If you thought Elmer Hubbard and Pokey Cook were a couple of wild Indians before, just wait until you see them with their war paint and feathers on! Even C.O. Mulligan had to listen to their war whoops with a smile.
Here they are again—that bunch of flying, fighting Devildogs—Lucky Lane and the Three Lunatics, Cyclone Bill Garrity, and the rest of the mad Marines. And fighting against them is a silent, unseen menace—a strange, black shadow that shrouds whole formations in its sable cloak of death, and sends them reeling down—to doom.
The moment Buzz Benson flew over that landing field near the Mississippi River, he knew that something strange, something ghastly, had happened. A weird glow filled the air, and a white dust coated the field like snow. And on that tarmac, where men lay huddled and telephone bells remained unanswered, nothing moved— nothing stirred. Yet it was not death that had claimed them.
Gone were the hours of battle-mad conflict, when the roaring flames from shell-torn Chapei reached their hungry tongues high into the sky. Gone the anxious moments on the Dragon tarmac when Jap bombs rained from the sky as thick as hailstones. A truce had been declared. No longer was the Dragon squadron allowed to fight. And then, before the very eyes of Battling Grogan and his men, a fleet of swift Jap Kawanishis opened their guns on a lone Chinese ship, and Battling Grogan gave the forbidden signal—“Attack.”
Battling Grogan and his men knew there was something strange, menacing about the crest of Ming Kung Chan hill. Nothing visible was there, yet every man on that Dragon flight heard whispered warnings of impending doom from the cliff below. And when Grogan received word that no night patrols should go out from his squadron, he knew that somewhere on that sinister cliff lurked a weapon that could strike at the Dragons only in the inky darkness of night.
This story features the wacky duo of Elmer Hubbard and Pokey Cook. See how they manage to get themselves into and out of hot water once again.
By day he is a flying reporter for the Los Angeles Mercury newspaper, but Billy “Buzz” Benson’s real job is much more dangerous. He is a secret agent and pilot extraordinaire for the U.S. military. And his chief mission is keeping the emerging Japanese threat in the Pacific at bay. In this tale he is on hunt for “The Fiends of Fujiyama” and some stolen experimental weapons.
Handley-Page No. 13 was just an old hack, battered by months of night flying for the Independent Air Force. Her sides were patched, her wings weary from too many foldings. The crew of Handley-Page No. 13 was just an ordinary bomber gang, as battered and bruised as their plane. But see what happens when these scrappers are accused of bombing their own troops.
While Robert J. Hogan is best known as the author of long running air war series like G-8, The Red Falcon, and Smoke Wade, he wrote plenty of non-series fiction. Here is a little gem that tells the tale of Bat Benson, a bomber pilot who has a habit of mistreating his rear cockpit observers. But his newest observer is not someone who will be pushed around.
