Description
The Bat Staffel
by Robert J. Hogan
Read by Doug Stone
They called G-8 the Flying Spy. History never recorded his exploits—and for good reason! No one would ever believe World War I was that wild!
It was the summer of 1933, and despite the Great Depression, Popular Publications was booming. Part of their Autumn expansion plans entailed launching The Spider, and a companion title to be aimed at the legions of readers who drank up fictionalized accounts of World War I Allied aces versus Imperial Germany’s various bi-winged counts and barons, red and otherwise. One of Popular’s star writers, Hogan was doubtless the first writer publisher Harry Steeger considered when casting about for a suitable scribe.
Steeger and Hogan hashed out an idea. It was part Eddie Rickenbacker and part What Price Glory?—which was a popular Maxwell Anderson stage play turned into a motion picture. Price stressed the horrors of war as counterpoint to the sentimental comradeship of the Allies in the trenches.
Driving home to New Jersey from Manhattan, Hogan passed through the Holland Tunnel. While in traffic, he worked out the details of G-8’s first wild adventure. He named his hero after a Colorado ranch where Hogan worked one summer. G-8 never had another name. His wingmen, Bull Martin and Nippy Weston, were modeled on a pair of real-life flyboys named Bull Nevin and Nippy Westover.
The premier tale, which appeared in the October, 1933 issue of G-8 and His Battle Aces, exemplified the outrageous approach Steeger and Hogan envisioned for the series. Hogan called it The Bat Staffel. Therein he introduced a German mad scientist who would bedevil his new hero the length and breadth of the series—some eleven tortured years. This first time out, Herr Doktor Krueger unleashed monster bats as big as bi-planes on Allied Sopwith Camels and Spads. It made for fearsome reading.
This inaugural G-8 audiobook is narrated by the talented Doug Stone. Stand clear! Contact! Zoooom! Tac-tac-tac-tac! Yammering Guns live again!
Nick DeGregorio composed the music for the G-8 and His Battle Aces series of audiobooks.
Chapter 1: Condemned to Die
Chapter 2: The Bat Breath
Chapter 3: Hell Island
Chapter 4: The Vanished Ace
Chapter 5: G-8, Special Agent
Chapter 6: Battle Aces
Chapter 7: The Secret Drome
Chapter 8: Bat Patrol
Chapter 9: The Village of Death
Chapter 10: Sealed Orders
Chapter 11: G-8, Special Messenger
Chapter 12: A Corpse Disappears
Chapter 13: The Tunnel
Chapter 14: Cave of the Bats
Chapter 15: Trapped!
Chapter 16: Find G-8!
Chapter 17: G-8, Prisoner
Chapter 18: The Death Patrol
Chapter 19: Fight of the Bats
Chapter 20: Hell Hole
Chapter 21: Vengeance Sky Guns
Chapter 22: Victory Wings
Chapter 3: Hell Island
Chapter 4: The Vanished Ace
Chapter 5: G-8, Special Agent
Chapter 6: Battle Aces
Chapter 7: The Secret Drome
Chapter 8: Bat Patrol
Chapter 9: The Village of Death
Chapter 10: Sealed Orders
Chapter 11: G-8, Special Messenger
Chapter 12: A Corpse Disappears
Chapter 13: The Tunnel
Chapter 14: Cave of the Bats
Chapter 15: Trapped!
Chapter 16: Find G-8!
Chapter 17: G-8, Prisoner
Chapter 18: The Death Patrol
Chapter 19: Fight of the Bats
Chapter 20: Hell Hole
Chapter 21: Vengeance Sky Guns
Chapter 22: Victory Wings
