Well it was the 50s. Both sides of the cold war tried to come up with various uses of nuclear power. From civilian cars to military strategic bombers. Never mind using nukes to dig harbors...
There were some crazy conventional technologies also. One scientist, as a joke, did a calculation about the effects of adding mercury to rocket fuel. It wouldn't react with the fuel, but it would add a lot of weight which would make the thrust more efficiently move the rocket forward.
This was tested, found to be true, and thankfully never put to use in any actual rockets.
Ha! Great reference, iirc the humans put a pusher plate under a battle ship (uss missouri?), launched into orbit and pummeled the aliens. I also recall something about fighter craft and 16 inch cannons. Great read.
I recall mainly the jury-rigged pipes that a character based on one of Niven/Pournelle's friends kept working at the cost of his own heroic death. Apparently they asked him what the fate of his character should be, and he picked death.
Based on physical appearance, he surely was also the prototype for the question-asker in "What Can You Say About Chocolate-Covered Manhole Covers?" That basically obscure story was big in my life because it's one of the things that introduced me to Roger Zelazny (it referenced his Agnostic's Prayer).
