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“The Devil Looks After His Own” by Anthony Field

Link - Posted by David on November 22, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a story from the short-lived Sky Devils magazine by Anthony Field. Anthony Field was a pseudonym used by Anatole Feldman who specialized in gangland fiction—appearing primarily in Harold Hersey’s gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories. His best-known creation is Chicago gangster Big Nose Serrano. But he also wrote a number of aviation stories including four stories for Sky Devils featuring Quinn’s Black Sheep Squadron!

Quinn’s Black Sheep is another of those squadrons populated with other squadron’s troublemakers like Rossoff’s Hell-Cats or Keyhoe’s Jailbird Flight or any number of other examples. It seemed every author had a series with a black sheep squadron. But it’s odd to find a WWI series starting in 1938. By then, many of the air war stories were getting away from being set during The Great War as a possible second Great War loomed on the horizon. Additionally, many of the anthology air war titles no longer carried series characters—Dare-Devil Aces final series characters were Hogan’s Red Falcon and Smoke Wade, both of whom moved to G-8 and his Battle Aces in 1938.

Field wrote four stories with Quinn’s Black Sheep. “The Devil Looks After His Own” is the first of those four stories, appearing in the premiere issue of Sky Devils, March 1938.

Captain Jack Quinn is brought in for disciplinary action and manages to convince the General that he could solve a lot of his headaches by hand-picking the problem aces out of other squadrons and forming an essentially independent squadron to take on the Boche. Thus, Quinn’s flight was a crew of hard bitten aces who had been tempered—to a man—in the cauldron of war, having unflinchingly facing Death many times before.

Quinn assembled his squadron with Lieutenants Sam Steele and Jerry Twist from his own 40th pursuit squadron—Steele was thin, wiry, with eyes as hard as the name he bore while Twist was the opposite with laughing eyes and usual good-humored nature. To them he added: Sergeant Abe Solomon from the 64th—a short, swarthy man who weighed no more than a hundred and twenty pounds. His hands were small, his eyes twin coals in his narrow skull and his lips were bitter. He could fight and didn’t take any lip from other mugs just because they had shoulder bars. Major Nordstrom—heavy, thick set, brutal. Lieutenant Murphy, a mad, wild Irishman with a bull voice that put Quinn’s to shame. Captain Percy Dake—aka “Killer Drakę”—from the 12th, ex-ganster, ex-killer. Lieutenant Krueger, man of mystery who never talked and who walked silently like a cat. De la Roche, Captain in the French Army, an oily dandy who would have slit a throat without batting an eye, yet who had twenty planes to his credit. Von Goetz, German born, who had an undying hatred for the Prussian Military Machine. Lieutenant Janko, heavy, stolid, too lazy to move until he was behind the stick of a fighting plane. And lastly, Lieutenant Stephen Arden, a Britisher and a toff. He was reported to have broken a bottle of Scotch over a General’s head, his only regret being that the liquor had flowed away. Record, eighteen German planes, a half dozen machine gun slugs in his body and hard to handle when drunk.

Each man looked at Quinn with red murder in his heart—but Captain Quinn was the devil’s fair-haired boy.

 

about the author
(mostly stolen from his wikipedia entry)

Anatole France Feldman (1901-1972) is primarily known as a pulp magazine writer from the late-’20s to the late-’30s. He specialized in gangland fiction, appearing primarily in Harold Hersey’s gang pulps, Gangster Stories, Racketeer Stories, and Gangland Stories. He also appeared in the rival magazines, Gun Molls and The Underworld.

His best-known creation is Chicago gangster Big Nose Serrano. Big Nose began as a pastiche of the 1897 Edmond Rostand play, Cyrano de Bergerac. Serrano’s homely nose made him an unlikely romantic hero who thus composed love poetry for a better-looking associate. The plot and characters of the first Big Nose story, “Serrano of the Stockyards” (Gangster Stories, May 1930), roughly follow the corresponding elements in the play. Serrano’s overwhelming popularity with readers brought him back for further adventures. The stories are unrelentingly violent, and often intentionally amusing, providing a unique fictional take on Chicago’s gangland and the latter years of Prohibition. Feldman ended up publishing twelve of the Serrano adventures from 1930-35 in Gangster Stories, Greater Gangster Stories, and The Gang Magazine. As the series progressed, the Cyrano angle was dropped, and Serrano became an unlikely crusader against the social ills of the Depression, albeit applying the gangster’s methods of violence, kidnapping, and murder to the problems.

He stirred up a lot of controversy with the readers of Gangster Stories, with his novelette “Gangsters vs. Gobs,” a story that improbably pitted the underworld against the Navy. The controversy filled the letters column for several issues.

Feldman also wrote under a number of pennames, including Tony Fields, A.F. Fields, and similar derivations. In 1930-31, he co-edited the short-lived adventure pulp, Far East Adventure Stories. Writing under a Standard Magazines house name, he authored some of the lead novels in The Phantom Detective.

He was married to fellow pulp-writer Hedwig Langer, who published under the names H.C. Langer and Beech Allen. In the 1940s, they co-wrote plays. Feldman’s first performed play had been The Red Thirst in 1920.

In the 1940s, Feldman edited comic books for Hillman, Rocket Comics and Miracle Comics. Later that year he switched to editing true-crime and true confessions magazines for Hillman.

He was later employed at the Thomas Oil Co. in Saratoga, NY. He died in 1972 in Boonton, NJ. Hedwig had passed in 1969 after having been employed at Skidmore College.

“Sky Writers, April 1936″ by Terry Gilkison

Link - Posted by David on November 18, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

FREQUENT visitors to this site know that we’ve been featuring Terry Gilkison’s Famous Sky Fighters feature from the pages of Sky Fighters. Gilkison had a number of these features in various pulp magazines—Clues, Thrilling Adventures, Texas Rangers, Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, and Popular Western. Starting in the February 1936 issue of Lone Eagle, Gilkison started the war-air quiz feature Sky Writers. Each month there would be four questions based on the Aces and events of The Great War. If you’ve been following his Famous Sky Fighters, these questions should be a snap!

Here’s the quiz from the April 1936 issue of Lone Eagle.

If you get stumped or just want to check your answers, click here!

“A Fine Man—The Colonel” by Andrew A. Caffrey

Link - Posted by David on November 15, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have another story from one of the new flight of authors on the site this year—Andrew A. Caffrey. Caffrey, who was in the American Air Service in France during The Great War and worked for the air mail service upon his return, was a prolific author of aviation and adventure stories for both the pulps and slicks from the 1920’s through 1950. Here Caffrey tells the tale of a group of service men filling out the last months of their service stateside after the end of the war before being discharged. From the very first issue of Flying Aces October 1928 it’s Andrew A. Caffrey’s “A Fine Man—The Colonel!”

Corporal Fox didn’t think that one camp would hold HIM, Sg’t Beervat and Adjutant Lowpockets—and it didn’t. But the Colonel was a fine man.

“The Doomed Squadron” by E.W. Chess

Link - Posted by David on November 8, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have story of air intrigue by E.W. Chess. Elliot W. Chess was a prominent author in the pulps—his name frequently appearing on the covers to entice readers. His pulp career spanned from 1929 to 1940, but a majority of his output was in the early thirties. Equally adept at both westerns having grown up in El Paso, Texas and air war stories having served in the Royal Flying Corp in the First World War and the 7th Squadron of the Polish Air Force afterward when Russians tried to invade the country. Here, Chess tells a tale of a “Doomed Squadron” whose pilots are mysteriously disappearing one by one. . . .

Thirty-four pilots gone—one by one they screamed to their death, and not a Hun in the sky! And each one that was found had bitten off the end of his tongue . . . . What was the terrible force operating on the Doomed Sguadron?

From the pages of Eagles of the Air, it’s “The Doomed Squadron” by E.W. Chess!

If you haven’t check it out, Pulpflakes posted an excellent post about the life of “Elliot Chess—Fighter pilot, Author” last year.

“Send Him Up with Sanders” by Wallace R. Bamber

Link - Posted by David on November 1, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a story by a new writer to this site, Wallace R. Bamber.

Wallace Rugene Bamber was born in 1895 in Tacoma. A veteran of the First World War, serving in the A.E.F. from 1917-19, during the 20’s he lived in New York City and became a well-known writer of air fiction for pulp magazines. Later he branched out as an editor and publisher of the short-lived Far East Adventure, a fiction magazine of the Orient with a dozen issues from 1930-32, and Amazing Detective Stories with five issues published in 1931. Later he became a traveling representative of the American Fiction guild, and moved to Seattle. He was with the federal writers’ project there, and later a WPA administrative staff official. Bamber also worked for a time as editor of the Port Orchard Independent, and was active in Democratic party affairs. A newspaperman at heart, in 1944 he started publication of a weekly paper, The Bainbridge Merchant, on Bainbridge island where he was then residing, but illness forced him to curtail this venture after two issues. He passed away in November of that year.

From the February 1930 issue of the short lived Flight, we have Bamber’s “Send Him up with Saunders.”

The C.O. kept Sanders as a free lance, for more than one reason perhaps. But mainly, no doubt, because there were other observers who could do the regular air work as well or better than Sanders could, while none of them could do the special work that he did. He had one exceptional quality that all the others observers lacked—He could tell a good pilot from a poor one far sooner than the commanding officer, himself, could. When a new pilot came up to the squadron, the first thing the C.O. would say to the operations officer, was: “Send him up with Sanders.”

When a new pilot came up to the Squadron the C.O. said “Send him up with Sanders”—and Sanders never failed to know at once a good pilot from a bad one. And no one knew his method!

 

As a bonus, here’s an article from THE OREGONIAN where Mr. Bamber discusses what he sees as the state of Pulp fiction writing from February 17, 1931:

FREE-LANCE writers who are getting nothing but rejection slips should take heart because 1931 probably will not be such a tough year in the fiction market as 1930 was and the chances are that 1932 will be pretty good. This is the advice brought from New York by Wallace R. Bamber, publisher of Far East Adventure Stories and Amazing Detective Stories. Mr. Bamber was in Portland yesterday after a brief visit to Spokane, where he grew up and started writing. Speaking of pulp-paper fiction, Mr. Bamber said that, gangster stories now are in most demand, with half a dozen magazines publishing nothing else, and a number of others using this type of story generously. War stories, he said, are now almost unsalable, and the detective Story market, is on the wane after enjoying tremendous popularity. As to what will succeed the gangster story in vogue, “I wish I knew,” he said.

In pulp fiction there are only three kinds of stories, according to Mr. Bamber—love, detective mystery, and adventure. The gangster story is in the adventure, not detective field. In each of these divisions there are three kind’s of conflict—man against man, man against himself, and man against nature.

Furthermore, according to Mr. Bamber, there is only on® plot with which the pulp-paper writer need concern himself. The story opens, figuratively speaking, with the villain on top of the hero with a knife in his hand, and ends with the positions reversed. This one plot can be varied to suit any pulp magazine, the individuality of the story depending upon the characters used and the incidents employed in effecting the reversal of positions.

The magazine publishing business is largely a gamble, in Mr. Bamber’s view, and this is the reason so many pulp publications start and stop abruptly.

“From Spad to Worse” by Joe Archibald

Link - Posted by David on October 25, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

“HAW-W-W-W-W!” That sound can only mean one thing—that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors is back to vex not only the Germans, but the Americans—the Ninth Pursuit Squadron in particular—as well. Yes it’s the marvel from Boonetown, Iowa himself—Lieutenant Phineas Pinkham!

Phineas Pinkham was ordered to take two weeks leave or else face not only the wraith of The Old Man, but a Court Martial to boot. The Boonetown jokester couldn’t and the inactivity and found a way to get back in the war and put an end to the Allies Drachen problem as well.

Two weeks’ leave and no Spad to fly anywhere in—what do you do in a case like that? Easy—just take a leaf from Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham’s book and go—

“The Roaring Towns: Weaverville, California” by Frederick Blakeslee

Link - Posted by David on October 21, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

BACK with the third and final of Frederick Blakeslee’s “The Roaring Town” featurettes. Blakeslee only produced three installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the boom towns of the Wild West in Pecos Kid Western. Authored by Jhan Robbins, the prolific western story author and editor of pulp magazines, and deftly illustrated by Blakeslee, the feature delves into the story behind noted boom towns of the old west. This time Robbins and Blakeslee tell us the tale of Weaverville, California—a gold rush boom town that made it and still stands today with a lot of it’s old 1850’s charm.

From the January 1951 issue of Pecos Kid Western it’s “The Roaring Towns: Weaverville, California!”


THE ROARING TOWNS: Weaverville, California
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, January 1951)

“Thirty Hours to Live” by Franklin M. Ritchie

Link - Posted by David on October 18, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a story by Franklin M. Ritchie. Ritchie only wrote aviation yarns and his entire output—roughly three dozen stories—was between 1927 and 1930, but Ritchie was not your typical pulp author—he was a lawyer who wrote pulp stories on the side to satisfy his yen for flying.

Jack Gorham flew in a trance. “Thirty hours to live!” he muttered, talking to himself under the roar of the motor and the fierce screaming of the wind in his wires. “That’s all a pilot has on the front!” And mechanically he fell into the formation. Swiftly they winged toward the front. The trenches zigzagged under them, and suddenly Gorham realized that he was over German territory, “Thirty hours to live!” he repeated to himself. . .

With a weird shrieking whir, the airplane streaked for earth like a flaming comet. The pilot’s chum turned yellow and fled, but—read it and see for yourself!

As a bonus, here’s a letter from Franklin M. Ritchie that Flying Aces published in the March issue—the month before the issue this story ran.

“The Roaring Towns: Soya, Texas” by Frederick Blakeslee

Link - Posted by David on October 14, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

BACK with the second of Frederick Blakeslee’s “The Roaring Town” featurettes. Blakeslee only produced three installments of his two-page illustrated looks into the boom towns of the Wild West in Pecos Kid Western. Authored by Jhan Robbins, the prolific western story author and editor of pulp magazines, and deftly illustrated by Blakeslee, the feature delves into the story behind noted boom towns of the old west. This time Robbins and Blakeslee tell us the tale of Soya, Texas—a town now lost to the sands of time.

From the September 1950 issue of Pecos Kid Western it’s “The Roaring Towns: Soya, Texas!”


THE ROARING TOWNS: Soya, Texas
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, September 1950)

“Hero Stuff” by Frederick C. Davis

Link - Posted by David on October 11, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a short story by renowned pulp author Frederick C. Davis. Davis is probably best remembered for his work on Operator 5 where he penned the first 20 stories, as well as the Moon Man series for Ten Detective Aces and several other continuing series for various Popular Publications. He also wrote a number of aviation stories that appeared in Aces, Wings and Air Stories.

This week’s story features that crack pilot for World News Reel, the greatest gelatine newspaper that ever flashed on a silver screen—Nick Royce! Davis wrote twenty stories with Nick for Wings magazine from 1928-1931.

Hollywood comes calling at the World News Reel field when J. Harold Shaw and director arrive hoping the World News Reel pilots and cameramen can help them capture a dramatic stunt for the climax of their latest feature. Who’s j. Harold Shaw? Well, his pictures send thrills and chills up and down the prickley spines of a million girls. Right at that minute his likenesses were decorating the dresser-tops of adoring females from coast to coast. Many a dissatisfied wife thought of him as an ideal husband for herself. His face was certainly his fortune. Yes, sir, right then there wasn’t any more heroic hero in the whole flicker business than J. Harold. Needless to say, Nick took an instant dislike to Shaw—especially when he started to put the moves on his gal! From the February 1928 Wings, it’s Frederick C. Davis’ “Hero Stuff!”

Between earth and sky he hung, helpless in the useless parachute—until Nick Royce, sky-eater, jumped into space, a grim smile on his lips as he prayed for an even break!

Blakeslee’s “The Roaring Towns”

Link - Posted by David on October 7, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

IT’S no secret that we’re big fans of the work of Frederick Blakeslee here at Age of Aces Books. He did the covers for all of Popular Publications’ big Air titles—Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Aces, Battle Birds, Fighting Aces, Dusty Ayres and his Battle Aces, and, of course, G-8 and his Battle Aces. In addition he did the interior art for Dare-Devil Aces, Battle Birds and Fighting Aces. Blakeslee also provided art for other titles as well—including a few special illustrative features. One of those features was “The Roaring Towns” for Pecos Kid Western magazine.

Similar to his “Adventures Into The Unknown feature that ran in several mystery magazines, “The Roaring Towns” was a two page feature focusing on a different Wild West frontier town each time. Blakeslee teamed with writer Jhan Robbins for the “The Roaring Towns.” Robbins was a Brooklyn-born writer who became an editor for pulp magazines like Big Book Western and Dime Mystery after WWII. With his wife June Stumpe he became a widely known for writing articles—one being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize—and later biographies.

Pecos Kid Western only ran for five issues, and, sadly, “The Roaring Towns” for only the first three of those. The first installment centers on boomtown of Jackson, Nevada which sprung up in 1871 with the discovery of silver. Over the next year, forty thousand prospectors mined more than five million dollars of silver out of dem thar hills.


THE ROARING TOWNS: Jackson, Nevada
by Frederick Blakeslee and Jhan Robbins (Pecos Kid Western, July 1950)

“Kings Up” by H.P.S. Greene

Link - Posted by David on October 4, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a story by H.P.S. Greene. Henry Paul Stevens Greene was a newspaper man who wrote aviation tales from the late 20’s to the early 40’s for magazines like Wings, Air Stories, Sky Fighters and, the magazine this story appeared in—Aces.

Billy King hated the French. A year in the Foreign Legion infantry, under hardboiled officers and non-coms, was mostly responsible. That was before the United States entered the war and Billy became eligible for transfer—a transfer that shot him right back into another French outfit again! It was in a cafe wallowing in his misfortune that Billy King wound up getting mixed up with a girl, an ex-king of Monravia. and a hairbrained scheme to snatch the mustaches of Captain von Grunow of the Imperial German Air Service! From the pages of the December 1931 Aces, it’s H.P.S. Greene’s “Kings Up!”

Take a Yank pilot soured on the world. A Paris mademoiselle. A strange gent with a monocle, and a red-nosed taxi hawk. Mix well with champagne, toss into tracer-torn sky—and watch for fireworks!

“Too Good for Hanging” by Joe Archibald

Link - Posted by David on September 27, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

“HAW-W-W-W-W!” That sound can only mean one thing—that Bachelor of Artifice, Knight of Calamity and an alumnus of Doctor Merlin’s Camelot College for Conjurors is back to vex not only the Germans, but the Americans—the Ninth Pursuit Squadron in particular—as well. Yes it’s the marvel from Boonetown, Iowa himself—Lieutenant Phineas Pinkham!

When Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham cracked up a Spad, it stayed cracked! Yes, Major Garrity was right. If Phineas had been twins, the Allies would have, been in the hands of receivers!

“The Buzzard’s Guest” by O.B. Myers

Link - Posted by David on September 20, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have another story by the prolific O.B. Myers! Myers was a pilot himself, flying with the 147th Aero Squadron and carrying two credited victories and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Following up his first story last week, we have his second published story. “Pip” Preston brings down the great von Stangel. But von Stangel turns out to be an undercover agent…. From the pages of the January 31st, 1929 issue of War Stories it’s O.B. Myer’s “The Buzzard’s Guest!”

Either that lone Jerry was afraid to fight, or else he thought he was too good. But he needed a better excuse than either of those to run from a Yankee ace and get away with it.

Somewhere in France

With another story by O.B. Myers we have another letter from the front reprinted in O.B.’s hometown paper the MOUNT VERNON ARGUS. This one isn’t by O.B. though, it’s from a fellow Mount Vernonite who ran into old Myers as they called him in France who offered to take him for a ride!

Published in the MOUNT VERNON ARGUS, May 25th, 1918:

Following is an extract from a letter received by his parents from Corporal Valentine Treyvoux from “Somewhere in France”:

Well, I’ve got a bit of real news that may be of interest. Your boy is “flying very high these days’’ I bumped into another old Mount Vernonite, old Oscar Myers, who is first lieutenant in the aviation. We sat around and talked for awhile and he said if the weather was fine the following day he would give me the flight or fright of my life. You can bet I was Johnny Thomson on hand—and up we went. Holy smoke! I thought for sure I was straight on my way to meet St. Peter. The earth soon faded beneath us and I found myself passing as Myers called it, through cloud banks. Gee! but it sure was a funny feeling. We dropped down a few hundred feet, about 600 or 700 and gradually mother earth hove into view. Then he thought he would pull a few stunts as he called it, and so he looped the loop, glided, banked and a few others which I forgot in the excitement and then we made a beautiful volplane to the sod. Well, I Just can’t begin to explain or express the feeling one has while in the air, or while doing some of those things, but one thing I can say is this. Before going up we were strapped into the seats with a big strap across our chest and when doing the loop, the machine is turned completely upside down and there we were out of our seats and lying flat on this belt face to earth. Boy, oh boy! that’s the only time I said good-bye to friends so dear, to home and mother in fact everything, but it was only for a moment for he again righted her and it was over. I’ve given you but a vague description, Mother and Dad, but I guess you can get some idea as to what we did. Just as soon as I have a chance again and it’s a fine day, I’m going to bring Mac over and the three of us are going up.

I sure do envy old Myers that’s what we used to call him, but now it’s Lieutenant Myers.

Have Just been called so will close for a while.

Your boy who is always thinking of you. —VAL.

“No Heroes Allowed” by O.B. Myers

Link - Posted by David on September 13, 2024 @ 6:00 am in

THIS week we have a story by the prolific O.B. Myer’s! Myers was a pilot himself, flying with the 147th Aero Squadron and carrying two credited victories and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. The story this week is the first Myers had published in the pulp! Printed in the pages of the January 1929 issue of War Birds, it’s “No Heroes Allowed.”

“Pop” was training these fledglings of his to be careful. He didn’t want any heroes whose medals and extra breeches are sent home through the mail.

A Letter from O.B.

As a bonus we have a letter O.B. wrote home to his folks during The Great War that was shared in his hometown paper, the MOUNT VERNON ARGUS. The letter was written on October 11th, the day after he lost two of his pals—Lt. Wilbert White who went down and Billy Brotherton who failed to return from his solo flight. Events described in “No Heroes Allowed” seem reminiscent of events in O.B.’s letter.

Published in the MOUNT VERNON ARGUS, November 13th, 1918:

Dr. S Oscar Myers, of this city, has received the following letter under date of October 11, at the front, from his son First Lieutenant O.B. Myers, of the aviaition section:

“Not only do things happen pretty fast around here, but they happen so fast that you can’t keep your letters even with ’em. Enough comes off most every day to fill an ordinary epistle, but for that very reason, one can’t write every day, nor anywhere near it. Here goes to tell something about yesterday, anyway.

The things which seem to stand out most prominently are that I participated—more actively this time—in shooting down a Hun, and that two pilots from my flight—my ‘buddies,’ as we call ’em—were lost.

Three of us. “White-ee,” Ken Porter and myself, went out on a voluntary patrol about noon; we found a single two-seater way up high just over the lines and attacked. Ken Porter waited to one side to look out for others or to come to our assistance if necessary; White dived first and fired a few bursts, but his guns jammed and he drew off. Then I dived on him and fired quite a burst; just as I dove past his tail and started to pull around on him again, I noticed that the right gun was Jammed. Then the motor quit going (found later than an air pressure lead from the gas tank had broken off), and I noticed that one of the sheet metal handhole covers on the side of the hood had come off and wrapped itself around one of the wires. That made me think that the motor had been hit (I had seen the boche observer shooting at me and his tracer bullets going past as I was diving on him) so I kept right on diving out of the fight, and eventually glided back and made a landing about five kilometres behind our lines. Ken Porter reported that he saw the Hun falling, apparently out of control, directly after and took a few shots at long range, but couldn’t follow him down because others were approaching. So I think my bullets were the ones that got him this time, all right. It took me all the afternoon to get a telephone call through to the aerodrome, to get a car sent up after me, and when I got back about 9:30. I found that White had gone out on another patrol later In the afternoon, got into a fight and ran head-on into a Hun, both going down out of control completely, of course, Besides that, Brotherton, the other chap from our flight went over on a strafing trip, alone and never came back. The tough part is that ’White-ee.” having been on the front here for several months, was slated to be sent back to the states—his orders were on the way through in fact. Also, he is married and has two children at home. He was about 27, I think. We go right on though: only made one patrol today, but that was on account of the punk weather. My machine Is being carried in from the field where I lit; was unbroken, but couldn’t possibly take off there, as it was full of barbed wire.

Mail is still conspicuous by Its absence. It’s getting too dark to write—I’ll send love instead.

And if that wasn’t enough…

For all his many published stories, O.B. Myer’s didn’t really have any series characters. The few recurring characters he did have in the pages of Dare-Devil Aces, we’ve collected into a book we like to call “The Black Sheep of Belogue: The Best of O.B. Myers” which collects the two Dynamite Pike and his band of outlaw Aces stories and the handful of Clipper Stark vs the Mongol Ace tales. If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love these stories!

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