Age of Aces

“One Blue Flare” by O. B. Myers

Bill — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:02:41 +0000

When the Blue Flare tore through the skies, no pilot ever failed to answer that signal for help. But sometimes someone answers it who shouldn’t. Then a baited trap is the only answer.

Download “One Blue Flare” (November 1933, War Birds)

“The Frying Suit” by Joe Archibald

Bill — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:14:48 +0000

Phineas Pinkham had given Major Rufus Garrity two cigars in a week—and they’d both been good! What was behind this sudden bout of good behavior? Something was very wrong at the drome of the Ninth Pursuit.

Download “The Frying Suit” (December 1933, Flying Aces)

Robert J. Hogan’s Characters On a Historical Timeline

Bill — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:59:34 +0000

Robert J. Hogan was one of the most prolific pulp writers of the 30’s and early 40’s. His best stories were built around World War I aviators. G-8 and his Battle Aces flew and fought for 110 issues in their magazine. Barry Rand as the Red Falcon appeared over 50 times in Dare-Devil Aces and G-8 and His Battle Aces. As fictional characters, they seemed to fight the war forever. But I decided to see how Hogan’s stories stacked up against a historical timeline of the war.

World War I went on for five long years before ending on November 11, 1918. It made a pretty big canvas for pulp writers to paint their word pictures on. But the U.S. didn’t start fighting until June of 1917. Because his characters were American, Hogan had a much smaller window for his stories. Further shrinking of that window is necessary because of references he uses throughout the tales.

One important point in regards to the timing of the G-8 stories is the airplanes being flown. G-8, Bull, and Nippy all fly the SPAD XIII which was built by the French. They were first flown in combat by the French in September 1917, but it wasn’t until March of 1918 that the U.S. Air Service purchased 800 of them for its’ pilots. Because so many Americans had flown for France before the U.S. joined the war, it is possible that some of them would have had SPAD XIII’s before March 1918. The famous flying spy G-8 would almost certainly have had one before the rest of the American pilots. Thus September 1917 is the first possible date for the beginning of the G-8 adventures. There is another important piece of data that points to a later date though.

Hogan often has the Germans flying the incomparable Fokker D VII. It was widely considered the best fighter plane of it’s time. Unfortunately for Hogan, the D VII didn’t enter combat until April 1918. I would consider this as the most probable beginning of the recorded G-8 stories. Historically, we have to squeeze all 110 of them into the period between April and November of 1918. Thus G-8 was facing off about every other day against the worst the Germans could throw at him.

The Red Falcon’s place on the timeline is governed by many of these same factors. He built his famous red fighter using parts from planes that had crashed near his Vosges Mountain hideaway. The fuselage was from a Fokker D VII, the wings were from a SPAD XIII. This would indicate a date no earlier than April 1918. However, Barry Rand also equipped his plane with a Liberty engine.

The American built Liberty made its’ combat debut powering the British DH4 in May 1918, but Hogan states that the Red Falcon’s engine came from a DH9. This plane was not equipped with Liberty engines until August. Furthermore, only one DH9 made it to the front in time for combat duty. Assuming this single plane was shot down over the Vosges, the Red Falcon could not have gotten his engine before August 1918. His 53 recorded adventures took place between August and November of 1918.

Having a historical start for the Red Falcon also provides a bookmark for the G-8 stories. The March 1937 issue of G-8 and His Battle Aces features a brief appearance by Barry Rand. This means that August 1918 is the earliest possible date for this story titled Fangs of the Sky Leopards. It was the 42^nd issue which means that the last 68 of G-8’s adventures had to have occurred in the 4 months between August and November 1918, while the first 41 took place in the 4 months from April to July 1918.

I’m sure the pressures of monthly deadlines far outweighed Hogan’s need for historical accuracy. His great knowledge of the machines flown in WWI is one of the factors that made his fiction so appealing, but it would have been interesting to read these stories with a more careful historical placement of the characters.

“The Flying Fortress” by Arch Whitehouse

Bill — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:48:56 +0000

A Yank pilot said too much at a Paris estaminet, a British airman said too little on the way to the Front. And a battle that began at twelve thousand feet hurtled to a hangar door. Will this be the end of The Casket Crew?

Download “The Flying Fortress” (June 1932, Aces)

“Transpacific Plunder” by Frederick C. Painton

Bill — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:14:31 +0000

Tony Blaine knew it was a bad idea to be in that Manilla bar in the first place—after all his first take-off as chief pilot of the Pacific Cruiser was less than four hours away. And when that girl approached him, deep down in his gut, he knew trouble was also going to be aboard this flight

Download “Transpacific Plunder” (September 12 1936, Argosy)

“Medals for Josephine” by Oscar J. Friend

Bill — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:12:10 +0000

To the brass hats Josephine was just a bomber in an American squadron cooperating with the R.A.F. in the Burma campaign. But to her crew she was a gallant old girl of the air who had been through many hazardous flying hours with her four boyfriends.

Download “Medals for Josephine” (Summer 1943, Army-Navy Flying Stories)

“Tarmac of Treason” by Frederick C. Painton

Bill — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:20:26 +0000

The dread skull emblem on their planes was the only flag the men of the Squadron of the Dead would follow, and to them fell the deadly tasks which no other squadron dared attempt. Yet powerful as they had become in the service of the Allies, a more terrible force had organized against them. For the German chief of Imperial Intelligence had proclaimed the grim order: “Every man in the Squadron of the Dead must be destroyed!”

Download “Tarmac of Treason” (June 1935, Skybirds)

“Hell’s Hangar” by Donald E. Keyhoe

Bill — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:26:55 +0000

Save for some strange, organ-like trills that had sounded from his radio, Dick Knight’s flight had been uneventful. But Knight did not know that those weird tones he had heard were the ominous notes of an overture to a drama of death. Nor did he know that just five minutes before, a gaunt Prussian, with feverish eyes on a black clock, had whispered: “Five more minutes! Only five more minutes to wait after all these years!”

Download “Hell’s Hangar” (July 1938, Flying Aces)

“The New Zeppelin” by C.B. Mayshark

Bill — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:45:32 +0000

On May 6, 1937, the airship Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to dock with its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. But one year earlier the Hindenburg was preparing to make its first voyage to North America, and “Flying Aces” was heralding its arrival with an article and cover painting in the June 1936 issue by C. B. Mayshark (which would have been on the stands in May).

Download “The New Zeppelin” by C. B. Mayshark

“The Flying Saucers Are Real” by Donald E. Keyhoe

Bill — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:41:24 +0000

One of our favorite writers here at Age of Aces is Donald E. Keyhoe, but he is as well known for his UFO research as he is for the air war stories he wrote for the pulps. Here is one of his earliest books on the subject, published in 1950.

Keyhoe is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. He flew in active service with the Marine Corps, managed the tour of the historic plane in which Bennett and Byrd made their North Pole flight, was aide to Charles Lindbergh after the famous Paris flight, and was chief of information for the Aeronautics Branch, Department of Commerce.

Download “The Flying Saucers Are Real” 1950, Fawcett Publications

The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin has a collection of The Mike Wallace Interview shows on line including the one he conducted with Major Donald E. Keyhoe in 1958.

The Mike Wallace Interview:
Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe
(March 8, 1958)