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Lightning Sky

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Lightning Sky

By: R. C. George
Narrated by: John McLain
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About this listen

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 25 years, Dave would go on to honor his father in rescue missions of his own, becoming a highly decorated and genuine American war hero.

©2019 R. C. George (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Military Military & War World War II Veteran War

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Plus points: The storyline or rather biography is quite remarkable and quite amazing in places. Well worth the read for this alone!

Minus points: it's written in a Hollywood blockbuster style that's a little ridiculous in places. This was a real person, not captain America!
The technical descriptions of the aircraft and their capabilities are way off. jarringly so for anyone with a little knowledge of WW2 aircraft. But the story is so good it's easy to ignore those bits.

A great story once you get into it.

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Excellent story of bravery, resourcefulness and endurance. An inspiring story of human endeavour. Fully recommended.

Remarkable Man

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