Germany's rocket program was really on-going since the 1920s, though until the war got well underway, it was the purview of civilian clubs. These enthusiasts managed to develop working rockets and once Hitler got into power, those in his sphere of influence felt that this should be brought into military control. There were many scientists who contributed to the increasingly sophisticated design and development of rockets and quite a few of them were whisked away to the US post war to work on various US projects. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It wasn't until 1942/43 that a great deal of effort was put into these programs. A dedicated lab/factory/launch complex was built on the island of Peenemunde on the Baltic Sea coast. It was here that the two most well known of the V-weapons were developed to maturity; the V-2 ballistic missile and the V-1 cruise missile. Both programs consumed a great deal of funds that could have been used elsewhere and while they were both successful, their overall impact in the war was minimal. The third program, the V-3 was a static gun of sorts that used cascading explosive charges to boost a shell, giving it great range. This program never actually reached operational service, though various tests showed the theory to be sound. Unlike the other V-weapons, this one was static and could not be moved once built. As a side note, the theory for the V-3 was also planned for the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, but was never actually built, though components were gathered for construction.

This is a photo book so there is a brief historical background provided for each of the projects. The majority of the images are, as alluded in the book title, the various launching sites and in many cases, the remnants of some of the larger ones. These fixed sites were major targets for Allied bombing once discovered and surprisingly, some of them are still extant. This is mainly due to the inability of bombs to penetrate and the later inability to destroy and get rid of the mass of concrete and rebar used to build them.

This is another excellent addition to a fine series and one that I can easily recommend to both the historian and modeler alike.

October 2026

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