Air Stories, April 1936 — page 87: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Blaney jabbed open the throttle and the Fokker leapt forward with a roar. CRASH CRATER Graveyard of Many an Allied Aeroplane and its Crew, the Wytschaete Crater was a Place of Evil Omen, for into its Pit of Fetid Water and Gas-drenched Earth Men Hurtled to Destruction, Struck Down from the Skies by a Death, Strange and Unseen By RUSSELL CHAPTER I A Bristol is Bent N war, as in more peaceful pursuits, some comparative triviality can influence profoundly, a man’s per- sonal destinies. If Lieutenant Robin Blaney—irre- verently known as _ ‘‘ Turnbuckle ’’ Blaney owing to his lack of inches and rotundity giving him a physical resemblance to that gadget—had not stolen that extra ten minutes in bed, he would probably not have collected the packet that came to him in the subse- quent twenty-four hours of merry hell. 373 MALLINSON Second Air Mechanic Soames, plumber by profession and batman for duration, had dutifully shaken the somnolent Mr. Blaney into wakefulness in the fuggy Armstrong hut on that misty July morning. ‘* Five o’clock, sir.’’ Blaney grunted. To drift back from blissful dreams of leave to be reminded that one was on dawn patrol was depressing. Blaney yawned and stretched himself lazily under the issue blankets, musing on the bleak vista of early patrols loom- ing ahead before his name climbed up the leave list. NOOO (CO) S (SO)