The tunnel thru the air

by William D. Gann

Colonel Kennelworth arrived in Detroit on November 17th. The following day tested out the Tunnel machines; reported to Supreme Commander Gordon that they were working in fine shape and producing results according to the plans. The Supreme Commander then decided to go immediately to Detroit and establish one of the machines at a base there and have Colonel Kennelworth take the other machine to Cincinnati and set it up. The machine was transported secretly and successfully to Cincinnati and set up in one of the largest buildings in the city.

On November 20th, Supreme Commander Gordon and Colonel Kennelworth tested the Tunnel machines over this long distance. The machines were set to produce a tunnel 100 yards wide at first and were set in motion. The American scouting airplanes were sent off over a described area and on entering between these lines found that they were in a complete tunnel. They could travel quickly back and forth thru the Tunnel in the Air. This was a great triumph. Commander Gordon instructed all those connected with the test to keep it a complete secret. He knew that this was going to be a great surprise to the enemy when they started their next attack.

Supreme Commander Gordon had now completed another new invention on the same plan of the radio that he had to use in his office in New York several years before to record conversations when the manipulators were trying to catch him in the stock market. He had enlarged this machine so that it would record voices 3000 miles away and named it the "Tel-Talk."

On the night of November 19th, 1931, the Supreme War Council which had convened in Mexico City broke up and the commanding generals returned to their various posts around St. Louis and Chicago. Supreme Commander Gordon had his powerful Tel-Talk directed so that he would get all the conversation along the lines between Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans. When he went to his headquarters in Detroit on the morning of November 20th, he went in to look at his Tel-Talk, saw that there had been a conference of the enemy held the night before. He pushed the needle of the machine back and turned it on; put his ear to the receiver and listened. He found that the commanding generals had talked over the conference in Mexico and had now decided that their next attack would be on Detroit in order to destroy the factories there and prevent the United States continuing making airplanes and inventions which might help them to win the war. He was very happy to get the plans of the enemy. It was just what he wanted. He was anxious to test the Tunnel thru the Air, capture the enemy's planes and keep them there because he knew when once he got them in the Tunnel, they would be unable to get out of it and he could keep them suspended in the air indefinitely, moving up and down in the Tunnel, or could capture them and destroy them. He was impatient and anxious for an attack upon Detroit and decided to defy the enemy and urge them on.

With the plans of the enemy in his possession, Supreme Commander Gordon decided to change the location of the Tunnel machines so as to protect the factories and large buildings in Detroit. He arranged the machines so that when the attacking planes came over Detroit at a high altitude, he could drop them into the Tunnel thru the Air and thus prevent any harm to the factories or buildings in Detroit. He waited patiently for an attack upon the city, but no move of any kind was made by the enemy. When it was near Thanksgiving, he had a great desire that the battle should start around that time so that the United States might have the greatest Thanksgiving in history because he was confident that if the attack came, Detroit would be successfully defended and the enemy for the first time would find that we had outwitted them. He decided to urge the enemy to make an attack on Detroit as soon as possible, so ordered a large electric sign built with letters twenty feet high, "DETROIT IS READY—WON'T YOU COME AND TAKE US WE WANT TO BE YOUR THANKSGIVING TURKEY." The sign was placed on an airplane and lighted. This plane passed in full view of the enemy's lines at St. Louis and Chicago. What the enemy thought of this, perhaps no one will ever know. Colonel Manson later wrote that this electric sign put the fear of God in the heart of the enemy; that the Germans recalled the days when the Yankees arrived at the time of the great World War. The Japanese, the Spanish and the English realized that this was not meant for a bluff and thought they had made a mistake in allowing 15 days' armistice, now that the United States had decided to fight again. How they could hope to win, the enemy could not see. They decided to teach this young, boastful commander a lesson that he would never forget.

On Thanksgiving night, November 24th, the attack was ordered. Supreme Commander Gordon was at dinner and a messenger interrupted him to tell him that "Tel-Talk" had picked up an important message. He rushed to the secret room and noticed that a conference had been held and orders given by the enemy to attack Detroit that night. He immediately communicated this information secretly with the new Pocket-Radio to Colonel Kennelworth in Cincinnati. Told him to be in readiness to adjust the Tunnel machine and change the location and altitude any moment that he instructed. He ordered all the lights in the streets of Detroit to be kept on that night. It has been the custom for many months, since long before the attack at Chicago, to keep all the cities in darkness at night.

He had just completed another new invention which he called the Radium Ray. With this Ray he could locate anything in the sky 75 to 100 miles away. He had the Radium Ray machine in readiness to search the sky for the first attack that night. Just before 10 o'clock he was sweeping the sky with the Radium Ray when he discovered the enemy planes approaching from the direction of Chicago. There was a large flock of them flying at very high altitudes, followed by three large supply ships. He knew that these supply ships would anchor in the air somewhere over Detroit and the bombing planes would make the attack. He decided to send Captain Morrison, the famous aviator who had distinguished himself at the battle of Chicago, to lead a fleet of decoy airplanes to meet the invading planes and to lead them into the Tunnel thru the Air. Captain Morrison led his swift cruisers into the air to the greatest heights they could rise, and as they neared the approaching enemy they began to turn loose the rapid-firing anti-aircraft guns. As soon as the enemy discovered the firing, they turned their searchlights on our planes, located and started after them. Captain Morrison obeyed orders and retreated rapidly with the other planes following. He made straight for Detroit to the vicinity of main buildings and factory districts with the enemy planes in hot pursuit. Suddenly he received a radio message from Supreme Commander Gordon to descend very low and fly Northwest. At this time the Supreme Commander was in communication with Colonel Kennelworth and they had adjusted the Tunnel machines and established the Tunnel thru the Air.

Supreme Commander Gordon was atop one of Detroit's giant skyscrapers over 80 stories high watching the action of the enemy planes. Suddenly he saw the first battalion of more than 250 planes, which were flying in a wedge formation, dive into the Tunnel. He followed them with the Radium Ray and saw immediately that the Tunnel was doing its work and that the giant battle planes were now powerless. Next came the three giant supply ships. Following the same course as the bombing planes, they dived into the Tunnel thru the Air and were powerless to proceed further. Once the planes were in the Tunnel, they were unable to communicate with headquarters or make any move because the Tunnel was a complete vacuum and no plane could move in it except the American planes which understood the combination how to navigate thru the Tunnel. As soon as Supreme Commander Gordon saw that the great Tunnel machines were doing their miraculous work, he sent another defiant message to the enemy headquarters in Chicago and St. Louis:

We have given your first battalion a wonderful Thanksgiving reception. Won't you send some more of your famous aviators to have Thanksgiving supper with us.

Immediately after this message was received, the commanding generals ordered a message sent to the supply ships which were supposed to be anchored over Detroit, asking information as to what was happening. No reply was received. This caused consternation in the enemy camp. They knew that the first battalion had either been captured or destroyed. The news was quickly flashed to headquarters in the City of Mexico and General Nagato replied: "This is some devilish trick of that genius, Gordon. Be careful what move you make. Send out scouting planes around Detroit and ascertain what is going on." Their fast cruising scouters were immediately dispatched to Detroit to see what had happened to the bombing planes and the mother ships. These planes soon came in view of the Radium Ray. After circling high over Detroit, finally came lower and lower until suddenly they plunged into the Tunnel thru the Air and like the others, were powerless to move or to communicate with their headquarters.