Lightning Down by Tom Clavin is the incredible saga of American fighter pilot Joe Moser, who piloted a P-38 Lightning, one of the most effective weapons the Army Air Corps had against the powerful German Luftwaffe. The following excerpt recounts one of Joe’s more memorable escort missions, which left him flying on fumes over the English Channel. Read more below.
The training to be a pilot was rigorous but all the effort would allow
Joe Moser to realize his dream of flying a P-38 Lightning. (Courtesy of
the Moser family.)
Though just twenty-two and with only a few weeks of combat experience under his belt, Joe already felt close to being a grizzled veteran: “It didn’t take too long to change from high-strung combat rookies to experienced, professional fighter pilots. It is true that the thrill of sliding those throttles forward and feeling all fourteen hundred and fifty of those horses contained in the twin Allison 12-cylinder engines pulling me into the deep blue never diminished. But neither did the gut-chilling dread of knowing each time we left the ‘comfort’ of our cold, drizzly southern English base, it might be our last time.”
