Another of Donald Keyhoe‘s series, the Devildog Squadron is actually his second series, started in 1931 the same month as Philip Strange. It lasted for 24 stores from 1931-35 in Sky Birds, published by Magazine Publishers (aka Ace), with the magazine only lasting one issue after the last story appeared.
Age of Aces has reprinted Devildog Squadron #1: The Crimson Fog, the first volume of a planned four-volume series, containing the first eight stories.
The series is set in WWI, centered around a squadron of Marine pilots, who have weird adventures against bizarre foes. While the squadron has several members, as this is a series of short stories, only a few characters are named or have major parts in each story. In all, there will usually be one character who is mainly featured in that story.
Villians are various spies and, more importantly, some new and bizarre German staffel, lead by some particular foe. But so far we don’t get any returns.
As an air-war series, planes and flying always have a big part of the story. The Devildogs fly Spads, the Germans fly Fokker and Albatros fighters and Gotha bombers. The English have their Sopwith Camels. Sadly, the particular plane models aren’t given. We also hear about their guns: Spandaus and Vickers. And I have to think the flying scenes are accurate, as Keyhoe was a Marine pilot.
And the series seemed to be popular. As I reviewed the cover art for the magazine, I saw that Donald Keyhoe was almost always listed on the covers, and starting with 1933, the issues with the Devildog stories always listed this in larger type, sometimes with the title, above the listing of Joe Archibald and Arch Whitehead, both of whom wrote aviation series in many of the same magazines as Keyhoe. Each had their own long-running series.
The squadron is lead by Major “Cyclone Bill” Garrity. He is your typical, hard-boiled commander of the 28th Pursuit, overseeing about 30 Marines on the Western Front. Though not all are named or featured in each story, several will die along the way. Some of the other characters include second-in-command Hick Jones; Lt. Larry Brent, the youthful leader of B Flight; “Lucky” Lane, a man who lives up to that; and the Three Lunatics: Mack Tuttle, Benny Sparks, and the big Irish lug, Pug Flanagan
So how are the stories?
Well, the first one, “Devildogs of the Sky” (August 1931), gets things going. A trio of the squadron are doing a night patrol when they are attacked by an invisible enemy. Garrity, Brent, and a third are shot down. Garrity is able to save both from enemy lines at risk of his own life. But something took out other of his men and previous groups. And Garrity wants to put an end to it, whatever it is. Are there ghost planes flown by skeletons? Or something else? Major Garrity plans to find out.
In “The Squadron Without a Name” (September 1931), we find the squadron relocating to a secret location near a listening post, but there appears to be a spy. Larry Brent is blamed as that spy, and must escape to clear his name and expose the real spy. Can he do it?
“Lucky” Lane lives up to his nickname in “The Squadron in Scarlet” (November 1931). The squadron is menaced by a new foe: the Black Coffin Staffel, which flies planes with white wings and returns dead pilots in black coffins. But as luck would have it, Lucky Lane stumbles upon first the Scarlet Squadron and then faces the Black Coffin Staffel and turns its deadly secret. Can he put an end to them?
We have another bizarre foe in “The Frozen Fate” (December 1931), when the squadron goes after an unusually huge Siemens-Schuckert bomber protected by 30 Fokkers. The bomber has covered gun ports and several searchlights, those combined make it impossible to attack it. But when they return to their airdrome, they find their base and everything there frozen solid — in August. What the is cause of this? Lucky will soon discover the secret: the searchlight is actually a “cold-light ray” that freezes everything it touches. And the madman who created it wants to turn on Germany as well. Can he be stopped?
There’s no bizarre foe in “Without Benefit of Bullets” (January 1932), just a wild story. Hicks, Brent, and Lane are brought back to the base by MPs after a fight. Turns out they got in a tussle with a group of British pilots when they heard their leader was going to take over their base. They are also alerted to a German spy trying to make his way back to Germany. British Colonel Haysmith shows up with his Hadley-Page bombers and tries to take over the base, but his orders don’t go into effect until tomorrow. But he has also been fooled and brought the spy with him, who takes one of the Spads — Garrity’s. And punched Garrity in the process. Well, Garrity won’t stand for that. What happens next is wild!
Things are going bad for the squadron in “Flares in the Fog” (February 1932), with several members being killed in the fog-bound skies. Larry Brent returns from a mission having lost two men. On his next mission, he and others are attacked by Spads, flown by Germans, losing more men. And their replacements are missing, including a trio who met up with a member of the squadron. So where are they? And the Germans are planning a big push, but where is it? What is going on? Spies or worse? In the end, our Three Lunatics arrive.
Lucky Lane is returning to squadron in “Suicide Shells” (March 1932), when he runs into the Three Lunatics in the sky. Things don’t go as he planned, and they are all in hot water with Cyclone Bill, who puts Lucky in charge of the three. But he also grounds them. We finally get to meet them and learn more about them as they get drunk. But then the Germans start a push that threatens the drome.
The Germans are planning a big push, and the Allies are trying to figure out what it is in “The Crimson Fog” (April 1932). Several sent to find out have been executed as spies. Others followed with no news, including Larry Brent. Now Lucky Lane and three others are following them. But a spy is among them. Can Lucky succeed? He finds Brent and together they find out the plot, which includes giant zeppelin planned to attack the U.S. Can they stop it or go down in flames?
I enjoyed all the stories, but I really liked the ones where we get them going up against some bizarre foe. I hope the future stories are a mix of the two.
We get a bonus article, showing items from Keyhoe’s scrapbooks from his early life as a Marine pilot, his first pulp writing (for Weird Tales), and what lead to his first book: Flying With Lindbergh. There is also a complete listing of all the stories.
Like all of Age of Aces’ books, this is well designed. Plans are to do new volumes annually, and I can’t wait for the next one. Get this and others of Keyhoe’s aviation heroes.
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