The Iron Ace

The Iron Ace
By William E. Barrett
Paperback: 392 pages
Publisher: Age of Aces Books (July 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0982095058

The nine fictional ‘pulp’ stories of Hugh McQuillen, aka the ‘Iron Ace’ appeared in the Sky Birds magazine from 1933 to 1934 and have been collected here in one volume. Because the stories follow a more set timeline (beginning April 6th, 1917, when America declares war on Germany) and keep to a loose chronological order the series reads more like a proper novel then as a collection of stand-alone pulps. The stories focus on a hard-bitten Yank ace McQuillen aka ‘The Assassin’ aka ‘The Yankee Gorilla’ ake ‘the Ace of the Laughing Skull’ whose personal insignia – a laughing skull face – is well-known and feared on both sides of the Front. These lofty titles, however, are not terms of endearment: McQuillen is a Boche-blasting maniac that only Edward Mannock could appreciate; Hugh shoots to kill, preferring to put his bullets into the cockpits of his foes then anywhere else, making him a true aerial assassin. This puts him at odds with the English aviators he commands, who still want to adhere in some way to the rules of chivalry and would rather view themselves sky-knights then sky-assassins. But McQuillen was placed in command by a British major for the strict purpose of grooming Allied sky-assassins to meet the vicious German aerial onslaught. Naturally conflicting views of war, duty, honor, chivalry, and morality cause much tension between the Iron Ace and the men he leads. Yet McQuillen is not a bloodthirsty, gong-hunting hothead. He does not care about metals and hardly even tries to get his kills confirmed. He is dispassionate about the whole affair. He fights not out of hate nor for sport but simply for duty. Flying mostly in Nieuports and Sopwith Pups he fells his Hun adversaries by the dozens because it his is duty to do so, and anyone who kills out of blind hate or withholds from killing out of chivalry or cowardice has no respect in his eyes. In this war, you kill your enemy any way you can or else you go home or you die.

The dogfighting scenes are lavishly-written, detailed, desperate and grim, though some of the credibility is lost as our Yank hero often manages to shoot down three to four Germans in every skirmish. Ballon-busting and the guarding of reconnaissance planes and bombers are also well-depicted. And because this is a pulp series there are incidences of betrayal, espionage, revenge, blackmailing, Zeppelins raids and the like. The ace German leaders are all vons (i.e. arrogant Prussians with hardly any redeeming values) and most of McQuillen’s men go West while the Iron Ace soldiers doggedly on. There are many ironic situations that are not lost on him and though he has hardened his heart he has not completely lost his humanity nor is fully immune to pity and grief. There are a few fleeting female characters, no romance, and the Iron Ace remains decidedly a war-series focusing on the mental, physiological and spiritual turmoil of men at war.

Highly recommended for anyone who desires a high dose of adventure and dogfighting in their WW1 fiction collections. The volume is quiet thick and includes almost a dozen black-and-white illustrations of aerial combat. Well worth the price and the high-quality presentation of some very old stories that are hardly known to today’s WW1 aviation buffs is an added pleasure.