McCright’s Purple Heart
By Cody Berry
I recently saw an announcement online about Purple Heart Day on August 7th. This made me think about the recipients of that award that I’ve been researching over the summer. One of them was a man from Benton named Ewell Ross McCright. McCright was born in Benton on December 4, 1917, to Lewis Ross and his wife Minnie Lee Donham McCright. McCright enlisted in the United States Army on December 4, 1940. He applied for aviation cadet training in 1941 and eventually he was a B-17 bombardier on a mission to France.1
On January 23, 1943, on his third mission, McCright’s plane was hit by a bomb from a squadron flying above his in the sky over German occupied France. The plane was subsequently attacked by German fighters and went down. Seven of his crew members were killed, leaving McCright and two others to be captured by the Germans after bailing out. Now POWs, the Germans sent McCright and his fellow survivors to the Stalag Luft III camp in Sagan, Germany. This camp was the inspiration for the 1963 Steve McQueen film “The Great Escape,” which you can check out at the Saline County Library.2
While in captivity, McCright kept secret ledgers detailing the personal experiences and wartime injuries of 2,194 fellow prisoners of war. The ledgers were kept hidden under the floorboards of the barracks he stayed in and in a false wall. At some point the Stalag Luft III prisoners were marched to Stalag 7A in Moosburg, Germany, McCright took his ledgers with him instead of food.3 Stalag 7A was liberated by the 14th Armored Division in April 1945. There were around 110,000 Allied POWs at Stalag 7A.4
After the war, McCright returned to Arkansas where he graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville. He even served in the state House of Representatives from 1951 to 1953. McCright’s wartime ledgers were kept in a foot locker for 45 years and were rediscovered after his death in April 1990. Those journals were then published by historian Arnold Wright as the book Behind the Wire: Stalag Luft III, South Compound in 1993.5 The Benton branch has a copy of this book available to check out for in-library use only. McCright’s medals, including his Purple Heart, will be on display this fall in our WWII exhibit. (Pictured below).
Citations:
1 Arnold Wright, “Ewell Ross McCright (1917-1990),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ewell-ross-mccright-3205/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025.
2 Arnold Wright, “Ewell Ross McCright (1917-1990),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ewell-ross-mccright-3205/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025. Arnold Wright, My Country Called, 1993, p. 191-192.
3 Arnold Wright, “Ewell Ross McCright (1917-1990),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ewell-ross-mccright-3205/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025. Arnold Wright, My Country Called, 1993, p. 191-192.
4 Jim Lankford, “The 14th Armored Division and the Liberation of Stalag VIIA,” The Army Historical Foundation, https://armyhistory.org/the-14th-armored-division-and-the-liberation-of-stalag-viia/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025.
5 Arnold Wright, “Ewell Ross McCright (1917-1990),” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/ewell-ross-mccright-3205/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025. Listing for Behind the Wire book at https://arstudies.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/biblio/id/10550/, Date Accessed August 12, 2025.