This book is one of the After the Battle series that looks at before and after images of various aspects of WWII. In this case, the concentration is on the design, deployment, and combat of Germany's V weapons. This was a series of different weapons systems which had varying impacts of the war. These 'wonder' weapons were a remarkable scientific achievement in their own right, but had little real impact on the outcome of the war. In actuality, they had a negative effect on Germany's war effort as they took away resources in both people and materiel from other more promising developments.

The book is more than just before and after images, it provides a fairly detailed look at Germany's rocketry programs from the 1920s until the end of the war. This lays the groundwork as those involved in early rocket research were the same men who helped to develop many of the V weapons.

Probably the most successful of the four that are part of this book was the Fi-103 or V-1. This was an earlier cruise missile with a fairly short range but one which did have some impact on the defenses of the UK as units were kept back to fight against them. Though these all carried conventional warheads, it was feared that gas or even radiological warheads would be used. However Hitler refused to consider those options. This was a weapon that was widely copied by the US both during and after the war.

Probably the most impressive was the V-2, a true ballistic missile which could carry similar warheads as the V-1. A surprising number of these were fired against the Allies during the last year of the war. Many were captured and were the basis for both the US and Soviet space programs after the war.

The V-3 was a long range canon which had very limited use but was an intriguing development. The last one was the V-4, a long range artillery rocket that had minimal success due to how late in the war it was developed.

The book is superbly written and has quite a few images as befits this series. It is a very interesting look at the German rocket programs and is one I can easily recommend to you.

March 2025

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