Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival
An American fighter pilot doomed to die in Buchenwald but determined to survive.
On
August 13, 1944, Joe Moser set off on his forty-fourth combat mission
over occupied France. Soon, he would join almost 170 other Allied airmen
as prisoners in Buchenwald, one of the most notorious and deadly of
Nazi concentration camps. Tom Clavin's Lightning Down tells this largely untold and riveting true story.
Moser
was just twenty-two years old, a farm boy from Washington State who
fell in love with flying. During the War he realized his dream of
piloting a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army
Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. But on that hot
August morning he had to bail out of his damaged, burning plane.
Captured immediately, Moser’s journey into hell began.
Moser and
his courageous comrades from England, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere
endured the most horrific conditions during their imprisonment... until
the day the orders were issued by Hitler himself to execute them. Only a
most desperate plan would save them.
The page-turning momentum of Lightning Down
is like that of a thriller, but the stories of imprisoned and
brutalized airmen are true and told in unforgettable detail, led by the
distinctly American voice of Joe Moser, who prays every day to be
reunited with his family.
Lightning Down is a can’t-put-it-down inspiring saga of brave men confronting great evil and great odds against survival.
Reviews
"Lightning Down is a wonderful testament to the human spirit,
an incredible story of courage and resilience, of one man's heroism both
in a cockpit in the skies above Nazi-occupied Europe and in Buchenwald,
the dark heart of the Third Reich. Don't miss this nail-biter from a
true master, Tom Clavin." ―Alex Kershaw, New York Times bestselling author of The First Wave and The Liberator
"When
a quiet American farm boy named Joe fell in love with the Lockheed P-38
Lightning, he had no idea that his dream of becoming a fighter pilot
would catapult him into one of the most harrowing stories of World War
II. Tom Clavin's Lightning Down whisked me from the rural peace
of the Pacific Northwest to aviation heroics on D-Day, from a nightmare
prison train to a Nazi concentration camp, from a brutal frozen death
march to a German POW camp that pushed thousands of men to the outer
edge of human endurance―and beyond. This shocking true tale of a small
band of American flyers imprisoned by the Third Reich is at turns
horrifying and triumphant, revealing the galvanizing power of
battlefield brotherhood and the extraordinary resilience of the human
spirit. I began rooting for Joe on Page 1!" ―Lynn Vincent, New York Times bestselling coauthor of
Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Naval
History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man
"Buchenwald
was the place no allied airman was supposed to wind up―but they did. In
this priceless eyewitness history, one of WWII’s most incredible
stories has finally found its teller. Lightning Down is a riveting read that will leave you with a cold shiver." ―Adam Makos, author of the NY Times bestseller A Higher Call
TOM CLAVIN was born in the Bronx and grew up on Long Island. After studies at Suffolk County Community College, University of Southern California, SUNY Albany, and SUNY Stony Brook, he finally earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English and Literature.
In the newspaper business, Tom was a reporter for The New York Times, served as managing editor at The East Hampton Star, was the editor-in-chief of The Independent group of weekly newspapers, and was a columnist and contributing writer at the Express News Group on Long Island. He wrote for several prominent magazines on a variety of topics, including Men’s Journal, Smithsonian, Parade, Reader’s Digest, Golf, Cosmopolitan, and Manhattan. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and National Newspaper Association.
Four of his books have been New York Times best sellers: Dodge City, The Heart of Everything That Is, Halsey’s Typhoon, and The Last Stand of Fox Company. Other recent titles that have received popular and critical acclaim include Wild Bill, All Blood Runs Red, Valley Forge, The DiMaggios, Lucky 666, Last Men Out, Gil Hodges, Roger Maris, Being Ted Williams, and Reckless. The trade paperback edition of acclaimed Tombstone was released in January 2021, and it completes the "Frontier Lawmen" trilogy. His next book with Bob Drury, Blood and Treasure: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier, will be published by St. Martin's Press in April 2021.
By the way, The Heart of Everything That Is, Dodge City, The Last Stand of Fox Company, and All Blood Runs Red are being developed as screen projects. Also in development is an original limited series project, Crazy Horse and Custer, about the famous Sioux warrior and the "boy general."
A new venture is being a national weekly columnist. To keep up with -- and possibly subscribe to -- "The Overlook," go to tomclavin.substack.com.
Tom is a full-time resident of Sag Harbor
https://www.tomclavin.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment