Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival
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Tom Clavin. (2021). Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. St. Martin's Publishing Group.

Tom Clavin. 2021. Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. St. Martin's Publishing Group.

Tom Clavin, Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2021.

Tom Clavin. Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2021.

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1. • value: concentration camp
2. • value: Xmas
3. • value: Christmas
4. • value: Nonfiction
5. • value: fighter pilots
6. • value: germany
7. • value: dad
8. • value: Hanukkah
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1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Clavin, Tom
   • bioText: TOM CLAVIN is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and has worked as a newspaper editor, magazine writer, TV and radio commentator, and a reporter for The New York Times. He has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, and National Newspaper Association. His books include the bestselling Frontier Lawmen trilogy—Wild Bill, Dodge City, and Tombstone—and Blood and Treasure, The Last Hill, and Throne of Grace with Bob Drury. He lives in Sag Harbor, NY.
   • name: Tom Clavin

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2021-11-02T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Lightning Down

fullDescription

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

1. • premium: False
   • source: Terri Schlichenmeyer for Commercial News
   • content:

     "This book is an absolute winner for your Dad, your Granddad, your uncle, anyone who's a veteran or a World War II buff or readers seeking a tale of heroism. Find it now, and let "Lightning Down" strike you."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal (starred review)
   • content: "Clavin's latest, like his other histories, reads like a novel and it will keep readers turning the pages ...This is an engaging and captivating story capturing the courage and strength of humanity under extreme conditions. Highly recommended."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist
   • content: "Clavin writes Moser's remarkable story into a heartrending tale of human endurance."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus Reviews
   • content: "The journalist and bestselling popular historian returns with the story of an American soldier who survived Nazi terror...Scrupulous, squirm-inducing...A fast-paced account of a little-known POW experience."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: "Clavin paints the horrors of life in the concentration camp in harrowing detail. The details Clavin unearths ... are grimly fascinating."
6. • premium: False
   • source: AP News
   • content: "Lightning Down is a historical biography that contains the information of a textbook while reading like a novel ... Clavin's style and structure induce enough suspense to keep readers wrapped up in the moment. And, despite the horrors that Moser experienced and Clavin describes vividly, Lightning Down has an overarching positivity and celebration of resilience."
7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 16, 2021
     Bestseller Clavin (coauthor, Blood and Treasure) delivers a sluggish account of an American fighter pilot’s imprisonment at the Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. Born in Ferndale, Wash., in 1921, Joe Moser enlisted in the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, earned a Distinguished Flying Cross at age 22, and made it through D-Day unscathed. Soon thereafter, however, his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and he was forced to bail out over occupied France. Expecting to be taken to a POW camp where he would be protected by the Geneva convention, Moser, along with 167 other Allied pilots, was instead designated a “terrorist” and sent to Buchenwald, where the Nazis held foreign spies, Resistance fighters, and other foreign and domestic enemies. Clavin profiles the other pilots and paints the horrors of life in the concentration camp in harrowing detail, describing rats feeding on piles of corpses and guards beating prisoners to death with rocks. Eventually, the prisoners were moved to a series of POW camps and were liberated by American forces in April 1945. Though the details Clavin unearths about how close the airmen came to being executed are grimly fascinating, frequent asides slow the pace down, and Moser remains a somewhat distant figure throughout. This WWII survival story is best suited to completists.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 1, 2021
     The journalist and bestselling popular historian returns with the story of an American soldier who survived Nazi terror. Generally, Allied POWs in Germany fared better than those in Japan--but not the group that included fighter pilot Joe Moser, Clavin's subject for this scrupulous, squirm-inducing account. The author narrates from Moser's point of view, and his sources include Moser's 2009 memoir. Raised on a farm and fascinated by flying, Moser enlisted in May 1942, underwent the 21 months of training required for the P-38 fighter jet, and flew his first mission in April 1944. Moving back and forth between the big picture and Moser's 44 missions, Clavin delivers a workmanlike account of the war that ends in August, when Moser's plane was shot down over France and he was captured. It's significant that he was taken to Fresnes prison near Paris, where Allied airmen were held, instead of being sent to POW camps. After liberation, in the scramble to evacuate Germany's high command, a group of soldiers were labeled "terror bombers." They were crammed into boxcars and shipped to Buchenwald, Germany's largest concentration camp; by fall, they were starved and disease-ridden. However, when he learned about their plight, a Luftwaffe officer, offended at this illegal treatment of fellow flyers, arranged their transfer to a POW camp. Readers relieved that their ordeal was over will be shocked by what followed in January. With the Red Army approaching, authorities evacuated the camp, forcing prisoners to walk across Germany in a freezing winter with only the food they carried with them. More died than at Buchenwald before arriving at another camp far worse than the one they had left. With Nazi Germany on its last legs, they expected a short stay, but two months passed before liberation. Readers can then enjoy Clavin's traditional concluding description of the remaining years of the lives of Moser and other major figures. A fast-paced account of a little-known POW experience.

     COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

9. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     October 15, 2021
     As a young man, Joe Moser worked hard on his family farm in Ferndale, Washington. The sight of a plane overhead stoked an aspiration; Moser wanted to become a pilot, and the United States' entry into WWII offered him a chance to fulfill his dream. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and learned to pilot the P-38 Lightning, receiving his pilot's wings in 1943. By 1944, the momentum of the war shifted in the Allies' favor, but the Germans remained resolute in their fight. Ahead of the Normandy invasion, Moser's squadron participated in aerial assaults, missions fraught with grave peril. When Moser's plane was shot down in August of 1944, he was taken prisoner and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where survival would become a second-by-second ordeal. Investigative journalist and history author Clavin (Dodge City, 2017) writes Moser's remarkable story into a heartrending tale of human endurance, showing the courage and strength of Moser and his fellow prisoners.

     COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

10. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from November 1, 2021
      

      A 22-year-old farm boy from Washington State, Joe Moser flew off on his 44th combat mission over occupied France on August 13, 1944, and joined nearly 150 Allied airmen as prisoners in the brutal Buchenwald concentration camp after having to bail out of his burning plane. The men were barely surviving when orders came down from Hitler to execute them all. No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Clavin reveals what happened next; with a 150,000-copy first printing.

      Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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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...

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   • description: History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
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