Books & Recommeded Reading

	Title: Hitler's Rockets The Story of the V-2s Author: Norman Longmate Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing Year of Publication: 2009 Language: English ISBN-10: 1602397058 ISBN-13: 978-1602397057 A lengthy (432 pages) and complete story of the German rocket program which, along with other wartime inventions, propelled us into a new post-war era of space exploration and inter-continental ballistic missiles. The story is told in exacting detail from the point of view of both the German war-machine and those unfortunate enough to witness the destructive power first hand. The author puts forth much information about the rocket program starting with its inception, the beuracratic wrangling to keep the program alive, the costly mistakes and giant scientific leaps forward made upon the way, and of course the ever-present need to keep a mad-man like Adolf Hitler happy. Mr. Longmate has a talent for imersing the reader in the world at that time in history. For me the greatest strength of this book which I had not found in other works was the perspective it provides, especially from those who were victims of Hitler's terror weapons. Many eye-witness accounts allow the reader to see things from the point of view of the people who lived and participated in major events during those turbulent times. Especially poingiant are the accounts from Londoners who had no idea what the attacks were or where they were coming from. Little or no warning was given, and in many cases it came too late. My criticism of this book are few. There are only a handful of pictures and diagrams, although this is easily remedied by the availability of such media online. The bigger complaint I had concerns the level of technical detail. A reader with no knowledge of rocketry could easily be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information being presented while at the same time the very basics are sometimes not adequately explained. On the other hand, a reader with a very good understanding of rocketry will sometimes be bothered with the simple vernacular mistakes the author makes when describing rocket components and functions. These mistakes are few and at least consistant. This is a very good book for anyone interested in this field of study. It's worth the read.