[6] A small Norfolk village is outraged when it is discovered that the Ministry of Land Acquisition proposes to take over the nearby Island of Children, a bird sanctuary, for the RAF to use as a ground attack firing range.

A struggle of wills begins between the authorities and the villagers, who resort to a variety of ways to prevent damage to the historic island.

Harry Tilney is all for taking on the government, but his compatriot, Sally has a boyfriend stationed at the nearby Royal Air Force base, Corporal Bill Morris, so she goes to see him first.

In desperation, the local people take to their boats and sail to the island, to occupy the target area and prevent the first attack run.

However, the field telephone wire is broken as they come ashore, meaning the RAF controller on the range cannot get a message through to have the flight cancelled.

Tasmanian-born Don Sharp has been in turn actor, broadcaster and film producer; and a background of that kind rarely favours the novel form.

One sees its influence in sentences such as: "The villagers greeted Sally conventionally"-a playwright's note of guidance to a producer, rather than a novelist's picture of a scene ...

Behind the quietly amusing account of this controversy [the storyline] is the larger question whether English tradition must bow before the needs of national security, and Don Sharp debates it with intelligent sympathy.

"Conflict of Wings" is innocent of fancy technique, and its simple prose seems to capture the cool, wind swept quality of the Norfolk marshes beloved by the author.

Virginia Graham of The Spectator (02/04/54) wrote: "People who appreciate the calm, embellished with a little bird song, deserve our sympathy, of course, but the times are changing and it is only in the shelter of aluminium wings that England can build its nest??.