Age of Aces » Sky Birds

“They Had What It Takes – Part 33: Arch Whitehouse” by Alden McWilliams

David — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:12:25 +0000

This week we bring you Part 33 of Alden McWilliams’ illustrated tribute to the pioneer fliers of the early days of aviation. He called it “They Had What it Takes” and this installment appeared in the October 1939 Flying Aces. It features our old pal here at Age of Aces—Arch Whitehouse. Whitehouse was a prolific writer, both for the pulps and aviation-themed books after the pulps ended. We’ve posted a number of Whitehouse’s stories from Flying Aces and Sky Birds with some of his long running characters like Buzz Benson, Crash Carringer, Coffin Kirk, The Casket Crew, Tug Hardwick and The Griffon!

Arch Whitehouse was blessed with a fertile imagination which seemed to spill over into the acounts of his own war record. McWilliams piece and Whitehouse’s own biography, Hell in Helmets, credit Whitehouse with shooting down 16 German aeroplanes—at most he may have had 4 kills—it seems that he was something of a serial exaggerator.

We’ve posted this installment long before we started posting the entire series of Alden McWilliam’s “They Had What It Takes”, but here it is in sequence in case you missed it.

Next time: Clarence Chamberlin—Trans-Atlantic Vet.

Download “They Had What It Takes – Part 33: Arch Whitehouse” (October 1939, Flying Aces)

“They Had What It Takes – Part 32: “Casey” Jones” by Alden McWilliams

David — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:45:15 +0000

Age of Aces presents the thirty-second installment of Alden McWilliams’ illustrated tribute to the pioneer fliers of the early days of aviation. This week McWilliams chronicles the life and contributions to aviation of aero booster No.1—Charles S. “Casey” Jones. Jones, a veteran of the hell skies of WWI, would rise to prominance as one of the great air racers of his time. He used his popularity to sell the American public on aviation, contributing to radio shows and having columns in two leading aviation magazines—”Flying Colors” in Air Adventures (1928-29) and “Casey Jones’ Flying Course” in Sky Birds (1933-34).

In 1932 he founded the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics along with Lee D. Warrender and George A. Vaughn Jr. The school went through a number on name changes, the most recent was in 2004 when it was remamed after Vaughn.

Casey passed away in February 1976.

Download “They Had What It Takes – Part 32: “Casey” Jones” (September 1939, Flying Aces)

“T.N.T. Transport” by Arch Whitehouse

Bill — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 23:12:01 +0000

Secret Service agent and flying reporter Buzz Benson approached Sunkist Airport in his slick speedy Corsair for the worst assignment he ever had. Ten days before, three gigantic Boeing transports had vanished from the sky—never to appear again. Was it another Jap plot or something more mysterious?

Download “T.N.T. Transport” December 1933, Sky Birds

“The Suicide Strafe” by Major George Fielding Eliot

Bill — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:45:05 +0000

Those four victories to his credit meant nothing to Bob Sexton—now. At last he had gotten Gerhardt, the invincible German ace—had sent his famous Red-Wing plane crashing down to a fiery doom. Yet that fifth victory—the descendu that made him an ace—was the one he would never be able to claim.

Download “The Suicide Strafe” (January 1935, Sky Birds)

“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)

“The Glory Gambler” by Frederick C. Painton

Bill — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:52:50 +0000

The Squadron of the Dead return for another mission, but this one is unlike any they have taken on before.

Death lay behind those men in the somber, black uniforms, for every man in that squadron had been sentenced to die. Death lay ahead of them, for to them were assigned the grim missions no other squadron dared to take. Then at last came a task which even those ghosts of the war skies dreaded to face—yet it was a task in which death played no part.

Download “The Glory Gambler” (April 1935, Sky Birds)

“The Squadron in Scarlet” by Donald E. Keyhoe

Bill — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:22:14 +0000

Here is another high flying adventure of “Cyclone” Bill Garrity and The Devildog Squadron. For months the grim spectre of that German staffel had stalked up and down the Front, dropping its sinister messages of death upon British and French squadrons. And now at last it struck at the flying Marines. For out of the cloud mists over that Devildog drome a white-winged German plane swooped low, and from it came the threat of doom—a black coffin holding the body of a Devildog pilot.

Download “The Squadron in Scarlet” (November 1931, Sky Birds)

“The Varnishing Americans” by Joe Archibald

Bill — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:33:57 +0000

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.

Download “The Varnishing Americans” (February 1934, Sky Birds)

“The Squadron Without a Name” by Donald E. Keyhoe

Bill — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:54:33 +0000

Once again the Devildog Squadron is roaring into action!

Under guard in his hut—on a double charge of treason and murder! He had led two men out on a secret mission and they had not returned—but he had brought straight to his hidden drome a flock of Boche. And that night he was found beside the body of the man who had called him a spy—and the man was dead, shot through the heart! Yet for Larry Brent, one of those twenty loyal hellions the Boche had named Devildogs, there was always a way out—even though it led to the Squadron Without a Name.

Download “The Squadron Without a Name” (September 1931, Sky Birds)

War Skies of Shanghai by Arch Whitehouse

Bill — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:01:07 +0000

Reporter/Flying Ace Billy “Buzz” Benson returns with a new adventure. Westward toward Shanghai, where smoldered a fire of war that threatened to blaze forth and enflame the whole world, a Yankee submarine cut through the waters of the Pacific. Deep in its hold was the Sea Hawk, the plane chosen to carry Buzz Benson straight through the Japanese air zone with secret orders that would mean war or peace. But not twenty cable lengths away steamed a Japanese sub, and in its hold was another Sea Hawk—awaiting the moment when Benson should begin his mad air race to Shanghai!

Download “War Skies of Shanghai” (June 1932, Sky Birds)