The Airship Boys in the Great War; or, The Rescue of Bob Russell

The year is 1915. Two young aviators, Alan Hope and Ned Napier, receive word that their friend Bob Russell has been captured behind enemy lines in Europe, imprisoned as a spy, and faces a firing squad within the week. Without hesitation, they mount their airship and set course for war-torn territory, navigating enemy fire, treacherous weather, and the constant threat of capture. What follows is a breathless race against time, where courage must outpace bullets and loyalty must chart a course through the chaos of continental war. De Lysle F. Cass, himself a military veteran, renders the aerial exploits with technical confidence and paints the camaraderie between the three boys with genuine warmth. The novel captures an era when airships seemed to promise a new age of heroic possibility, and young men could still believe that daring and friendship might defeat even the trenches of the Great War. This is rip-roaring juvenile adventure fiction in the tradition of Henty and Stevenson: a fast-paced rescue story that asks what boys owe to each other when the world is burning.