THIS week we have a story from the pen of the Navy’s own Allan R. Bosworth. Being a Navy man, Bosworth’s stories primarily dealt with the Navy. In this week’s story from the pages of War Aces, Bosworth gives us something different—the story of The Slasher!

Old-timers told of Boche pilots who flew low over marching infantry during the first year of the war, and tossed out handful after handful of these steel darts. Needle sharp, weighted at the lower portion before tapering to a deadly point, they would plummet downward to strike the helpless foot-sloggers. Now The slasher had revived the flechettes and was making hell in the heavens for the Umpty-third. Six fine men lost, four of them down over the trenches or enemy soil. Two others who managed to land their planes near the home tarmac, with cruel steel flechettes piercing their bodies, dying before they could tell how it had happened! From the pages of the April 1931 issue of War Aces, it’s “Hell in the Heavens!”

The “Slasher” scorned guns! His victims felt the deadly bite of steel darts. The hands of all men were against him but only one dared to attack.

• Download “Hell in the Heavens” (April 1931, War Aces)