A larger-than-life hero

William “Billy” McDonald III grew up on his father’s stories. But he had no idea that in China, William “Mac” McDonald Jr. was something of a national hero due to around 120 encounters with Japanese fighter pilots as a member of the 1st American Volunteer Group in World War II.

Here in Birmingham, Mac McDonald was known for his family connection to attorney and philanthropist Frank Spain, rather than his wartime heroics.

“He was always thought of here as, ‘That’s Frank Spain’s son-in-law.’ And that was what Daddy was famous for,” Billy McDonald said. “In his own right, he led an extraordinary life and did some extraordinary things.”

Billy McDonald grew up in Mountain Brook, right across a golf course from his future wife Nancy, and he still lives nearby. Billy and Nancy McDonald raised three children – Maggie, Lucy and William – in Mountain Brook, and his career included banking, retail and working as a golf pro after playing on Auburn University’s team.

After a heart attack, Billy McDonald was recovering when his sister sent a photo of their father beside a plane, as part of the “Flying Trapezes” air demonstration group.

“I said, ‘Well I’ve got to figure out where this picture came from,’” he said.

That find had much larger implications. In his sister’s basement, Billy McDonald found a letter from his father, the first of many.

“Then I made the ultimate mistake and started reading the letter, and then I was in real trouble because that led to the next letter,” he said. “[I] never knew he was a fighter pilot, never knew he shot down a lot of Japanese planes, never knew he was paid in gold by the Chinese for every plane that he shot down. It was a truly remarkable story.”

From his sister’s home and through other sources, Billy McDonald found about 30,000 documents that piece together his father’s unconventional service in World War II and the Sino-Japanese War. Those documents became the backbone of his book, “The Shadow Tiger.”

Mac McDonald came from Fairfield and traveled to China in 1937. His service there included training pilots in the Chinese Air Force, flying for the China National Airways Corporation airline and flying on combat and rescue missions for the American Volunteer Group, known as the “Flying Tigers.”

“He didn’t have 10 nickels to rub together when he went to China,” Billy McDonald said. “I had heard him tell a lot of stories … but what I found in these papers was so much more.”

Mac McDonald served under the famous aviator and close friend Claire Chennault, who recruited around 300 pilots and ground crew to the Flying Tigers. Their role was to support and train the Chinese Air Force as the country defended itself from Japanese invasion.

His father never talked much about his air combat, Billy McDonald said, but documents he found suggest at least 120 encounters with Japanese pilots. Typically, the Flying Tigers were up against larger Japanese forces, but Billy McDonald said they held their own, and his father was paid in gold coins every time he shot a plane down. That money enabled Mac McDonald to pay for a home for his parents, college for his brother and a ring for his wife, whom he had met while she was with the Red Cross in Calcutta.

Along with facing off against Japanese pilots, Mac McDonald flew supply runs, carrying badly-needed gunpowder and other goods to China from southern Asia.

“His story is this pretty spellbinding story. And flying over the Hump, over the Himalayan mountains, in planes loaded with gasoline and gunpowder, is close to insanity,” Billy McDonald said.

His father also helped in several rescue missions: rescuing pilots and ground crew in Burma, civilians from Hong Kong and Chennault from Japan. While he was in Japan, Mac McDonald and Chennault also spied on airfields and military installations before escaping the country, though Billy McDonald said his father made the foolhardy decision to send a postcard to his family while he was in Japan.

When the Japanese were getting ready to overrun an airfield in Hong Kong, Mac McDonald was part of a team of pilots that rescued 275 people. On one flight, he was the co-pilot in a plane that could seat 22 people, but they filled it with 74.

“They’re going down the runway, they can hear the Japanese gunfire in the background. The plane goes off the end of the runway and it doesn’t go up, it goes down,” Billy McDonald said. A last minute draft of air saved the plane from crashing into the water below.

These and other stories from his father’s letters and documents were carefully researched by Billy McDonald and his co-writer and editor, Barbara Evenson. “The Shadow Tiger” was rigorously scrutinized before it ever saw publication.

“She didn’t want to put anything in the book that I couldn’t back up with a document,” he said of Evenson.

The publication of “The Shadow Tiger” has led to unexpected opportunities for Billy and Nancy McDonald. They had the opportunity to tour China, including staying in a hotel room that was formerly Mac McDonald’s apartment, and a series of museums that had information about the Flying Tigers on display. In one museum, there was a life-size photo of Mac McDonald, Chennault and another Tiger that covered one wall.

The American Volunteer Group’s assistance to the Chinese Air Force was critical in repelling Japanese forces during the Sino-Japanese War, so Billy McDonald said he was treated as something of a celebrity while there.

One highlight of the trip was giving original documents to some of the museums to add to their collections. Another highlight was reading to the crowd his father’s letter, prior to the U.S. going to war against Japan, when he was told he needed to leave China or face jail for violating neutrality agreements.

“Daddy wrote his parents and said, ‘I will not leave the Chinese people in the one moment in history they need me the most.’ Well I got to go back to China and read the letter to the Chinese. Let’s just say that was really well received,” Billy McDonald said.

The Smithsonian also requested copies of many of the documents he found while writing the book, which Billy McDonald said they are digitizing for other researchers to use.

Jeff Greene of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation has also made contact with the McDonalds, as he is working on getting a movie produced about China and the Asian theater of WWII and he wants to use some of the stories from Billy McDonald’s book. They are planning a second trip to China this spring, to get the book published there.

Billy McDonald said he’s looking forward to seeing “The Shadow Tiger” published in China, and he has enjoyed all the unexpected opportunities that sprang out of a single photo.

“How many people in Birmingham, Alabama, are in the Smithsonian?” he said.

Visit shadowtiger.org for more information.