Clavin, Tom. Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. New York: St. Matin's Press,
2021. ISBN: 9781250151261
Are you interested in WWII aerial exploits? What about escaping pilots in the French countryside? Nasty Nazis? Survival by the skin of your teeth? Well, then join Tom Clavin as he lays out the tale of Joe Moser, Lightning pilot on his 44th mission that went very wrong and what happened after.
Joe Moser grew up in Washington state on a farm who dreamed of becoming a pilot of the P-38 Lightning. He got his dream job as a pilot with the 429 Squadron of the Ninth Air Force based in England. He flew bomber escort missions as well as ground attack missions. On his 44th combat mission, his plane was hit and he had to parachute out of his plane. Some French farmers tried to help, but he and two of the farmers were caught by the Germans. Joe ended up in Fresnes prison in the hand of the Gestapo. Shipped out on the last train before Paris fell to the Allies, Joe and many others ended up at Buchenwald Concentration Camp as one of 168 Allied fliers accused of being Terrorfliegers. Only due to a surprise visit by a Luftwaffe officer, did the Allied fliers escape being executed, instead they were transferred to a regular POW camp. But then with the Russians approaching, the POWs were marched out in January on a harrowing trek to another camp in Austria where barely survived until the US Army arrived. Joe returned back to the Bellingham, Washington area to marry and become the "local furnace guy." He did not talk much until late in life when he started reconnecting with fellow survivors and had his story make the newspaper rounds in 1982. In 2009, when he was almost 90, Joe collaborated with Gerald Baron to write A Fighter Pilot at Buchenwald. Joe Moser died December 2, 2015.
Tom Clavin provides a narrative with plenty of asides that brings to life one of the great survival stories of WWII in Lightning Down. Joe Moser rose from humble roots to become a fighter pilot, survive not just Buchenwald, but also an epic trek in the January 1945 winter that almost killed him. Yet he came back home, found a job and raised a family without fanfare. He is a true American hero that everyone should know!
