SHORT STORY READALONG: "The Aviator" by Hornell Hart

This is the begging of my War Short Stories Readalong.  So here we go on our journey through some of the best war-related short stories.  First up - "The Aviator" by Hornell Hart.  It first appeared in a magazine called "Short Stories from Life" in 1916.  The story is about a French aviator who is attacking a Turkish fort in 1916.  It is apparently based on an incident in the Gallipolli Campaign. A French cruiser is bombardind the fort at night.  Meanwhile, the aviator is piloting his monoplane in an attempt to take out the powder magazine in the fort.  The refrain  "the French Government declines to accept your services" keeps running through his mind.  It appears that the hero was rejected by the military (Gen. Joffre) because of some diplomatic blunder.  Don't ask what a diplomat is doing flying a warplane or how he got the plane or why he would be using nitro-glycerine as an explosive.  Too much carping because the story is actually tres cool.  It has a smidge of Luke Skywalker taking on the Death Star.  The aviator is on a suicide mission to follow a searchlight to the powder magazine.  The story has a superbly ironic ending that is not like "Star Wars", but maybe is more realistic and certainly is more anti-war.   The story is very interesting and a good start for the readalong.  It is quite short, but you may have to read it twice because it has some subtle elements to it.  I read some other reader's views on it and some of them were wrong about what happens in the story.

GRADE =  A-

Next up -   The Battle of Lake Borgne - by George Cary Eggleston

WAR SHORT STORY READALONG

   

          I love to read about war and hope to find some kindred spirits.  For several years I have participated in my friend Caroline's readalong at "Beauty is a Sleeping Cat".  She is scaling back so I have decided to host a readalong of short war stories.  I would like to thank the web site "Short Story Archive" for providing an outstanding list of titles that are easily available on the Internet.  We will do one per month.  At the end of the month I will offer my thoughts on the selection and hope to hear from you.
     Here is the complete list:

• The Aviator- by Hornell Hart
• The Battle of Lake Borgne - by George Cary Eggleston
• The Boy Commander of the Camisards - by George Cary Eggleston
• British Gunners as Cave Dwellers - by Corporal E. H. Bean
• The Canoe Fight - by George Cary Eggleston
• Chasing a Major-General - by Frederic Remington
• The Colonel's Ideas, by Guy de Maupassant
• The Conscript, by Grace Greenwood
• The Crime of the Brigadier - by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Daisy-Chain of Bandoliers - by Private W. H. Cooperwaite
• The Duke's Reappearance - by Thomas Hardy
• The Glory of War - by M.B. Levick
• In the Shadow of the Mesquite - by Margaret Elizabeth Sangster
• The Lone Charge of William B. Perkins - by Stephen Crane
• Lost Ground Regained - by Ralph D. Paine
• Mademoiselle Fifi - by Guy de Maupassant
• Mons and the Great Retreat - by Private J. Parkinson
• N.B. - by Joseph Hall
• An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge - by Ambrose Bierce
• Scrapped: An Ignoble End to a Great Ship - by Mollie Kay Smith
• The Sergeant's Private Madhouse - by Stephen Crane
• A Soldier's Story - by Walter C. Beglau
• The Soldier's Wife - by Francis A. Duvilage
• Stories of the Trojan War - by Josephine Preston Peabody
• The Story of a Winter Campaign, by George Cary Eggleston
• The Strange-Looking Man, by Fanny Kemble Johnson
• Ten Fathoms Down - by Ralph D. Paine
• The Tomb of Heiri - by A. C. Benson
• A Tough Tussle, by Ambrose Bierce
• Two Obscure Heroes of the Revolutionary War, by George Cary Eggleston
• The Unseen Host - by Charles L. Warr
• War - by Sherwood Anderson

     So first up is "The Aviator".  Join in and chime in!