The War in the Air
H. G. Wells
 The first three chapters of The War in the Air relate details of the life of Bert Smallways and his extended family in Bun Hill, in the countryside south of London. Bert is an unimpressive, not particularly gifted, unsuccessful young man with few ideas about larger things, but with a strong attachment to a young woman named Edna. He works as a helper and partner in a bicycle shop. When bankruptcy threatens one summer, he and his partner abandon the shop, devise a singing act ("the Desert Dervishes"), and resolve to try their fortunes in English sea resorts. As chance would have, their initial performance is interrupted by a balloon flight of one Mr. Butteridge. Butteridge is known not for ballons, but for his successful invention of an easily maneuverable fixed-wing aircraft whose secret he has not revealed and that he is seeking to sell to the British government or, failing that, to Germany. By accident Bert is stranded in Butteridge's balloon, which has on board Butteridge's plans. Bert is clever enough to appraise his situation, and when the balloon is shot down in a secret German "aeronautic park east of Hamburg," Bert tries to pass himself off as Butteridge in order to sell the secret. (Aircraft development has been mainly limited to airships and what appear to be single-use semi-gliders that have to be launched from an airship (the Drachenflieger); it has not succeeded in producing a really practical heavier-than-air machine, only a few awkward devices of limited utility. Butteridge's invention is a major breakthrough in heavier-than-air flight, being highly manoeuvrable, capable of both very fast and very slow flight, and requiring only a small area to take off and land; it appears to combine the advantages of the helicopter and the aeroplane in a manner superior to modern real-world V/STOL craft.) But Bert has stumbled upon the German air fleet just as it is about to launch an attack on the United States, and Prince Karl Albert, the author and leader of this plan, decides to take him along for the campaign. The German aerial forces, and consisting of airships and Drachenflieger, attempt to seize control of the air before the Americans build a large-scale aerial navy. The Germans are unaware that the Chinese and Japanese have also been building a massive air force. Tensions between Japan and the United States, exacerbated by the issue of American citizenship being denied to Japanese immigrants, also lead to war. The "Confederation of Eastern Asia" (China and Japan) turns out to possess aerial forces, and their aircraft and tactics have been seen as a portent to the kamikaze of World War II. The United States therefore has to fight on two fronts: the Eastern and the Western, in the air as well on sea. Bert Smallways is present as the Germans first attack an American naval fleet in the Atlantic, then bomb New York City into submission. Bert's disguise has already been foiled by the perspicacious Germans, and he is relegated to the role of a witness realizing the true horror of war. After New York City is bombarded by the German flying machines, the Asiatic aerial forces fly over the Rocky Mountains, and engage the Germans in dog fights above Niagara Falls. The Asiatic air fleet is equipped with large numbers of lightweight one-man flying machines called Niais, which appear to be ornithopters, armed with a gun carried by the pilot firing explosive bullets "loaded with oxygen" for use against the hydrogen-filled airships. Bert is stranded on Goat Island in the middle of Niagara Falls, finds a crashed Niais and, after killing Prince Karl Albert, who is similarly stranded, manages to escape from the island on it, crashlanding near Tanooda, NY. He learns that the Asiatic forces have landed "a million men" on the western seaboard, and with the help of a local landowner named Laurier turns the plans for Butteridge's flying machine over to the U.S. president, hiding out in Pinkerville "on the Hudson." The Asiatic fleet also attacks a combined Anglo-Indian aerial force, capturing the Burmese airfields, and in Australia as well, capturing the Pacific islands. In Europe, the United Kingdom, France and Italy fight the German and Swiss forces, leading to the destruction of London, Paris, Hamburg and Berlin. (The imagination of Bert Smallways if not that of H.G. Wells&mdash;it is not always easy to distinguish them in the novel&mdash;is deeply infected by the racism prevalent in England during the Edwardian era.) A global financial collapse is caused by hostile nations freezing assets, and the end of the credit system. This is referred to as "the Panic," which is followed by "The Purple Death." The War in the Air, the Panic, and the Purple Death bring about "[w]ithin the space of five years" a total collapse of "the whole fabric of civilisation." But Bert Smallways, fixated on his amorous attachment, returns home after many adventures via a ship to kill a rival and win the hand of Edna; they marry and have eleven children. We are assured in the final chapter that "our present world state, orderly, scientific, and secured," is eventually established, but the novel reverts to the ensuing fortunes of the Smallways family as England relapses into a sort of an agricultural medieval feudalism.