“The Cradle of Hell” by William E. Barrett
THIS November we’re celebrating William E. Barrett’s Birthday with one of his pulp stories each Friday.
Before he became renown for such classics as The Left Hand of God and Lilies of The Field, Barrett honed his craft across the pages of the pulp magazines—and nowhere more so than in War Birds and it’s companion magazine War Aces where he contributed smashing novels and novelettes, True tales of the Aces of the Great War, encyclopedic articles on the great war planes as well as other factual features. Here at Age of Aces Books he’s best known for his nine Iron Ace stories which ran in Sky Birds in the mid ’30s!
In this final Barrett story for the month we have the story of Captain Jim Fogarty, a Montana Irishman in the service of Britain. He was Youth triumphant, a, veteran of six weeks on the fighting Front, commander of a squadron, and officially credited with victories over sixteen enemy airmen. The twin Ds of Death and Defeat had not touched him—but when it did, they brought him straight down into the cradle of hell and nearly cost him his life!
At the mercy of those taunting Boche guns, Fogarty learned that there can be a worse end than death. Only when Death’s substitute pointed her hand at him did he know the terrific cost of his ransom.
From the October 1931 War Aces, it’s the novel you won’t forget—William E. Barrett’s “The Cradle of Hell!”
- Download “The Cradle of Hell” (October 1931, War Aces)