Garys Books: Lightning Down

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

Lightning Down

Book: Lightning Down

Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : References

Basic Information:

Author: Tom Clavin

Edition: ePub on Libby from the San Francisco Public Library

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

ISBN: 1250151260 (ISBN13: 9781250151261)

Start Date: January 27, 2022

Read Date: February 9, 2022

320 pages

Genre: History, Biography, World War II

Language Warning: Low

Rated Overall: 2½ out of 5

History: 3 out of

Synopsis:

The book follows a US Army pilot from his family’s beginnings into him joining the US Army as a pilot. He is shot down over France and is captured. But intead of being sent to a German POW camp, he is labeled as a Terrorflieger-terror flyer. He is sent as a common criminal to Buchenwald concentration camp. After six months there, he and his fellow POW’s are transferred to a POW camp-and several others until liberated.

Cast of Characters:

Joe Moser-American pilot, main person
Joseph Melchoir Moser-Joe Moser’s father
Mary Imhof-Joe Moser’s mother
Frank Imhof-Mary Imhof’s father
Burl Glass, Jr-Captian and leader of the squadron
Merle Larson-leader of Moser’s flight group
Levitt Clinton Beck-fellow pilot and author
Bill Banks-another pilot
Glenn Goodrich-another pilot from Washington who crashed
Jim Hastin-another pilot who had gotten shot down and was in the same cattle car as Moser.
Art Kinnis-RAF navigator who was a fellow POW
Colonel Lamason-senior officer among the prisoners.

Expectations:

Recommendation: Osher Book Club
When: December 2021

Thoughts:

Buchenwald is at the same latitude as Calgary. Think about surviving a Winter outside there.

Prologue

Sets the scene with an American pilot who had been shot down by Germany in France, being in a crowded cattle car, heading to an unknown destination. Other pilots were crowded in as well. They had been sent to a concentration camp, not a POW camp.

Act One: The Farm Boy

Talks about family background and Joe Moser’s early upbringing through high school He became fascinated with flying in high school-not having flown in one. He was invited to join the Army Fling Corp

Training began at Sequoia Field in Visalia. Advanced training was in Bakersfield. He was assigned to the 429th Fighter Squadron, which was part of the 474th Fighter Group in Van Nuys. He was put into a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The code name for the squadron was “retail” because of its call sign. He survived a crash take-off.

Moser and his squadron arrived in Europe in early 1944. Clavin describes the situation. The ship they came across the Atlantic on , the Excelsior became part of a convoy that zigzagged its way west, They are stationed at Warmwell England. Joe Moser: “There are few pleasures in life greater than sharing terrifying and life-changing moments with the very few people on earth who have survived the same kind of experiences and find the same meaning and thrill in them.”

Still more training, partly because they got a new model P-38, but also new conditions.It was spring of 1944 when Moser flew his first mission as an escort to the bombers.

Moser and his squadron now got into the rhythm of protecting bombers as they flew to Germany. Thoughts of those who did not make it back to base. Talked about him finding a long bomber neededing escorting. He did while coming very close to running out of fuel himself.

Sct Two - The Passenger

The P-38’s could also drop a 2,000lbs bomb. Before D-Day, they were used to bomb all sorts of targets in France. There is a description of a bombing run. Promotion and recognition came Moser’s way. Describes D-Day activities. While very successful, there were also casualties, but not Moser on this one.

A fellow pilot who had been shot down suddenly appeared at the base. This brought the hope that a pilot shot down could escape back to England, rather than death or being a POW. While Moser had not been part of dogfighters, there were many which happened to others. Other pilots were not returning. The 429th moved across to France. Moser was named flight leader of his group.

44 missions in, was his first time as a flight leader, in mid-August. He had a new wingman. A quarter of the 429th squadron had been shot down since their arrival. He was to do reconnaissance and if possible take out anything German which moved. He found a line of trucks and went in for the kill. It was a decoy. He was hit and the plane caught fire. He bailed out behind enemy lines. Describes his escape from the plane.

Moser’s escape from the doomed plane continues. Farmers, risking death by the Nazi’s helped him to escape for a time. But the Germans still captured him and two French farmers who were helping him. He was interrogated, but revealed nothing. He was then held in a small stone barn.

Describes the time in the stone barn. The two farmers who helped him were captured and put in there with him. When they were brought out, he heard gunshots and assumed they had been killed for helping him. He was then taken away to Fresnes for interrogation.He only gave name, rank and serial number. But the interrogator already knew much about him, including family, birthplace and where he was stationed. He was there for several days.

Talked about other people who had been imprisoned at Fresnes:

Graham Hayes

Betty Albrecht

Suzanne Spaak

More time in prison. Hitler had ordered Paris to be destroyed. Dietrich von Choltitz disobeyed. At Fresnes, he met his old commanding officer Captain Larson. Most were taken from the prison-those left behind were shot. He was put on a train with other Allied officers and French Resistance. They were in the hands of the Gestapo, not the Luftwaffe.There were 168 people crowded into a cattle car meant for 40 people or 8 head of beef. The train carried 2,453 men, women and children to an unknown destination inside of Germany.

French Resistance blew up the tracks which the train was on. The prisoners were forced to march to another location with a train. In the meantime, they were told they were not POW’s, but Terrorfliegers-I think it means Flying Terrors, but the book said Child murderers. Various acts by Germans to degrade the prisoners in the train.When the train at last stopped, minus the women and children, it was at a concentration camp, not a POW facility. They were at Buchenwald.

From the Holocaust Encyclopedia

Act Three - The Prisoner

Buchenwald was not the worst concentration camp-others had higher amounts of death in them. When the Allies finally reached a concentration camp, Buchenwald was the first, so it was the most shocking.But that would be for many months Moser left..

In Buchenwald you found fascism without frills. Anybody who was political, not to Nazi liking was sent there. This included professors who would not betray their calling to teach an ersatz science, … The Allied pilots were now labeled as political as well

Clavin gives a brief history of the development of the concentration camps and the rise of the Gestapo. This included the commandant of Buchenwald. He spends time on Margarete Ilse Köhler Koch who was the wife of a commandant and was particularly sadistic.

The Allied prisoners arrived in August 1944.

There had not been reports back in England of a camp like this. They were realizing the full extent of Buchenwald. A guard told them that the only way a person leaves this camp is up in smoke-via the crematorium. Describes the entry into the camp. Ill-fitting camp clothes were given, along with a small tin bowl. Without the bowl, you did not eat. At this facility, the only purpose was death. The reason the flyers were sent here was because they were considered terrorists. There was escalation on both sides as civilians had been killed in error, the RAF took the gloves off and sent bombers to attack Berlin and civilians there died. This shift to targeting nonmilitary sites resulted in the British and Germans accusing each other of being “terror bombers. Initially Americans were not part of this- they enunciate a policy of pinpoint assaults on key industrial or military targets, avoiding indiscriminate attacks on population centers.

Clavin describes the layout and conditions of Buchenwald.

Clavin describes the first morning at Buchenwald. It is a scene which would depress the most optimistic of people. The prison hierarchy was described with the Lageraltestes being the senior most leaders, chosen by the SS-it was assumed these people’s functions was to relay SS orders and inform the SS of any escape attempts. Then you had the administrative clerks-prisoners who worked on various tasks. Some of these worked to save some of the prisoners, when they could. Senior block inmates were those who reported up to the Lageraliestes for each cell group. Then there were the kapos. Some kapos tried to make life tolerable, but several were more sadistic than the guards.

Colonel Lamason was the definite leader of the Allied prisoners.As such, he stood up for them. It was Lamason who brought order to the Allied prisoners and discipline. He restored the fact that they were soldiers and should behave like soldiers even if the Germans were not. Lamason stood up against the Germans when they tried to do things like make them work in the arms factory. But even though this was a victory for the Allies, hope was forbidden in Buchenwald.

The arms factory connected to Buchenwald was struck by Allied bombers, coming close to killing the Allied prisoners. The arms factory was completely destroyed with the Buchenwald prisoners who were forced to work inside it. The Allied prisoners while not in the factory-having refused to work there-felt the force of the bombing raid, even two miles away. Some of the bombs did land on Buchenwald-both in the political prisoner section and the SS compound. Clavin goes through some of the political prisoners who died during the raid. The Allied prisoners did “assist” in “saving” some of the factory.

After the bombing, morale was high and the men uniformly refused to work to rebuild the factories. On the other hand, they still did not have barracks and were forced to sleep on the rocky ground. This was tolerable in August, but as Fall came, it became colder and could not last for long. The men came to understand that many of them had been betrayed in the French Resistance by a Jacques Desoubrie. Clavin talks about the capture of Lamson. Clavin tells about spies and counter-spies on both sides.

Optimism dropped. Death both at Buchenwald and other concentration camps grew. He starvation died started taking a toll on the Allied prisoners. Lamason kepted the men at least united through discipline. A club was created to have reunions after the war. Just before Winter hit, the men were given barracks-at least a little shelter, but the boys who were housed there, were still there. But this was only for a short length of time-they all were cremated.

The Allied prisoners became almost indistinguishable from th other prisoners at Buchenwald. Orders came to kill Russian prisoners as well as people considered spies. Measures were taken to try to save some of them. Then the Terrorfliegers were to be killed on Oct 24th. Lamason knew, but did not tell the men-but was looking for a way to change the dynamic.

Act Four - The Survivor

The SS had tried to keep the presence of the Terrorfliegers a secret. But some pilots in the Luftwaffe knew about it. … several senior Luftwaffe officers who were displeased that Allied pilots were there, knowing how poorly inmates were treated, including torture and even outright murder. The German pilots still had a code of honor. Johannes Trautloft, a highly decorated German pilot, concocted a reason to visit Buchenwald. His personal goal was to confirm if there were pilots at Buchenwald. How Trautloft heard about it was that Lamson had a risky plan where he passed a note to a Russian, who passed the note to a Luftwaffe officer. That officer passed it on up the ranks. There is a discussion about who Goering was.

Interesting: some of the information about Trautloft seems to be taken almost verbatim from Wikipedia. I do not know if a) Clavin wrote that section of the Wikipedia article; b) If someone copied that section from this book. But this book is not referenced in the Wikipedia article.

Trautloft wrote a report while going back to his station. There was still a World War I Red Baron–like attitude that enemy pilots saluted each other’s skill and gallantry. It was an appalling insult to this philosophy that fellow pilots, whatever flag they flew under, were in Buchenwald.. The result of the report was not known by the Allied prisoners. But Goering issued an order remanding them to Luftwaffe control and into a POW camp. Then the SS prepared the men to leave Buchenwald and go to a POW camp.

Hope now returned to the men. Hope that they would survive the war. Moser’s mother only knew he was missing in action. They were now at Stalag Luft III. This stalag’s reputation was it was escape proof. The camp was run by the Geneva Convention rules. Roger Bushell, who would become Stalag Luft III’s most famous prisoner. It was he who organized what we now know as the “great escape.” The new arrivals did not take part in this.

At the stalag the men were divided up into whatever barracks were available. But they were taken care of. But for a long while Moser felt more like a ghost returning from the dead. Among those already as POW’s, there was a sense that things could not be that bad at Buchenwald. This caused the men who transferred in to not share their experience. The Red Cross was now able to visit them and give them care packages. The question came up, as the war was in its final stages, what were the Germans going to do with them?

The Winter of 1944-45 may have been the coldest Winter on record for Northern Europe. The Germans were going to move the prisoners. In January 1945, the prisoners were to be transported away from the approaching front. Moser was asking himself, why had I survived all of the things he should not have survived? The plane crash, Frenses, Buchenwald, … ? They were marched out of camp.

The march began with temperatures at -20F. The line was five miles long. The Germans also had to endure this march-they were suffering as well, but not as much. Prisoners were dying. They marched over 35 miles that day. Moser was on the edge of dying as well.

Moser was assisted by a couple of his Stalag Luft III mates to a hospital, where he was cared for. He left the hospital to march with his fellow prisoners. After 65 miles of marching, they made it to a train which took them to Nuremberg-Stalag XIII-D. Moser felt When you truly understand you owe your existence and joys to others who had no real reason to sacrifice themselves for you, it is hard not to be affected or changed for the good. Moser was asked if this was what Buchenwald was like. Yes, except Buchenwald was still worse I said, and I know I wasn’t believed. It was indeed reminiscent of Buchenwald in toilet facilities, in cleanliness, in morale and in food. But here there was still hope. It was “hope” that is the best part of this. It was not until April 1945 when the Allies entered Buchenwald did they realize the full extent of the concentration camps. Murrow arrived on the scene three days after Buchenwald was liberated

27.

Rumors of the war ran rampant around the camp for the next two months. Because of the decimation of Germany, food was getting scarce for the prisoners. On April 5th, the prisoners were lined up and forced to march again. Prisoners exchanged cigarettes for food with farmers. They marched eight miles a day for a week, with many of the 15,000 dying from malnutrition and exhaustion. They arrived at Stalag VII-A. Negotiations were brought out by the stalag commander with Allied forces to secure the camp. Then the camp was freed.

Liberation! Also food. And now the promise of being able to get home.More prisoners than what the Army knew how to deal with. Moser weighed about what he did when he left Buchenwald. The prisoners were on the march again, but this time towards home. There were around 90,000 American POW’s housed by the Germans. Moser had to have a tooth extracted before he could go to America-too painful to continue. Food, latrine and showers were a big blessing to Moser. A month later he was on a train back to Washington and then his reunion with his mother.

Once home, he gave a talk to the local Lions Club. But he was confronted repeatedly, whenever he relayed his experience, such as when an Army officer told him: “No Americans were in Buchenwald.” When Joe responded that of course Allied flyers, including Yanks, were there because he had been just one of dozens of them, the officer ended the conversation: “I don’t know why you are insisting because it didn’t happen.” The government would not confirm that there were Americans in Buchenwald-uncertain why.

Moser got on with his life-got a job and then married. Even his family did not get let in on his war story: “After my painful experience of not being believed, plus the desire shared by so many of my fellow veterans just to get on with our lives, I kept the story inside.”

Epilogue

There would have been little the United States could have done, even if it had been known that Germany was housing pilots at Buchenwald. Then there was the added element that Many of the men and women who served in World War II returned home unwilling or unable to talk about their experiences.

Clavin talks about various people after the parts in the book. This included Trautloft, Lamason-later to be recognised by the Canadian documentary titled The Lucky Ones: Allied Airmen and Buchenwald. Then another documentary, Shot from the Sky, much of it based on the book by Thomas Childers. In 2011, a third documentary, Lost Airmen of Buchenwald was released, which included an interview with Lamason. Also talked about Burl Glass and Merle Larson. The POW club got a letter from France talking about Léon Vermeulen and Henri Eustache-the two which helped Moser and were eventually caught. The two had survived with the help of a friend.

In a Washington Remembers series, Moser said I’ve had a wonderful life, … would go through it again to keep our freedom. I know I could be angry for what I had to go through, but it made life worth living.”

On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Joseph Moser, a humble American hero, died at home, surrounded by family, and at peace.

Evaluation:

There are a lot of ways to evaluate a book. Some of the ways I consider the quality of writing, the quality of the content-storyline, if you will, and how the author will create a line of thought to ponder. For me, I found that the book Lightning Down to be more on the level of reading a high school history book or a series of Wikipedia articles, more flat in its telling than thick with ideas and analysis. Interesting stuff, but you really need to work at it to be thought provoking.

There is plenty of drama in Joe Moser’s story and Clavin does tell it, but I think a good wordsmith would have molded the story better. Lighting Down did open my eyes to how some airmen were treated, and that is a good thing. But I also think there should be better written books, maybe not on Joe Moser, but on the pilots who were incarcerated at Buchenwald. Maybe some of the books which got referenced by this book, would be a good place to start.

Notes from my book group:

OSHER-March 25, 2022

Clavin divides the book into four acts. Do you think they are appropriately titled?

To you, how does a person rise to becoming a hero? How is a hero portrayed in popular culture?

Describe how you felt in the most crowded situation you have experienced.

Joe Moser said that “There are few pleasures in life greater than sharing terrifying and life-changing moments with the very few people on earth who have survived the same kind of experiences and find the same meaning and thrill in them.” How can terrifying situations become one of bonding?

One of the words used in this book is hope. Describe the ebb and flow of hope which Moser and his fellow prisoners felt throughout the story. It was said that hope was forbidden in Buchenwald.. Was any hope realistic at Buchenwald?

When you hear the term precise strikes in conjunction with a bombing raid, what images get raised in your mind? Do they entail civilian casualties? Are workers in an armant factory considered civilians?

The airmen were considered Terrorfliegers by the Germans. What made them the equivalent of a terrorist to the Germans? When a plane drops a bomb which affects civilians by mistake, is this an acceptable cost of war? Is there any way around incidental civilian casualties?

When Moser was interrogated, the Germans already knew much about him, even without the Internet. How do you think this happened? Is privacy or the lack of it a new phenomena? How much information do you think another country currently has on you?

Why were Moser’s military clothing taken away from him? What do you make of the Germans able to give back his clothing when he was to leave Buchenwald?

How did Moser and the other Allied pilots survive the misery of Buchenwald?

Clavin called Buchenwald fascism without frills. What does he mean by that phrase?

What made Colonel Lamason the leader of the Buchenwald POW’s?

It was said that the kapos, fellow prisoners who were elevated to work for the Geermans, were even less merciful than the guards-to be fair, only some were, others tried to make life tolerable for their fellow prisoners. Why did some kapos act against their fellow prisoners? How did they change from being a person on the street to behaving like this? Or do you think they were already like this outside of prison life?

The Germans were portrayed as being a people who were ready to kill their prisoners without any regard. What reasons would the Germans have for killing captured soldiers? Do you think it would be possible that American soldiers would kill captured POW’s? Do you think this trait is confined to certain nationalities? Or personality types? A happenstance of the time period? Or is this prevalent across all humans? What caused this time period to seem to be exceptionally barbaric?

After getting out of Buchenwald, there were times when Moser related what happened at Buchenwald. He was disbelieved, first at Stalag Luft III then when he returned back to Washington state. Why was he not believed? What keys do you look for to authenticate something being presented as fact? How can a person whose story is unthinkable or extraordinary make it believable?

Moser asks himself the big “why” question-why have I survived all which I have? Do you think the author resolves that question? What is your answer to that question? Moser has a parallel thought: When you truly understand you owe your existence and joys to others who had no real reason to sacrifice themselves for you, it is hard not to be affected or changed for the good. How does this fit in with the “why” question?

In one of the chapter’s in Martin Luther King, Jr’s book, Strength to Love, he talks about the nature of man. After reading this book, how has your view of what humans are changed?

How does your view of who humans are affect how you look at situations or events?

How do you want your life to change because you read this book?

Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.

Why the title of Lightning Down?

Does this story work as a biography?

Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?

Which character was the most convincing? Least?

Which character did you identify with?

Which one did you dislike?

Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?

In what context was religion talked about in this book?

Was there anybody you would consider religious?

How did they show it?

Was the book overtly religious?

How did it affect the book's story?

Why do you think the author wrote this book?

What would you ask the author if you had a chance?

What “takeaways” did you have from this book?

What central ideas does the author present?

Describe the culture talked about in the book.

How did this book affect your view of the world?

Of how God is viewed?

What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?

Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?

What was memorable?

New Words:

Sortie: an attack made by troops coming out from a position of defense.
Kapo: a prisoner in a Nazi camp who was assigned by the SS guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks.

Book References:

Fighter Pilot. By Levitt Clinton Beck
P-38 Lightning at War by Christy and Jeff Ethell
Fork-Tail Devil by James G. Speight
Fork-Tailed Devil by Martin Caidin
Air War Europa: Chronology by Eric Hammel’s
Is Paris Burning by Larry Collins
In the Shadows of War by Thomas Childers
The Buchenwald Report by David A. Hackett
American Airpower Strategy in World War II by Conrad C. Crain
The Bridge on the River Kwai by Pierre Boulle
A Higher Call by Adam Makos
A Fighter Pilot in Buchenwald by Gerald Baron
The White Rabbit by Bruce Marshall
Churchill’s White Rabbit by Sophie Jackson
Time for Outrage by by Stéphane Hessel
Lost Airmen of Buchenwald - Joe Moser's privately printed book

Good Quotes:

First Line: There were well over two thousand men and women trapped inside the train chugging toward somewhere in Germany
Last Line: On Wednesday, December 2, 2015, Joseph Moser, a humble American hero, died at home, surrounded by family, and at peace.

References: