Wiped Out by J. D. Newsom

Wiped Out is a collection of five short stories of the Foreign Legion written by John Dimmock (J. D.) Newsom.  Newsom was one of the most prolific writers of Foreign Legion pulp fiction ever to have tapped away on a typewriter.  This paperback by Dell (#165) is a great read and contains a short history of the Legion,  one featured story (Wiped Out) and four other stories.  It is essentially five pulp fiction stories wrapped into one paperback.  These stories originally appeared in Frontier Magazine in the late 1920’s.  This paperback book was published around 1947 as far as I can tell because it does not have any other dates to indicate something other than the copyright of the historical piece.  As is the case with many Dell books at this time it includes a color map on the back page and plenty of story lead-in on the inside.  Each story has the same theme: the destruction of a Foreign Legion unit fighting gallantly against overwhelming odds.  Usually one or two survivors remain standing in the end.  This was also the theme in Newsom’s other story Garde à Vous that I reviewed 16 May 11.  For some reason, fighting until the last man seems to be a plot device in many Foreign Legion pulp stories.   I’ll scan and post some of these stories individually at a later date.  I noticed also that this book can still be found for as little as $4.00 on various online book stores.

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