THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion

Starting 1st August 2019 R.C. George, the author of a new WW2 book; "Lightning Sky: A U.S. Fighter Pilot Captured during WWII and His Father's Quest to Find Him" has generously offered to host a Q&A with group members about his book.

Here are some details on the author's book:

A U.S. fighter pilot captured by the enemy. A father determined to rescue his son. One of the most remarkable and moving true stories of faith and perseverance to come out of World War II.

October 6, 1944. Twenty-year-old Army Air Corps Second Lieutenant David “Mac” Warren MacArthur was on a strafing mission over Greece when a round of 88-mm German anti-aircraft flak turned his P-38 Lightning into a comet of fire and smoke. Dave parachuted to safety as the Lightning lived up to her name and struck the Adriatic Sea like a bolt of flames. In minutes, he was plucked from the water—only to find himself on the wrong end of a German rifle pointing straight at his head.

Dave’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Vaughn MacArthur, was a chaplain with the 8th Armored Division of Patton’s Third Army when he learned of his son’s capture. He made it his personal mission to find him. For the duration of the war, as Dave was shuttled from camp to camp—including Dachau—his father never stopped searching. Then in May 1945, Vaughn’s last hope was Stalag VII-A in Moosburg, Germany. Through the barbed wire fence, he cried out his son’s name. Incredibly, out of tens of thousands of POWs, one of them, squinting into the sunlight, turned and smiled.

Father and son spent the next two weeks together celebrating, a forever cherished memory. Over the next twenty-five years, Dave would go on to honor his father on rescue missions of his own, becoming a highly decorated and genuine American war hero. In both Korea and Vietnam, Dave would carry with him the legacy of a great man who gave everything to save his son.

An inspiring, harrowing, and unforgettable chronicle of love of family and love of country, Lightning Sky is a timeless testament to extraordinary lives in extraordinary times.

The author's web page on the book and some reviews:

https://www.rcgeorgebooks.com/

Praise for R.C. George’s Lightning Sky

“A glowing reminder that some things in life are worth fighting for.” — Marcus Brotherton, New York Times bestselling author of We Who Are Alive & Remain, A Company of Heroes and Shifty’s War

“This is how history should be written—in vivid detail and with all the emotion of the best-told stories. Fans of Flyboys and Unbroken should push this book to the top of their reading list.” — John Gilstrap, New York Times bestselling author of Scorpion Strike and the Jonathan Grave thriller series

“A suspenseful masterpiece—a heart-tugging page-turner every bit as captivating as Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken and Erik Larson’s Dead Wake.” — Denise George, bestselling author of The Secret Holocaust Diaries, Behind Nazi Lines and Orchestra of Exiles

“Impossible to put down. Gifted author R. C. George has created a page-turning narrative peppered with meticulously-researched, elevating historical insights that demonstrate true command of the subject matter. Bravo!” — Robert Child, Emmy-nominated screenwriter, director, and author of The Lost Eleven

“You will be inspired . . . you will mourn a greatness that has all but passed. In four or five years they will all be gone; the words of soldiers like this one, our only hope of holding onto them.” — Ken Gire, New York Times bestselling collaborator for All the Gallant Men

“The research is meticulous and the tale is well written, almost like a novel. It is optimistic and realistic, both funny and sad. A wonderful retelling of an individual story of World War II that combines the universal bond between parent and child and a war story. VERDICT: Highly recommended for any listener interested in war, family, or just a good story.” — Library Journal on the audio edition

Looking forward to your questions! :)

Here is your first question then R.C. - what motivated you to write this book?

1. - How long did it take you to research your book and did it take you to any interesting places?

2. - Did you find any information or material that surprised you?

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "Here is your first question then R.C. - what motivated you to write this book?"

As a writer, I'm always on the hunt for true WW2 stories about American heroes who sacrificed everything. When I first became aware of Lt. Col. David W. MacArthur, a P-38 Lightning fighter pilot shot down over Greece in 1944, I knew someone needed to write his story. As I began reading the details of Dave’s life, one recurring thought kept surfacing in my mind: There’s no way all of this happened to one man!

Before he was twenty years old, Dave (a football player from New England with a mouth quicker than a trigger) tussled with the Kennedy brothers in a Boston bar fight, shook hands with the pope, survived a brutal bail out over Greece, and, after suffering for months as a POW, was rescued from a Nazi concentration camp by his own father, Vaughn MacArthur.

During Dave's captivity, he breathed toxic gas in Dachau (damaging his lungs for the rest of his life), executed his own “Great Escape” through a barbed wire fence of Stalag Luft III, and spent days crammed inside a suffocating boxcar with two of America’s most famous pilots—the Tuskegee Airmen. Dave's stubborn optimism and resolve to survive caught my attention right away, and his father's determination to find his son was unmatched in WW2 literature. It left me thinking: How far is a parent willing to go to save his child?

So, this was a story I felt honored to steward. I hope I was able to do it some justice.

He sounds like a fascinating man R.C., was his story widely known before but not actually written about?

How did you became aware of this man and his WW2 career?

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "1. - How long did it take you to research your book and did it take you to any interesting places?

2. - Did you find any information or material that surprised you?"

1. I have spent my life reading WW2 literature and finding inspiration from those like Dave who were willing to die so that others could live. The research for this book took about one year and was filled with countless hours of digging through military archives, after-action reports, first-person accounts, and correspondence with the Vatican Secret Archives. Two interesting places stick out in my mind.

The first was the National Archives in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1973, a terrible fire broke out in the facility, destroying approximately 80% of the official military records (16 million documents). Remarkably, even though the vast majority of the research was not recovered, the information I hoped to find had survived. Studying in those archives was rewarding in itself. But studying documents that survived the fire gave the project a new meaning for me, a confirmation that this story was meant to be told.

The second place that sticks out in my mind was the house belonging to Dave's widow. Near the beginning of the project, I traveled there, to the Florida coast, to meet her in person and see some of the artifacts Dave had smuggled out of Europe. It was there that I first saw Dave's personal journal, which was a game-changer. Dave transcribed his memories immediately after the end of the war, and he included enough detail to allow me to triangulate the accuracy of his account with other sources.

I'll never forget some of the memorabilia I saw on that visit. At one point, we stretched across the backyard a large Nazi banner that Dave had torn from his liberated camp. I was praying no drones were flying overhead at the time. :)

2. There were many things I found surprising in writing this book. Dave actually fought for his country in three wars, and what surprised me most was his daring feat that occurred during his service in Korea. He was given a job no pilot wanted: forward air controller. That meant, he was marching with the troops on the front line, spotting targets on the ground for planes above. In 1951, Dave found himself deep behind enemy lines on the night before the first thrust of the Fifth Chinese Offensive. Dave and his men were completely surrounded by Chinese soldiers. He mounted a heroic defense, but the position was lost. So, Dave became a hero, muscling a jeep convoy through heavy Chinese artillery fire and single-handedly saved the lives of 127 men. Dave became one of only forty-two Air Force recipients of the nation’s second highest award for military valor.

Another interesting surprise was the role Dave played as a Japanese fighter pilot in the 1970 Academy Award-winning Tora! Tora! Tora! His final scene called for his death, a dramatic moment in which the pilot slumped over in the cockpit after being shot. After ten frustrating takes, the director discovered something about Dave that had become abundantly clear: Dave MacArthur just didn’t know how to die.

One more thing caught me by surprise: the incredible journey of Dave's flight training, and the personalities of the aircrafts he flew. Most readers of WW2 literature are familiar with the B-17 Flying Fortress, the Spitfire, the P-51, and the other warbirds we associate with that war. But there was an unsung hero that this book sheds light on, one that was essential to the Allied victory: the P-38 Lightning.

Lockheed’s twin-boom design took the world, and the war, by surprise. She had a lengthy list of firsts:

* The P-38 was the first plane to shatter Howard Hughes’s record-breaking speed flight from Los Angeles to Newark (a distance of 2,490 miles). At the time, the P-38 soared 100 mph faster than any engine in the sky.

* The P-38 was the first plane to shoot down an enemy aircraft after the United States entered the Second World War. Eventually, with her upgraded fuel capacity, the plane didn't even have to be shipped to Europe; she could fly there all by herself.

* The P-38 was the first Allied plane to fly reconnaissance missions over Tokyo and the first to land on Iwo Jima. The Lightning shot down more Japanese planes in the South Seas than any other fighter. There are even accounts of P-38 pilots squaring against Japanese planes with only one functioning engine, what the pilots called the "round trip home."

The months I spent studying the P-38 were among the most rewarding in the project. The Japanese called her "ni hikōki, ippairotto," or “two planes, one pilot.” The Nazis called her "der Gabelschwanz-Teufel," or “the fork-tailed devil.” The Luftwaffe rarely challenged the Lightning head on because of one engineering marvel: the location of the P-38's armament.

Unlike the P-51 that shot from the wings, striking targets effectively only at specific distances, the Lightning crammed all of its guns into its central fuselage, which could produce a quintuple stream of fire from four Browning .50-caliber machine guns (each containing a maximum of five hundred rounds) and the ever-lethal 20-mm cannon, which could accurately strike targets 10 feet or 10 football field away. It was really fascinating to read, in Dave's own words, what it felt like to pilot those wings, to release that much power from the plane--the vibrations, the intensity, the air-to-ground damage.

I really hope readers enjoy that part of the book, the flight sequences. I wanted to give readers a cockpit perspective so they could experience aerial combat like Dave did: to experience the body crushing pull of gravitation force, to hear the sound of flak peppering your wings, the panic of exposed fuel lines. I wanted them to smell the fuel and smoke and blood that filled Dave's cockpit when his P-38 was getting blown to bits during his hexed strafing mission over the Nazi airbase in Greece.

With each chapter, I had to keep reminding myself: this is a teenager in the cockpit! I tried to think about what I was doing at age 19, and that gave me a lot of respect for Dave and for every courageous flyboy who could aim the nose of their plane directly at the ground and open the throttle in pursuit of a target. No wonder Dave hated flying straight and level in commercial airliners later in life.

Dave's experiences in the P-38 Lightning made a massive impression on me, and it became the inspiration for the title of the book: Lightning Sky.

Thanks so much for the questions!

'Aussie Rick' wrote: "He sounds like a fascinating man R.C., was his story widely known before but not actually written about?

How did you became aware of this man and his WW2 career?"

Dave MacArthur's story was not widely known prior to writing this book. He kept a journal of his WW2 experiences, but he never published it. I became aware of his story through his widow who was kind enough to allow me to access his journal. His obituary also caught the eye of my editor's brother who made her aware of it.

This is a great question, Rick, because I am discovering that there are so many untold stories of heroism from this era in our history that need to be told. Unless we as writers tell their stories, we may never be able to appreciate those who gave us our freedom.

R. C.

This sounds like a fascinating read. It's definitely on my TBR list. I've been fascinated by the P-38 since I read Caidin's Fork-Tailed Devil; The P-38 Lightning way back in high school (more yrs ago than I care to admit :))

A couple of questions:

In your research, did you have a chance to visit Dachau or any of the other places LT MacArthur was held as a POW?

Do you have any ideas of what your next project will be?

Thanks so much for the question.

Yes, I've visited several camps throughout Europe, Dachau being the most memorable (and Buchenwald also). Dachau is one of those places you enter as one person and leave as a different person altogether.

I remember particularly the crematorium there. Chilled me to the bone. How could humans do such a thing to other humans? The medical experiments at Dachau were just horrific. The research about them (most of which didn't make it into the final manuscript) have left deep impressions on me.

I believe that's one thing authors fail to take into consideration before undertaking a project of this scope, subject, and genre--the fact that the research that is required to do justice to stories like these demands that we confront humanity at its worst. In doing so, we must confront ourselves also. This book plunged me into the abyss of that question, a question that haunts me even right now as I type this response to you:

If humans were capable of Dachau in the 20th century, what will they be capable of in the 21st century?

That's one reason Dave and Vaughn's story caught and held my attention. It is a story about how, even in the midst of great darkness and unimaginable trauma, Dave did what he had to do to survive, hoping that his father was going to save him. That's the real message I wanted to bring out, a message about the human family, about connection. Some things in life are worth fighting for.

That's a message that I think all of us, at some level, can resonate with. Dave experienced, witnessed, and suffered trauma of unspeakable amounts (he only began to speak about it near the end of his life). He was a survivor who somehow discovered a way to channel all that trauma into something beautiful, into the saving of 127 lives in Korea.

Dave's jeep run out from behind enemy lines in 1951 is one of the most powerful elements in the story, perhaps the most inspiring and dramatic. It reminded me that yes, humans are capable of great evil, but we are also capable of great courage.

The way Dave conducted himself when faced with overwhelming numbers of armed enemy soldiers is a testament, not only to his character but also to the way that we as humans can choose to let our trauma define us, or let our trauma refine us so we can save others in similar circumstances.

Yes, I'm working on another WW2 book at the moment. But it's always best to keep it on the hush until the timing is right. :)

Thanks again for your question! Have you been to Dachau also?

What you said about seeing Dachau rang a chord so deep in my heart. I was 6-1/2 when the newsreels about Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald were released to the movie theaters here in the US. Going to the movies was a way for my brother and I to escape the gas (petrol) station that my parents ran during the war. Normally, mother had to ok what movie we wanted to see. It never occurred to her to think about the newsreels we were seeing. Normally, we would stay to see the feature three times over before we’d call for them to come get us. Imagine being 6-1/2 years old and seeing that horror 3 times thru and going back the next day and seeing it all again. It affected me profoundly. Hence, my interest in WWII: still trying to understand what really is incomprehensible.

I was 18 when I visited the museum at Dachau and stayed inside, reading about the Nazi experiments, while my brother and the rest went to see the crematoria. An article recently reminded me of the ongoing debate of the morality of using the research results of those
experiments, some of which were intended to advance survival of Nazi pilots.

R.C. wrote: "Thanks so much for the question.

Yes, I've visited several camps throughout Europe, Dachau being the most memorable (and Buchenwald also). Dachau is one of those places you enter as one person an..."

Yes I've been to Dachau, but it's been 45 yrs(early 70's). My father was in the Army and when we in Germany, my history class took a field trip there - twice.

The first time I really wasn't impressed (shallow 14 yr old), but the second time 2 yrs later, really moved me. Surprising how much growing up you can do in 2 yrs.

Marilyn wrote: "What you said about seeing Dachau rang a chord so deep in my heart. I was 6-1/2 when the newsreels about Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald were released to the movie theaters here in the US. Going to th..."

Marilyn, thanks for your comment. I can't imagine being 6 and a half and trying to process what you had to process. The other day, I was watching "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and was thinking about the effect of war on children--on both sides of the conflict. Truly tragic.

Thanks for sharing, and I hope you enjoy the book.

happy wrote: "R.C. wrote: "Thanks so much for the question.

Yes, I've visited several camps throughout Europe, Dachau being the most memorable (and Buchenwald also). Dachau is one of those places you enter as ..."

That is an interesting point. At every stage and age of life, we experience the camps differently, with different perspectives. The old saying is true: "You can never step in a moving river in the same place twice."

Thanks for sharing!

Liz V. wrote: "I was 18 when I visited the museum at Dachau and stayed inside, reading about the Nazi experiments, while my brother and the rest went to see the crematoria. An article recently reminded me of the ..."

Liz, thanks for sharing this. If you don't mind me asking, would you be able to provide the link to this article? I'd love to read it.

R.C. wrote: "Liz V. wrote: "I was 18 when I visited the museum at Dachau and stayed inside, reading about the Nazi experiments, while my brother and the rest went to see the crematoria. An article recently remi..."
I shall look for the article, but Wikipedia under Nazi Human Experimentation has a section on Modern Ethical Issues and specifically mentions the hypothermia experiments at Dachau, with citations.

It is not the article to which I referred, but the May 30, 2019 issue of https://www.statnews.com has an informative post by Sharon Begley.

Also just turned up Frank Swain's July 24, 2019, post on http://www.bbc.com

First of all I want to say that I had a chance to read and review the book via NetGalley and found it fascinating. My uncle was a POW captured in Italy and was willing to let me sit down and ask him questions about his experiences and he did talk about travel in cattle cars and how awful it was but never with the depth of detail described in this book. It had me wondering what he might have faced and never shared with family. In your research did you learn anything else about other POW's who might have spent time in Dachau?

Liz V. wrote: "R.C. wrote: "Liz V. wrote: "I was 18 when I visited the museum at Dachau and stayed inside, reading about the Nazi experiments, while my brother and the rest went to see the crematoria. An article ..."


Liz, thanks so much for sending this link. Looking forward to reading it! :)

Bev wrote: "First of all I want to say that I had a chance to read and review the book via NetGalley and found it fascinating. My uncle was a POW captured in Italy and was willing to let me sit down and ask hi..."

Bev, first of all, thank you SO much for your amazing review of Lightning Sky. Leaving reviews on Goodreads and Amazon is the best way readers can support authors so we can keep writing these true stories about our WW2 heroes. Really means a lot.

It's fascinating how many WW2 stories we've learned about this summer from people, like yourself, open up and share their family's contribution to the winning of the war. Your uncle was a hero. If he was anything like Dave (or like my grandfather also), the memories of his experience are difficult to talk about with family. The trauma was so horrific, for many veterans, that when they do choose to share their experiences, it's usually only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. That's so special that you and he sat down to talk about his POW challenges. The cattle cars that transported POWs were unspeakable. Yes, I did some research into the different ways Nazis moved prisoners from one camp to the next. The conditions, at least for Dave, were difficult to describe, even though he described them in vivid detail in his personal journal. For humans to be reduced to animals--I think that has a way of staying with the POWs, the dehumanization.

This book, like so many, showcases only the tip of the research involved in recovering Dave's story. He spent only a short while in Dachau, just long enough to be transported to another camp. Most of the details about the camp were not recorded because they put him in a blacked out vehicle and he was blindfolded until they threw him in the cell, which was adjacent to one of the rooms the Nazis used as a gas chamber.

One of the most eye-opening aspects of researching for this book was the vast number of camps the Nazis used across Europe. In most of our minds, Dachau, Buchenwald, and Auschwitz seem to stand out, but there were hundreds and hundreds of camps where similar atrocities occurred.

Pavlos Melos, for example, was a camp I had not ever read about. Located in Thessaloniki, Greece, it contained thousands of prisoners: serbs, Jews, captured U.S. pilots, and refugees. That was the first camp Dave arrived at after his P-38 was shot down. Before the Nazi invasion of Greece, its buildings had been used to store cattle. They simply replaced the animals with humans. Hundreds of prisoners to a single barn. The stench was horrific, the disease widespread. Perhaps that duration of Dave's experiences were the most visceral. Every morning he awoke to witness a line of women and children shot by Nazi death squads.

One memory was so horrific that I debated even including it in the book (I eventually did). One morning, as the women and children were being massacred, Dave saw a young girl holding her mother's hand. The mother was shot and fell back into the trench, and the child was shot in the leg but she was still alive. One of the Nazi executioners grabbed a sack of lye and poured it over the girl's screaming body (Lye was used to decompose bodies in the trench). It was then that Dave discovered that this conflict was not a war. It was a holocaust. He swore vengeance that day against the Nazis.

It really is unimaginable what POWs went through--a reminder that freedom isn't free. It has a cost. And that cost, for many U.S. veterans was high.

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts about the book. I hope as many people as possible can hear about Dave's story and be inspired.

Hopefully. I will look forward to your next book whenever it comes out.