The tunnel thru the air

by William D. Gann

After the terrible destruction of New Orleans, it was again decided to float the white flag over the city, as had been done in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. People were badly frightened; were leaving their homes and property and going in every direction, not knowing which was the best way to go to save their lives. Many of the old darkies went to the swamps, hid out until they were starving to death, feeling that they were safer away from any of the cities or buildings. The most mystifying thing to the Government officials was that up to this time when the enemy had succeeded in destroying a city, they had never returned or attempted to do any more damage after the white flag floated over it. They knew that the enemy had several bases in Mexico and were at a loss to understand why more attacks had not been made on the towns along the border of Texas; but now that they had started up the Mississippi River, it was plain that they were bent on destroying only the largest cities in the country and that, eventually, they would make demands for large amounts of indemnity and territory. Why no demands had been made up to this time and why the enemy had not tried to land troops and take charge was hard to understand. The wiser heads among the Government officials felt that the enemy wanted to sufficiently frighten the people all over the United States and destroy enough life and property that when they did make a demand, that no matter how unreasonable, the United States would be forced to accept. It was thought that there was some secret treaty between Spain, Japan, Mexico and other foreign countries, and that they had started their campaign in the South and would later attack the Eastern Coast because they knew that they would get help from other countries if it was required.

After the fall of New Orleans, the enemy continued their march up the Mississippi valley. One by one important cities were bombed. Natchez, Vicksburg, then Memphis fell under the fire of the enemy. The devastation was the greatest ever known. Not only were the buildings destroyed by bombs, but fire and poisoned gases were used. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives. People were so terrified that they wanted to flee to the mountains and forests and get away from all the towns. The march up the Mississippi thus far had cost the Government the loss of thousands of their best airplanes. The enemy's loss was very small. On account of flying at such great heights, it was hard to reach them with the anti-aircraft guns or the army planes.

The United States army officers knew that the next objective would be St. Louis, and that if St. Louis were captured, they would probably attack Chicago, close the lines, prepare to attack the Eastern Coast and try to take Washington and New York. Colonel Gordon and Colonel Kennelworth were doing great work, but were fighting against terrific odds. They had to take orders from their superior officers, and were not able to act on their own initiative. Colonel Gordon was permitted to sit in at a conference of the War Council in April, 1931, but after listening to his plans, they refused to accept them; at the same time they knew the country needed help because further attacks were imminent, and the enemy was pushing on to victory and gaining more help all the time. Some of Colonel Gordon's plans were to ask France to come to our aid in view of the fact they had helped us in the Revolution of 1812 and that we had gone to their rescue in the Great War in 1917 showing our appreciation for the services rendered by Lafayette. He also wanted to ask Canada to join us and protect the Northern border of the United States.

After the first battle of New Orleans, the United States transferred all the planes they could spare for patrol of the Eastern and Southern coasts along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Commercial and passenger airplanes were crossing daily to and from Europe. One foggy night in the month of April, scouting planes flying as high as they could, sighted a large fleet of airships flying toward Savannah, Georgia. They decided that they were enemy planes making for Savannah, to attack it. Commander Rooker in charge ordered his company to sail over the fleet and start dropping bombs. They were quickly destroyed, all falling into the ocean. When our planes descended to see how many had been destroyed and what country they were from, they found that they were not enemy planes at all, but were commercial planes from England, Germany, Austria and Italy. This complicated matters more and diplomatic communications failed to smooth out the difficulties. England refused to accept an explanation or apology and all the other countries took sides with her. Our Cabinet officers held a conference. They decided that England and the other countries, knowing our weakened condition, had intended to join the enemy all along and were only waiting for an excuse, but they now knew that with all these countries against them, without some aid or new discovery, the cause was lost. General Pearson said "Colonel Gordon was right. We should have asked the help of France and Canada long before this. We must now seek aid from any country that is friendly to us. We went to the rescue of the Allies in the darkest days of the World War and surely some of them will stand by us in this, our greatest hour of need."

In May, 1931, England, Germany, Italy and Austria joined forces against the United States. The wealth of the United States had caused so much jealousy that it now began to look as tho Uncle Sam were a lone eagle against the world. England began to land her forces and establish a base in Canada, and the War Council, knowing that England would attack the Eastern Coast, made all preparations to try to protect the Northern border and the Eastern Coast, withdrawing forces from other strategic points to try to protect the North and the Eastern part of the United States.

In the latter part of the month, England and the other allied enemy forces sailed across the Atlantic, bringing their entire fleets on the water escorted by thousands of modern airplanes. They had been preparing for war for years; had built fast hydroplanes which could travel on the water at more than 150 miles an hour. When this fleet arrived off the Atlantic Coast, the United States air patrol attacked them, but were so far outnumbered that it was futile. The patrol was quickly destroyed. All of the United States commercial planes were stopped from carrying mail, passengers or express across the Atlantic. The enemies were now in position to blockade the United States on every side. The Japanese, Spanish and Mexican planes were patrolling the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Coast. We were now in a worse position than the Allies were in 1917 when they were fighting with their backs to the wall and the United States went to their rescue. The War Council knew that England would now close the Northern border, shut us off from Canada and would probably attack all along the border sooner or later.

The United States had concentrated all the available forces which could possibly be spared to try and forestall attacks upon Chicago and the Central part of the country. While an attack was hourly expected in St. Louis, part of the English, German and Italian battleships, under the protection of their air fleet, moved to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The airplanes, numbering thousands, led the advance up the river, followed by the hydroplanes and battleships. The planes destroyed cities and drove the people away in terror. When this march started, the United States War Council decided to move the Infantry and Artillery as fast as possible to try and protect the territory along the Mississippi and prevent the advance up thru the Central and Northern parts of the United States. The enemies took charge of New Orleans and placed their officers in control of the city. Fierce fighting continued all the way up the river. The United States was hopelessly outnumbered and the loss of men and planes was enormous. It began to look as if resistance was folly. It was plain that this was a move to take charge of our territory and showed that Japan, Spain, and Mexico had only been waiting for the time when England and other countries would join them to start taking over captured cities.

The move up the Mississippi was swift. Every town was taken over and placed under the control of English officers. Finally, when Cairo, Illinois, was reached the United States had perfected a new invention for dropping chemicals from airplanes into the water and then using an electric current from an airplane to discharge the chemical hundreds of miles away.

When the enemy advanced and the airplane attack was on at Cairo, the inhabitants had been moved to Louisville and Cincinnati and there was no attempt to try to save the city. The plan was to let the enemy hydroplanes and battleships move up the river and destroy them by the powerful electric charge in the water. When they had completed great destruction in Cairo, the hydroplanes and light battle cruisers which followed up the advance, taking charge of cities, moved up to the mouth of the Ohio to land and take charge of Cairo.

Colonel Walter Kennelworth had been sent to Cairo with a new plane which had been completed by the Major Electric Co. This plane was equipped with an electric machine which could take the electric current from the air, charge into the water, and destroy battleships for miles in every direction. He was circling the sky at a high altitude and watching for an opportunity. Finally, seeing the airplanes receding from Cairo when they thought they had completed the destruction, he pressed a button and turned loose the powerful electric ray. In less than a minute every cruiser and hydroplane was blown to pieces or burnt up by the electric current. The enemy lost every man on board their ships. While Cairo had been almost completely destroyed, this was the first real victory for the United States since Colonel Gordon destroyed the "Tokyo J-1." The news was flashed all over the United States and people on the Eastern Coast, from Boston to Miami, who feared destruction at any minute, breathed a sigh of relief and hoped that this would turn the tide. The old-timers talked about the Yankee ingenuity and said that the brains of the United States were the greatest in the world and would find a way to overcome any obstacle and defeat the enemies no matter how powerful they were.