A bizarre dictator unleashes a deadly force against the United States Navy: the mightiest vessels in the U.S. armada are sunk; warplanes are pulled from the clouds; end Doc Savage's impenetrable sky fortress is ripped from the stratosphere! And the brash, strutting BRAUN demands one hundred million dollars in ransom from a nation in chaos. Only the Man of Bronze dares challenge the crushing power of this phantom force!

Somebody help me out with this one... the bad guys had a submarine that they somehow sank a bunch of ships with, but how did they force whole squadrons of airplanes to crash at the same time?

I'm WITH Mr. Kimball on this one. This story is one of my "bottom-ten" Docs. More implausible than usual plot elements and it reads like a
"deadline beater". I read recently somewhere (on the Flearun?) that this well may have been an editorial or Dent attempt at being "topical" (ala 'The World's Fair Goblin', later on) as some sort of Naval disaster in the "real" world occurred shortly before publication of this story.

I have to echo Scott and Barry here. Not a good Doc at all. In fact, it's all rather implausible because it turns out there's nothing too mysterious about what's causing all the mayhem. Not a good story at all.

I, too, agree with the group on this one — Dent was slumming it here.
The secret behind the "Terror" is patently absurd and the buildup to the reveal is downright turgid.
This book reminded me a lot of "The Yellow Cloud" — a cool idea that turns out to be a total letdown.

The world-threatening gadget was a huge disappointment and far-fetched. However, there's some interesting interaction between Doc and temptress "India" Allison. Also some good Pat Savage scenes - she's really a 6th "aid" in this one. And Long Tom has a lot of dialogue, which was cool.