They’d threatened Phineas Pinkham with Blois before—and he’d lived to laugh at them. But this time the future of the ace of Boonetown, Iowa, was in the hands of a Brigadier who didn’t exactly like being pushed in the face!

• Download “Shower Kraut” (December 1932, Flying Aces)

Fourteen years before, when men fought each other and skies were red with their blood. Allied pilots over a hundred-mile sector of the Front had known von Kruger’s Death Turn—and feared it. Now no one remembered that dread maneuver—until one day a stranger with a deep scar across his face walked up to a little Texas flying field—and gave it a new meaning.

From the pages of he February 1932 number of Sky Birds, it’s “The Death Turn” by E.W. Chess!

• Download “The Death Turn” (February 1932, Sky Birds)

It was just too bad they hadn’t started the Caterpillar Club away back in 1918. But you can’t blame them—they didn’t know they were cheating Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham out of his one and only chance to join!

From the November 1932 number of Flying Aces!

• Download “Good to the First Drop” (November 1932, Flying Aces)

Among those factual features was “Famous Firsts” which ran frequently in the pages of War Aces. “Famous Firsts” was an illustrated feature much along the lines of Barrett’s “Is That a Fact?” that was running in War Birds, only here the facts were all statements of firsts. And like “Is That a Fact?” in War Birds, this feature was also taken over by noted cartoonist Victor “Vic Vac” Vaccarezza in 1932.

The July 1932 installment, from the pages of War Aces, features facts about the first ani-aircraft gun; the first seaplane; the first dual control in a plane; and the first aircraft show in America!

Before he became renown for such classics as The Left Hand of God and Lilies of The Field, Barrett honed his craft across the pages of the pulp magazines—and nowhere more so than in War Birds and it’s companion magazine War Aces where he contributed smashing novels and novelettes, True tales of the Aces of the Great War, encyclopedic articles on the great war planes as well as other factual features. Here at Age of Aces Books he’s best known for his nine Iron Ace stories which ran in Sky Birds in the mid ’30s!

This week we have the third of our four stories celebrating William E. Barrett’s birthday this month. It’s “Handicap Flight” from the pages of the December 1932 Flying Aces.

Word had come through that the yards and factories of Mouzon must be bombed. The De Havillands had been beaten back twice when within sight of the city as had a flight of fourteen ships. Wing had come to the decision that one lone plane may have a better chance than a large group and it all came down to a cut of the cards to decide who would go on the suicide mission!

Death was writing on the black wings of that Yank bomber as it hurtled on toward Mouzon. It was a mad gamble—to send one lone pilot on a mission where eight ships and sixteen men had failed!

• Download “Handicap Flight” (December 1932, Flying Aces)

Among those factual features was “Famous Firsts” which ran frequently in the pages of War Aces. “Famous Firsts” was an illustrated feature much along the lines of Barrett’s “Is That a Fact?” that was running in War Birds, only here the facts were all statements of firsts. And like “Is That a Fact?” in War Birds, this feature was also taken over by noted cartoonist Victor “Vic Vac” Vaccarezza in 1932.

The March 1932 installment, from the pages of War Aces, features facts about Edmond Genet, Victor Chapman, Marjorie Stinson, the ever reliable Jennie and the Stars and Stripes!

Major Garrity was fuming in his lair. Outside, Bump Gillis and the boys were waiting like a lot of palpitating schoolgirls for the axe to fall on Phineas Pinkham. But you know Phineas—the kind of guy who could be thrown into an incinerator and come out covered with ice cream!

• Download “The Bat’s Whiskers” (October 1932, Flying Aces)

Lights! Camera! Action! Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham goes into the movies in a big way! But a lot can happen to a roll of film when Phineas gets up in the air posing as . . . .”The Reel Hero!”

From the September 1932 number of Flying Aces!

• Download “The Reel Hero” (September 1932, Flying Aces)

Phineas Pinkham is already grounded and in the doghouse when he almost kills a colonel. Old Man Garrity’s had his fill, so when von Bessinger sends a challenge to the Ninth Pursuit’s thorn in their side, Garrity lets Phineas goto challenge the Von under on condition—he doesn’t come back! It’s Joe Archibald’s “Spy a’la Mode” from the August 1932Flying Aces.

For the first time in his life Phineas “Carbuncle” Pinkham wondered if a sense of humor wasn’t a handicap to a man who aspired to grow a long white beard and play with his grandchildren. It had taken a lot to make him feel that way—just a little matter of assaulting a Colonel!

• Download “Spy a’la Mode” (August 1932, Flying Aces)

Phineas Pinkham thinks he has a sure fire way of keeping von Bessinger and his circus from downing the squadron of D.H.4s The 9th is escorting, but what he doesn’t realize his that he is actually playing with fire, and the hair he parts may be on his own head!

Phineas Pinkham had promised von Bissinger a new kind of haircut—one that could part his head in the middle as well as his hair. Dangerous stuff—the hair tonic that Phineas used!

• Download “Herr Tonic” (July 1932, Flying Aces)