When they asked for volunteers to fly that spy mission, Abe answered because he couldn’t sit down. It took another spy to convince him that medals were not always granted for bravery.
When the Blue Flare tore through the skies, no pilot ever failed to answer that signal for help. But sometimes someone answers it who shouldn’t. Then a baited trap is the only answer.
That intrepid trio of aces known as “The Three Mosquitoes” made the scar of their Vickers hated by every flying Hun. But even the skill of their wings was child’s play when they went to sea against that dread Channel menace that was leaving no survivors to tell it’s tale of dread. Then came the day when the red courage of madness swept the Mosquitoes leader into the maelstrom.
Without each other they were helpless, together the Three Mosquitoes were the greatest destructive force in the air. When Kirby is accidentally blinded, Travis and Shorty fly him to meet the man who is the Allies’ greatest enemy—and in whose hands lay not only the fate of the German army, but also of Kirby’s eyes.
This mail-in contest offered some great prizes to readers who could solve the two parts of the puzzle. The first part had the readers trying to find the flight path of a lost aviator. The second part featured a story by William E. Barrett in which the readers had to identify all the errors in the story.
In this early Three Mosquitoes story, Kirby, Shorty, and Travis take on a German staffel who ambush helpless Allied observation flights, but run when confronted by any fighter craft. The Mosquitoes’ C.O. comes up with a wild solution to trap the cowardly Boche.
O. B. Myers was a decorated WWI fighter pilot who turned to writing after the war. His air war stories have an authenticity that many writers can’t duplicate. This is especially true in this story of a new pilot experiencing the fear and confusion of combat for the first time.
