Korea, and following duties in East Asia, attended the National War College in Washington DC.

In July 1958 he was assigned duties in the Policy Division, Directorate of Plans. Egan died in 1961 at the age of 45 of a heart attack and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honours on 19 April 1961.