Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival

Clavin, author of the best-selling “Frontier Lawmen” biographies (Wild Bill; Dodge City; Tombstone), has turned his efforts to the story of Joe Moser, a 22-year-old farmer who enlisted in the U.S. Army and served as a pilot during World War II. Over four sections referred to as acts, Clavin traces Moser’s life from his small hometown in Washington State to French battlefields and to his eventual capture by the Luftwaffe. Along with other Allied soldiers, Moser was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. For the duration of the war, these soldiers relied on each other for survival and support, Clavin writes. He effectively recounts the men’s liberation by the U.S. Army after a harrowing year of imprisonment and, notably, uncertainty. Clavin’s latest, like his other histories, reads like a novel and will keep readers turning the pages. It expertly weaves a historical portrait of Moser and others while providing much of the background necessary to appreciating the events.