Just before PulpFest 2023, we got the second volume of Donald Keyhoe‘s Devildog Squadron series, The Flying Juggernaut, from Age of Aces.
This was 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. This is the second of four planned volumes with the next six stories.
The series is set in World War I and 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.
Villains are various spies and German agents, and more importantly, some new and bizarre German staffel or weapon, led by a particular foe. But so far we haven’t gotten any returns of the villains, but I found it funny that two stories gave the villains the same name, though they are clearly different characters.
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 Albatross 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 listings 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 led by Major “Cyclone Bill” Garrity. He is your typical, hard-boiled commander of the 28th Pursuit, overseeing about 30 Marines on the Western Front. Not all are named or featured in each story, and 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.
As noted, we get the next six stories that ran from June 1932 to July 1934, and I was surprised by a year gap between two stories.
Cyclone Bill takes center stage in “Devildog Doom” (June 1932), as the allied squadrons face a new threat: a deadly German foe using an all-black plane fitted with some kind of lightning weapon. Several other squadrons are wiped out before they get off the ground. Bill takes the fight to the enemy with the help of Lucky Lane and puts an end to things. He faces a maniac who is using electricity to deadly effect.
“Lucky’s Day” (Aug 1932) is about Lucky Lane, of course. He is attacked by a group of German Pfalzes led by a Spad with a “High Hat” logo. It’s flown by a German agent who had been working undercover. Can Lane expose him and put an end to his spying? Especially when there are other agents as well.
Lucky Lane is the first to confront the mystery that is “The Devildog’s Decoy” (Jan 1933): the deadly “Green Death!” Cyclone Bill and the squadron are ordered by a G-2 captain to take on a hidden drome used by spies, but most have been killed by the “green death,” including the G-2 captain. Can they expose this latest threat by the Germans before more are killed?
In a change, in “The Flying Juggernaut” (February 1933), the lead character is Capt. Lash of G-2, the only Marine pilot in G-2. He has to deal with German spies, and works with the Devildogs to put an end to the latest deadly weapon of the Germans. And get some revenge for the murder of several Devildog pilots.
In “The Squadron Nobody Knew” (July 1933) Garrity and the Devildogs go up against a deadly German squadron known as the Black Angels. Can they put an end to their reign of death?
Lucky Lane, backed by the Three Lunatics, are the “Devildog Breed” (July 1934) facing off against a deadly new threat from the Germans.
I guess we’ll be getting a new volume each year at PulpFest. I wish they’d come out sooner, but it is what it is. I look forward to next year then. I have to catch up on my other Keyhoe volumes.
