#72 in Osprey's continuing "Fortress" series covers the German V-weapon sites as created to use the V-1/2/3/4 weapons. First thing one notices is that Osprey has redesigned the cover of their books with a faded landscape image from inside the book atop the normal cover illustration/photo. Nicely done.

During WWII Germany expended considerable effort and funds on what turned out to be dead end projects that did little for the war effort. However, often times one never knows how things will work out unless they are tried.

Those 'vengeance' weapons most known to readers are the V-1 cruise missile and V-2 ballistic missile. This book covers the extensive works constructed to both build and operate these weapons. It also covers the rather unknown V-3 long range cannon and V-4 artillery rocket. The latter two really turned out to be less successful than hoped, though both were utilized in an extremely minor role.

The majority of effort went into the V-1 and V-2. Both of these required extensive launch and support mechanisms. This was particularly true of the V-2 due to the need for liquid oxygen (LOX) for the propellant. In fact, this lack of LOX production probably resulted in fewer actual launches as there were missiles. Nearly 3,000 V-2s were launched during the war, over half of them against Antwerp. Many of these launches were from mobile launchers as fixed sites kept being discovered and bombed by the Allies.

The same sort of thing happened with V-1 sites, though not to the extent of the V-2 in terms of moving the missile to mobile launch capabilities. The V-1 launch facilities, though heavily bombed, seem to have been easier to disguise and the result was tens of thousands of launches against Allied targets right up until war's end.

Author Zaloga covers the development and operational use of these weapons as well as the planning and construction of sites, some of which were of gargantuan proportions. So huge were some of these works that they are still extant to some degree, mostly because destruction of them would require a massive undertaking regarding processing the rubble! The use of period images as well as the superb illustrations of Johnson and Taylor really add to the value of this book by showing how some of these massive constructs would have appeared if left unbombed.

In all, an exemplary edition on one of the more interesting aspects of the German military during WWII.

January 2008.

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