Reichdreams

Those Germans, man... They're some sharp people. Everybody knows that, look at all those tanks and missiles and stuff they built during World War Two, for all the good it did them... During the Big War everybody who had the resources to do so was shining a light onto any technology that might give them an edge. This is especially true of the Nazis who were outmanned even in the heady early days when they were on the up side. As things went from bad to worse to horrible to bug-eyed-desperate this search for a technological savior intensified.

"Secret Wonder Weapons..." is another volume from our pals at Schiffer Books. I've reviewed another of their books (subject: wild German tanks) elsewhere. They're a small publisher that specializes in dense little books on abstruse military subjects, "German Flamethrowers: 1914-1945", stuff like that. This time out we're looking into the stranger German aerospace projects 1934 through 1945.

One of the articles of popular lore is that Germany was "right on the edge" of producing endless supplies of "wonder weapons" which could have/would have changed the course of the war and possibly ended -- differently. This case, in my view is massively oversold, even if the dozens of duplicative programs could have been streamlines, eliminating the dingbat ones, even if the skilled labor and rare materials had been available, even if the Allies had totally forgone countermeasures for these weapons, there still would have been the issue of those two (three really) big-butt armies bearing down on the frontiers of the Riech. A wonder weapon that would have been ready in early 1947 did little for a nation unable to hold out past mid 1945. About the only weapon that really had the chance to turn things around was the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter which Herr Hitler, in a true and typical Bizarro-World decision, ordered be produced as a blitz bomber thus [URINATING] away any real chance Germans had of beating back the hoards of B-17s, B-24s, etc which rained high explosive on the German's heads from mid 1943 on. For the most part these projects had all the solidity and usefulness of a dream.

Anyway,

The book at hand concentrates on German missile programs and some of the odder jet and rocket airplane programs. The book leads off with descriptions of the Fritz-X and Hs 293 guided bomb systems along with some other obscure guided and glide bombs systems. These systems were effective against large slow moving or fixed targets such as ships and bridges but were a bit on the Rube Goldberg side. On the extreme end of this spectrum were the Mistel ("Mistletoe") systems which used "composite" airplane systems where a small fighter airplane rode above and guided a larger airplane filled with explosives into a target. These were not terribly useful against mobile targets either.

The next section examines the Fi-103/V-1 cruise missiles. These little doodlebugs were the ancestors of all the guided missiles we have today. They were inaccurate and unreliable, however, and operated from easily attacked fixed bases. For all of the creativity put into them they were really too vulnerable to interception (straight level flight path at a constant speed -- anti-aircraft gunner's dream) and consumed too many resources with too small a warhead for them to turn anything around. They did show everybody the way into the future though.


"Secret Wonder Weapons..." next moves to a variety of systems the Germans were fiddling about with which were designed to be "manned missiles" along similar line to the specialized Japanese "Kamakazi" aircraft such as the Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka ("BAKA bomb"). Unlike their nominal allies, the German systems had pilot escape systems, probably unworkable ones, but they weren't designed as aerial coffins from the outset. Most notable of these was a piloted version of the V-1 missile. Also mentioned is a rocket plane designed exclusively for ramming enemy bombers. (Don't laugh too hard, the US was working on the same thing for a while.)

Hereafter the book moves into the area of Nazi guided missile projects. First out, of course, is the famous V-2 ballistic missile and it's derivatives. Everybody's seen the V-2 but not everyone knows about some of the variants and improvements that were studied for it. Ever see the V-2 with gliding wings? They test launched two of them. Then there was the large A-9/A-10 intercontinental missile project. None of these were ever built but it was designed to hit the US. Some design studies were piloted. The problem with the ballistic missiles was twofold payload and accuracy. With high explosive payloads these missiles were like using a Ferrari in a demolition derby. These missiles were very complex and consumed scarce materials and skilled labor to carry one 2,000 lb. bomb a few hundred miles and plop it down somewhere in an eleven mile circle. The only possible use of these missiles that makes economic sense is the delivery of nuclear, biological, or chemical warheads. The German nuke program has also bee greatly overrated but they had chemical agents in stock including the then-new nerve gas Tabun and they certainly could have mixed up a mess of anthrax or the like if they'd had the mind to. I guess we should be glad even Hitler didn't want to cross that line.

The next missiles described are the smaller guided missiles designed to shoot down all of those damned bombers (there is also one lone anti-tank missile). These systems were quite creative and might have been quite a tough nut for the Allies -- if they had been ready in, say, 1943. As things stood they were more of the too little, too late thing we're already seen.

The book finishes up with a color drawing and a small photograph section.

If this rather odd subject turns you on this book is certainly worth your time, but that being said, "Secret Wonder Weapons..." isn't without problems. Like many of Schiffer's productions, this book is largely geared to scale modelers. The illustrations are generally 1/72 scale line drawings. In many cases where the weapons in question were no more than paper studies anyway is probably as good as we were going to get. However, for some of the more well developed systems, the V-2 for example, a more ample photo record exists. However the photos are scant and banished to the rear of the book far from the text entries. The color drawings are also isolated in the back of the bus. This probably was some sort of technical printing decision but, especially considering the descriptions of the drawing are often embedded in the entries in the front of the book, it can lead to a lot of flipping back and forth.

Another thing... Originally this book was titled, Ready?: "Die geheimen Wunderwaffen des III Reiches-Die duetschen Raketen -- und Raketenflugzeugprojekte 1934-1945" by Flugzeug Publikations . The text is generally understandable with no real head-scratchers but the syntax is sometimes a little odd. Random example: "The A 10 was a very big accelerator rocket conceived to put an A 4 to a height of 24 Km with its whole propellant to multiply its range." Not unreadable, just a little strange at times. There is also a lengthy appendix listing many (if not all) of Germany's "dream weapon" projects. All the stuff this book doesn't cover ("Schriever/Habermol Flying Disc", anyone?) whets the appetite for more but I suppose lines had to be drawn.

Last hit. The price tag on this book from when I bought it a Borders a few years back was $31.50 (with 10% off!). That's a chunk 'o cash to fork out for a 140 page book. Obviously a specialized interest in the subject is mandatory.

So, if you are possessed of that specialized interest, and a somewhat thick wallet, here ya' go.