Air Attack At Sea

Star Prince Charlie, 14, pp. 148-149.

As the fleets converge for combat, the rebel barons have negligibly few blimps whereas the despot Olaghi deploys his entire air force which begins to drop things on the rebel ships. Like Poul Anderson's The High Crusade, this novel presents a persuasive explanation as to why an overwhelmingly superior force fails:

breezes move the blimps so that few missiles hit their targets;

rebels shield their eyes and receive only minor cuts from shattered glass globes;

only one fire bomb ignites a ship but its crew escapes;

most fuses either go out or burn slowly enough to be pulled away;

when the blimps descend, they are vulnerable to large quarrels fired from catapults;

their downed crews are captured;

the attack and its defeat entertain the rebels and boost their morale.