There has long been a fascination on the German technology programs of WWII. In many ways, these were ahead of what was being done in other countries, however, as the war progressed the various programs were plagued with shortages in material and manpower as well as the constant threat of bombing by the Allies along with the loss of territory that was particularly prevalent during the last year of the war.

The first edition concentrated on the various weapons systems along with the ever-growing nuclear and radiological programs of the Third Reich. This volume continues looking at these aspect of Germany's weapons programs  as well as some additional delivery systems.

The author has divided this edition into three major sections. The first is Pioneers and Early Robot Weapons. This basically covers the rise of German rocket enthusiasts and how they eventually fit into the military's rocket programs. The next is The Secret of Peenemunde and what the author considers the purpose of the German rocket and missile program. This second section covers the majority of the book and spends a lot of time on Werner von Braun as well as dealing with unconventional payloads and some of the more interesting payload carrier systems. The final section is conjecture on the possibility of Germany using nuclear payloads against the rest of Europe. All of these sections are based on what the author has managed to gather over the years.

There is a fair amount of 'what if' and 'little is known' spread throughout the book, which I guess is about par for the course when one delves into a subject like this. After all, nearly nothing was released to the public on the subject, and some information is still classified and unavailable. So the author had to do considerable sleuthing, digging through interviews and books by those who participated to help fill in some of the blanks. This all makes for a fascinating read on a subject that in actually quite intriguing. It is well worth picking up.