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)

“Only one explanation I can see, Reed,” said the Skipper. “Burwell must have escaped, stolen a Halberstadt, and flown over. He was trying to land here when his tank was hit from the ground.”

“We—we killed him ourselves!” gasped Rip. Joe was dead. Rip tried to grasp the fact, but could not. He saw before him the laughing blue eyes, the ruddy countenance, the square shoulders of his nearest and dearest friend. He felt again the throb of relief in his throat as he had seen that tiny figure jump from a wreck, far below, and move across the greenness of the meadow. Joe Burwell dead, like this? But no, it could not be. It was too ghastly. His mind refused to believe—and yet, the evidence. . . . Rip needed to find out what events had led from Joe crashing in a field in Germany to flying that Halberstadt to it’s fiery conclusion!

Not one of those American pilots dared approach that seething cauldron of flames—not one could read its strange secret. But when only gray dust remained of what had been a German plane, they saw—and read the—MESSAGE IN THE ASHES!

• Download “Message in the Ashes” (February 1931, Sky Birds)

“The Zep Buster” tells the story of young Bud Talbot—a crack shot on the training planes at Spike Center, Arizona. He has a record so good, it’s held up as an example to all the would-be pilots that have been slacking off; this includes a childhood tormentor of his who just happens to be training there as well, Milt Laramy. Unable accept his own shortcomings, Milt cuts Bud down verbally saying he’s a coward and a mama’s boy every chance he gets. And when they are both assigned to the same squadron in Isoudon, Milt only ramps it up. But War proves who has what it takes and who’s the shrinking coward.

From the July 1929 Sky Birds, it’s John Scott Douglas’ “The Zep Buster!”

If you want to be thrilled to the marrow; if you like blazing air stories; if you have any sympathy for the under dog—read this gripping yarn. Hot action! What more could you want?

• Download “The Zep Buster” (July 1929, Sky Birds)

AS A bonus, here’s a brief bio of sorts from the back book jacket cover of The Secret of the Undersea Bell, winner of the Boys’ Life-Dodd, Mead Prize Competition!

JOHN SCOTT DOUGLAS tells us: “It was more to keep my hand in at typing than because of any literary aspirations that in my early years I published scores of brief items in a country newspaper and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, a column in my high-school paper, and contributed to the University of Washington Columns. Not until I entered the Graduate School at Harvard, however, did I attempt to write for national magazines. Of the many scripts written during my two years at Harvard but few sold. Nevertheless, at twenty-one, when my first substantial check for a story reached me the day I received my master’s degree, I went to New York, determined to write for a living. Since then I’ve published somewhat over a thousand scripts—fiction from short-shorts to novels, and non-fiction in both article and book lengths.

“Much of this output was based on material gathered in travel through many of our states and three trips to Alaska and seventeen foreign countries of Europe, the West Indies, Central and South America. I am convinced that no amount of research an author can do will give him material as vital as that picked up first hand.

“My hobbies of mountain and desert camping, fresh and salt-water fishing, bee-keeping and photography have a way of creeping into my stories and nonfiction pieces. However, my most interesting personal experiences have been the many months I’ve spent at sea on all manner of ships and boats ranging from freighters to Indian dugouts. 1 was the first writer permitted to make the Westward Cruise on America’s largest lighthouse tender, the Coast Guard cutter Cedar. Some of my most fascinating experiences have been on California fishing boats—purse-seiners, tuna, swordfishing and abalone boats. I’ve spent several months with the deep-sea divers who pry shellfish known as abalones from undersea ledges. When resting after several turns below, the abalone fishermen have been kind enough to put me down in their diving dresses.” The Secret of the Undersea Bell, winner of the Boys’ Life-Dodd, Mead Prize Competition, is based on these first-hand experiences.

And look for more stories by JOHN SCOTT DOUGLAS this year!

As an observer, a loyal member of the Eyes of the Army, Teddy was a knockout. His reports were lengthy affairs crammed with accurate data. He knew every German trench from Dixmude to Cambrai. He could take and read aerial photographs like a wizard.

However, Teddy was stricken with the same weakness, that seemed to beset many observers at the front during the dizzy days of 1917 and 1918. In the gunnery schools he had been taught the art of firing at moving targets with the aid of his ring sight and wind vane. The theory and practice, in school, had been religiously digested by our Teddy, but out at the front where excitement plays a big part in the game, he had forgotten all about laying off for direction, speed of machines, angles of approach and all that data.

When an enemy bus appeared in sight, it was Teddy’s idea to point the muzzle of the gun at the black-crossed vulture, pull the trigger and move the muzzzle so that the tracers appeared to be eating their way dead into the enemy cockpit. Thus, Teddy’s tracers were directed at the enemy machines but his armorpiercing and regular ammunition was perhaps being fired yards ahead or behind and recklessly wasted. Unless the aerial target was within a few yards of the Lewis gun muzzle, such firing and aiming was useless.

An amazing, hair-raising story of a spectacular air battle and an observer who was bitten by a most peculiar bug. It brought him nothing but trouble until, in the thick of the fight something happened that wasn’t on the program—

• Download “Hunted Vultures” (March 1929, Sky Birds)

Gene Burke tried to keep a low profile, lest he be discovered and imprissoned for a murder he did not commit. He must be careful not to arouse suspicion—but there must be no confirmed victories. Rather incur the stigma of lost nerve than risk disaster. Unfortunately, ever since he had come up from Issoudun, intent on remaining but an obscure pilot of the Royal Flying Corps, that Fate had shaped a strange destiny for him. Three swift victories had been his, longed-for but feared because of the inevitable increase of local fame. Then he had gotten a straggler from Richthofen’s Circus, which he dared not hold back from attacking, and finally came the fifth scrap that had made him an ace. It was Fate, a grinning, mocking Fate that gave him these victories, only to lead him closer to a dishonored end . . .

A haunting fear crept into Burke’s eyes as he saw his thirteenth Boche go twisting down in flames. For it was a mocking Fate that gave him these victories—victories that he dared not claim!

• Download “No More Victories” (September 1930, Sky Birds)

And be sure to check out Keyhoe’s Mad Marines—The Devildog Squadron—in five new Weird World War Adventures in The Devildog Squadron: The Mystery Meteor!

Ronald Sexton and his brother, Kenneth, came to the squadron together while we were up near Bar-le-Duc, during the St. Mihiel drive. They had gone to school together, enlisted together, trained side by side and gotten their little gold shoulder bars and wings together. Ronny was a year older, darker, huskier and livelier. Ken was quiet and inclined to be studious. It’s a mystery where Ken got time to do all his reading, because Ronny liked parties, and whenever Ronny went on a binge, Ken went along. They flew together, too. And even when Ronny was shot down and killed, he continued to look after his brother. Kenneth seemed to develop a kind of prescience that the squadron leader found hard to believe and led H.Q. to believe he was a German spy.

Many strange and weird stories have been told about the war. At some of them men have shrugged their shoulders, and lifted a doubting eyebrow. Others, men have believed—because they must. Here is one of the strangest of them all—the story of a squadron, and the blood-chilling Thing that almost drove them mad. It all began one afternoon bach in 1918, when Ronny Sexton crashed at Hill 420, near Exermont, France, and his smoking-hot motor dug him a six-foot grave. A powerful and unusual novel of war skies.

• Download “Patrol of the Dead” (September 1931, Sky Birds)

If you enjoyed this taste of Franklin H. Martin’s writing, you’ll be happy to hear that we’ve collected the five stories Martin had in Aces in the Fall of 1932. We’re calling it Franklin H. Martin’s Aces—the volume includes the Black Hawk of Prussia duology and three other stories!

For those who were disappointed that the Devildogs took a break last year, you’ll be happy to hear they’re back with a third volume of their exploits. Paired with that will be the volume of stories Franklin H. Martin had in Aces.

Franklin H.Martin’s Aces
by FRANKLIN H. MARTIN

This volume collects the five stories the enigmatic Martin had in Aces in the August through December issues of 1932 including the epic two part Black Hawk of Prussia story!

He is known as The Black Hawk of Prussia, but just who is von Woolrich? Every description of him is different. Some say he is big and dark. Others claim to have seen him—and say he’s short and slight, with reddish hair. Some rumors describe him as a man who can break a laminated mahogany prop over his knee like a stick of kindling wood. Others say that he is esthetic, an artist and a musician—he is said to have composed several splendid arias before the war. Or maybe he is just a name made up to scare little boys, like a boogy-man. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for certain—von Woolrich, is a master-mind spy!

Stories include: Pilots of the Night (10/32), Zero Patrol (11/32), The Death Parade (8/32), Lone Eagle (9/32) and Blaze of Glory (12/32). Also a special feature on Franklin H. Martin’s winning submission to the Writer’s Digest-Liberty $2,000 Short Story Contest and a bibliography of Martin’s pulp stories

Paired with this is the third volume of Donald E. Keyhoe’s Mad Marines—The Devildog Squadron! We gave them a rest last year and they are raring to go in five more Weird World War adventures!

Devildog Squadron: The Mystery Meteor
by DONALD E. KEYHOE

“Cyclone Bill” Garrity and his Mad Marines are back in the thick of things in five more Weird World War I Adventures from the imaginative pen of Donald E. Keyhoe. Those crazy Germans have come up with even more ways to turn the tide and win the war. Whether it’s going to elaborate lengths to convince an English scientist it is still 1915 and England and Germany are in a war against France to get the formula for a super explosive he invented; raining an extremely deadly and corrosive liquid fire down from the skies killing all in its deadly path; or developing a brilliant silvery beam that can cut anything in it’s way to shreds. If that’s not enough, throw in the fact that the Devildog’s latest replacement is a dead ringer for the Kaiser’s own brother and you’ve got all the making of classic Keyhoe madness!

The Devildog adventures featured in this volume are all from the pages of Sky Birds: Hangers of Hell (8/34), The Spandau Cyclone (10/34), Devildog Dynamite (12/34), The Mystery Meteor (1/35).

In addition to these new books, we’ll have all of our other titles on hand as well as our previous convention exclusive—Arch Whitehouse’s Coffin Kirk, and 2022’s two book set of Steve Fisher’s Sheridan Doome! So if you’re planning on coming to Pittsburgh for PulpFest this year, stop by our table and say hi and pick up our latest releases!

We hope we see you there!

He would fight as never before, and death to the Allied plane that crossed his guns! Yet the sight of those British cockades made a bell ring in his clouded mind, and his hands fumbled on the trips. He could not shoot!

From the October 1930 Sky Birds, it’s William E. Barrett’s “Crossed Controls!”

• Download “Crossed Controls” (October 1930, Sky Birds)

If you enjoyed this story, check out William E. Barrett’s other features and stories on this site or pick up a copy of his Iron Ace stories which collects all nine of his tales of Hugh McQuillen, The Iron Ace, also from the pages of Sky Birds.

Flying Into View
introducing MAJOR T.A.B. DITTON, R.A.F.

“. . . HE WENT DOWN end over end and crashed behind the German lines, leaving the three other Albatrosses to finish me off, now that I’d used up my last few bullets on him,” continued “Tabs” Ditton, as he ordered more coffee.

“There was nothing that I could do,” he went on, “but do my best to out-stunt ’em and get back to my drome with a whole crate. I sure did stunt that Dolphin, but just a bit too much. With the snarling hun ships swarming all over me I kicked the rudder over and threw her into a vertical bank with the power full on. There was a sudden lurch, a snapping, splintering cra-a-a-a-a-ack, and the two left wings just folded up and over the center section! The bus went into a sickening spin at once, and after a few turns the broken wings came off and went turning and twisting down off to one side. I shed ’em at four thousand feet and I sure covered that in short order.

“All the way down I cut the engine in and out and wrestled with the controls, hoping to get what there was left of the bus out of the spin. I’d unhooked my safety belt so that I would have a chance at least of getting clear when she hit, if I was still interested in getting clear.

“Well, we spun down to about two hundred feet and then the bus came out of the spin for a few seconds. Then when we got down to about a hundred she came out again and slid down on one wing. The men on the ground that saw me said I was thrown clear when she hit, and landed about fifty feet off to one side. I went out for a while and came to in a hospital all snarled up in bandages. I was out in about two weeks and back in the air even if my left eye wasn’t so good,” concluded “Tabs.”

Major T.A.B. Ditton, as he is officially known, was with the R.F.C., which later became the R.A.F., from 1916 until the end of the war. He is officially credited with thirteen German planes, about the same number unofficially, and that besides balloons. He also has several decorations for his skill and bravery in the air.

“Tabs,” as he was known to the men of his outfit, learned to fly on Maurice-Farmans, or “short horns.” He says that they had so many guy wires that the only way they could be tested to see if they were rigged right was to put a canary in the pilot’s seat. If the canary could fly out through the snarl of wires and struts the ship wasn’t rigged right. From those he went on Avros, S.E.5s, Sop. Camels and D.H.5s. He also had flights in bombing crates to make his training complete. Camels were his special hobby, even if they were tricky boats to push around upstairs.

One time one of the “higher ups” decided that the pilots at his drome had not had enough stunting to keep them in trim, so he was ordered up for a few wingovers. Before he went up he had another officer move the planes out of one of the permanent hangars and open the doors on both sides.

After a few rolls and loops he dove his little Sop. Pup down in a screaming dive straight through the hangar and out the other side. He said he landed with his chest all puffed out and was at once put under arrest for reckless flying. The officer who had requested the stunting practice, however, managed to get him off. But needless to say that sort of stunts was barred in the future.

AFTER LUNCH was over “Tabs” and I caught a train for his home in Greenwich Village, where he turns out the stories you men are clamoring for. Here, with his feet parked on a footstool made from the prop of that same Dolphin whose wings he shed, he showed me snapshots of overseas days and told me some of his narrow escapes. This one he says was a joke on himself.

He was setting a Camel down when her wheels caught on a stump. The tail rose up in a high arc and came down with a terrific crun-n-n-n-nch where the plane’s nose should be. “Tabs,” hanging head down from his safety belt, took account of all his bones and found that at least he was all there and not hurt. He was trying to unhook his belt, which was held tightly because of his weight pulling on it, when an “Ack-emma” came running up to see if he was killed, or only banged up. After being assured that “Tabs” was O.K., the Ack-emma reached up under the fuselage and unhooked the safety belt for the suspended pilot. Now for the tragic part of the story! Ditton had forgotten by this time to hold onto the sides of the fuselage, so that when the safety belt snap was released he dropped about two feet and landed on his head. Just his tough luck, after cracking up a ship without getting a mark.

Another almost fatal flight was in a Camel that had been rigged up for instruction work. The main gas tank had been removed and another pilot cockpit and set of controls had been put in where the gas tank had been located. So many young pilots were killed soloing in Camels that it had been thought best to rig up dual controls in a few ships to enable the instructors to ride along with students and help ’em.

Well, this particular bus had just been converted, and Ditton was to give her a buzz or two over the field for a tryout. He told the “Ack-emma” to take the safety belt out of the front seat so that it would not get in the way of the stick.

“Tabs” took the bus up a good ways and proceeded to do his stuff with her. A few minutes later he decided to loop her. The loop went O.K. till he tried to level off at the end of the loop. Try as he might he couldn’t get the stick back to neutral to save his neck, so up went the nose into another loop. He cut the motor and of course she stalled. He did his best but the stick refused to go forward an inch. Right and left O.K. But front? Not an inch!

He finally decided to stall and spin and side slip all the way down to the field. When he landed there was quite an audience waiting for an explanation, including several C.O.s. The first thing Ditton did was to look into the front pit, and there, sure enough, was the safety belt looped over the stick. When the plane had gone into the first loop the belt had hung, down, of course, and swung over the end of the stick. When the stick was shoved forward at the end of the loop of course it tightened the belt about the stick in the front pit, and there it was locked for good. That Ack-emma is still running!

Major Ditton is a yery popular author here at the Sky Birds drome. You can read more of his split second air thrills at any time—because he draws all of his yarns from actual personal experience.

Bibliography

title	magazine	date	vol	no
1929
The Desert Hawk	Sky Birds	Sep/Oct	3	1
Aerobatics	Aviation Stories	Oct	1	3
1930
Death Deviation	Flying Aces	Jan	4	4
The Flying Idol	Sky Birds	Jan	3	4
Eagle of the North	Flying Aces	Feb	5	1
Three Points Ahead	Flying Aces	Mar	5	2
Air Wolves	Flying Aces	Apr	5	3
Death Rides High	Flying Aces	May	5	4
Desert Vultures	Sky Birds	May	4	4
Boom Buzzards	Flying Aces	Aug	6	3
1932
Stars in the Sky	War Aces	Apr	9	25
Artillery Guys	Battle Stories	Jul	10	57
1935
Annihilation or a Firing Squad	Dime Adventure	Jun	1	1
Diamonds in the Sky	Bill Barnes	Sep	4	2
Sable Rider	Thrilling Adventures	Nov	15	3
Black Saber	Thrilling Adventures	Dec	16	1
1936
Wings of the Dragon	Top-Notch	Jan	98	1

 
Here are a trio of his stories that ran in the 1930 in the pages of Flying Aces and Sky Birds.

Death Derivation

Murder in the skies. The slain pilot lay slumped in his cockpit—the blue mark of a pistol shot on his forehead. A mysterious killing in the air that will keep you guessing.

• Download “Death Derivation” (January 1930, Flying Aces)

The Flying Idol

Yank flying courage clashes with the treacherous cunning of a swarm of godless yellow devils. A tale of thrills and daring adventure in heathen skies!

• Download “The Flying Idol” (January 1930, Sky Birds)

Death Rides High

Powell was fighting mad. It wasn’t the crashed altimeter that got him—it was the startling discovery he made after that.

• Download “Death Rides High” (May 1930, Flying Aces)

Unseen Guns!

THE breaks of war! One minute you were a hero and the next going down in a burning crate. It happened on both sides of the line. In the picture on the cover this month we see the pilot and observer of an early German Taube monoplane which has just brought down a French single-seater. As the scout falls and bursts into flame, the Germans make the mistake of relaxing their vigil to share glances of congratulation. Then from their blind side comes an unexpected burst of fire from another scout.

It came quick and fast in the Air Service. One minute you were the victor and the next some one was battering the dials out of your instrument board. And there were two ways of being mentioned in dispatches!

“Unseen Guns!”
Sky Birds, November 1931 by Colcord Heurlin