Flying Low and Shot Down Twice: WWII Artillery Spotting

FLYING LOW:

AND SHOT DOWN TWICE DURING WORLD WAR II IN A SPOTTER PLANE By Former Lieutenant Joseph Furbee Gordon Excerpt from Book, click here Hardcover; 6" x 9"; ISBN: 0-913337-43-9; LC# 2001032231; 224 Pages; Illustrated (Photos, Art and Maps); Further Reading Section; Index; $27 retail

"What a delightful book!"
Flying Low is "...a great complement to my book. The terrain, the people and the fighting were different. Flying the Cub was the same--and he (Joe Gordon) did it skillfully. His blow-by-blow description of everything is appreciated."

--Don Moore, Author of Low and Slow

"Can you imagine going into combat at 70 mph in an unarmed, unarmored, 65 hp fabric covered airplane? If not, and if you want to know what it was really like, then Joe Gordon's Flying Low is the book for you. In l944 Joe was a liaison pilot attached to the Ninth U.S. Army's 2nd Armored Division, directing artillery fire from a Piper L-4 Cub of the 65th Armored Field Artillery Battalion. As a lieutenant with this unit he saw action in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany, and was shot down twice in the process. His remarkable book tells not only of the opposition he met from German flak and small arms fire, but also of his one-sided encounters with Focke Wulf 190s and Messerschmitt 109s.

"For many years after the war the contribution made by field artillery pilots remained largely unknown and this excellent book does much to redress the problem. Flying Low is a welcome addition to the small number of World War II aviation books which throw new light on little known subjects. It is highly recommended."

--Ken Wakefield

Author of The Fighting Grasshoppers and Lightplanes at War

Flying a Piper Cub aircraft for artillery fire direction at the front lines against German forces in World War II was hazardous. Shot down twice, Joe Gordon survived to tell what it was like being a pilot of such a plane in combat.

The Piper Cub aircraft, flying at the leading edge of American armored divisions, was especially useful as a spotter plane. The advantage of the view a few hundred feet above the leading tanks often resulted in devastating artillery fire raining down upon the enemy just where and when it was needed the most.

Joe Gordon fought with the 65th Armored Artillery Battalion in battles from the German border with the Netherlands to the Rhine River and from the Rhine to the Elbe River until almost the end of the European war in May 1945.

Flying Low