The Krupp munitions factory near Metz, some fifty kilos across the lines, has been secretly manufacturing sixteen-inch howitzers. Howitzers of the Skoda, Austrian type—the same type which, early in the war, reduced all those seemingly impregnable forts in Belgium! They were abandoned when the Skoda plant ran out of materials. But now the Krupps have evidently taken over the design. They’ve managed to rush out a whole batch of those guns. And just one shell dropped from a single Skoda is sufficient to smash an entire fort and its complete personnel!

“Those howitzers and the shells for them must be destroyed tonight!”

Streak had hoped he’d get the job in his lightning Spad loaded down with bombs—slip in, drop the bombs, get out. Instead an enormous Handley-Page was brought in to do the job. Seven other members of the Squadron were picked to crew it. But when they failed to return home, Streak sets out to find what went wrong.

From the March 1937 Sky Fighters, it’s Ralph Oppenheim’s “Hell’s Crate.”

Streak Davis Takes Up the Torch of a Grim Sky Crusade Against Von Kobar’s Staffel—While Hun Espionage Institutes a Crafty Plan of Sabotage! A Complete Novel of Sky-High War-Air Action!

• Download “Hell’s Crate” (March 1937, Sky Fighters)

Oppenheim had five stories in the pages of Thrilling Detective—the first two in 1936 and 1937 featured Dave Rogers. Dave Rogers was a motorcycle riding state trooper. In this second of the two published tales, a former state trooper, young Bob Hall, has returned to the station as a Federal Agent investigating a counterfeiting ring that is believed to be operating in the area. Rogers says he’s seen one of the three counterfeiters in the area, but is asked to give Hall a wide berth in his investigation. However, when young Bob Hall turns up frozen solid just a short time after Rogers has seen him speeding by on the other side of town, he throws himself into the case!

From the February 1937 issue of Thrilling Detective, it’s Dave Rogers, State Trooper in Ralph Oppenheim’s “Cold Steel!”

Dave Rogers, State Trooper, Battles Frozen Death in His Fight to Smash a Band of Murdering Counterfeiters!

• Download “Cold Steel” (February 1937, Thrilling Detective)

Next week: It’s Black Book Detective’s Jonathan Drake, Ace Manhunter!

Rigoni was also a carpenter all his adult life and helped build Boulder Dam, the Alcan Highway, the Pacific Gas and Electric Plant in Morro Bay and Cal Poly. He was also a developer and built homes throughout the state.

It takes lead to guard gold. That’s why Tom Liston, pilot for the Roaring Buck, needed a sky-chaperon for that heavy pay dirt. He got one—Gunner Sloane, an hombre who could draw and shoot faster than a fuse can spit. But there was a debt on the books against Gunner Sloane—and when the lead began to fly, all the gold in the West wouldn’t pay it.

• Download “Gold Flies the Gauntlet” (February 1937, Flying Aces)

As a bonus, here’s a brief biography and picture of Orlando Rigoni that ran in the 4 June 1943 The Family Circle Magazine along with his story of railroading “I Want to Know Why”:

ORLANDO RIGONI, author of “I Want to Know Why” in this issue, appears at the left in a photograph taken in the Yukon last winter while he was working on the Alcan Highway, which, as you doubtless know, is the new road through Canada connecting the United States and Alaska. He is a writer by trade and was working on the road to get material for a novel for young people.

Mr. Rigoni is married, is a parent, and lives in Woodland Hills, California. His fiction has appeared largely in magazines publishing Western and flying stories. He often draws for his background on jobs he has held. He was once secretary to the traffic manager of an airline, and he has worked at railroading. Which you will readily believe if you read his story for us.

When it was all over, the members of the Coffin Crew realized that Corporal Andy McGregor had had good reason for his actions, and of the three things that happened any one might have provided the clue to his strange behavior. First, there was a letter postmarked Monymusk which Lieutenant Townsend remembered was a small town near Aberdeen. Secondly, Andy had shown unusual interest in an American regiment that was heading for the front line and the special interest Andy had taken in the arrival of a new officer, an American Air Corps captain. But the Coffin Crew did not remember these trifling events when Andy went “barmy”!

From the pages of the March 1937 number of the British Air Stories, it’s Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Crew in “Tartan Flight!”

Into the Very Shadow of Death Flew the Coffin Crew, the Craziest Band of Warriors in the Independent Air Force, to Discover the Secret of that Sinister Mound of the Dead, Hill 60, and its Strange Effect upon Corporal Andy McGregor, Aerial Gunner!

• Download “Tartan Flight” (March 1937, Air Stories)

Be sure to drop by Friday for one last mad cap romp through hell skies with the Coffin Crew!

Monty deals with the repercussions of the events in Sky Code and tries to get his hands on a Fokker to replace the one he smashed previously in trying to red the ‘drome of a spy. And then there’s the matter of his own Camel he had left over at another ‘drome when he picked up said Fokker. But events come together even though he’s been commanded to lead his squadron on patro—a squadron that doesn’t even know of Monty’s abilities in the air! From the December 1937 issue of the British Air Stories, it’s Captain John E. Doyle’s “Wanted—One Fokker!”

A Camel vanished without its Pilot and a Fokker rose up from its own Ashes before Major “Monty” Hardcastle, M.C., had finished Ringing the Changes in a Daring Game of Bluff Played with the Loaded Dice of Death!

• Download “Wanted—One Fokker” December 1937, Air Stories UK)

Here’s the quiz from the February 1937 issue of Lone Eagle.

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

99 Squadron R.F.C. seems to have hit a bad patch—they always seem to run into trouble on all their patrols. It’s almost as if someone’s been tipping them off. Major Monty tries to find out just who the spy on his ‘drome is. From the September 1937 issue of the British Air Stories, it’s Captain John E. Doyle’s “Sky Code!”

Ordeal by Combat, with a Flaming End for the Loser, was the Grim Sky Trial staged by a Monocled Major to end the Strange Hoodoo that was fast Annihilating a British Scout Squadron! A Great Long Major “Monty” Story of War-time Mystery and Adventure in the Royal Flying Corps!

• Download “Sky Code” September 1937, Air Stories UK)

Here’s the quiz from the December 1937 issue of Lone Eagle.

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

Here’s the quiz from the October 1937 issue of Lone Eagle.

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

The Ships on the Cover

GOTHA! An ominous word during the World War days. Gothas over London raining steel-cased loads of high explosive, inflammable liquid, shrapnel. Gothas over Paris dropping bombs and hundreds of pounds of propaganda leaflets proclaiming: “We are at your gates. Surrender!” No wonder that millions of civilians far behind the actual fighting lines shuddered in terror as warning sirens blared their screeching blasts across the roof tops.

Defending planes seemed helpless against huge raiders whose pilots were so bold that they flew over England in daylight.

Shattering Morale

The Germans knew that more actual harm could be done to the Allied cause by shattering the nerves and morale of the great masses of humanity in the crowded cities than battering holes in the Allies’ front lines. It brought the war right into the living room. Even if casualties were comparatively small, the damage done to buildings and streets vividly kept before a jittery populace’s eyes the devastating results of war, kept their sleep broken, kept them forever wondering where the next bomb would strike, if they would be torn, bleeding things smashed and broken in an avalanche of falling masonry and flying hunks of smoking steel fragments.

The name Gotha came from the first word of the manufacturing company’s name, Gothaer Waggonfabrik A. G. Aircraft Department. Their most famous job was the twin-engined pusher carrying a pilot, a front gunner and a rear gunner. This ship is pictured on the cover.

Successful Fighting Ships

The Morane-Saulnier Company rendered great service to the Allies by producing a series of highly successful fighting ships. The Parasol or high wing monoplanes were their specialty, but they made biplanes and early in the fracas put out different types of wire-braced low-winged jobs which although fragile things were speedy and dependable except in a hard dive.

Roland Garros, the famous French airman, used one of these ships in his experiments with the front gun firing through the propeller arc. This was not a synchronized firing gun, that is, the gun was not mechanically timed to fire so it missed the propeller blade. Any machine-gun could be used and was fired by hand. The slugs bashed against the whirling prop nearly as often as they slipped through but no appreciable harm was done as a pair of steel deflecting flanges were bolted around the propeller blades just outside of the hub. When the bullets hit the gentle angle of the flanges they were deflected harmlessly into space. But those bullets which got through were just as deadly and accurate as bullets from later synchronized guns.

The Gotha crew felt absolutely safe from this wasplike single seater as it rushed up at them. They feared it just as much as a great Dane would a yipping poodle. And just because of their lack of respect they were caught flat-footed. It was unheard of that a tractor plane could shoot forward. The front gunner of the Gotha nonchalantly started to swing his gun forward toward the tiny plane.

Death Dive

He never knew what hit him. He swayed, lost his balance and fell over the side. The pilot became panic stricken, started to release his bombs to gain altitude and possibly crash a missile through the spindly wings of the French plane. The back gunner forgot himself and fired through his left hand propeller in hopes of hitting the foe. But that propeller had no deflecting flanges. A slug tore into the laminated, whirling blade. It splintered into bits.

The Gotha shuddered, gently listed and then lurched into its death dive. Germany’s threat collapsed. Millions of people behind the lines threw back their shoulders and went confidently again at that very important job of winning the war.

Sky Fighters, November 1937 by Eugene M. Frandzen
(The Ships on The Cover Page)