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Salamander Picture Library: 2,96,102,105- TRH Pictures: 7,8(13$ National Archives), 14, 18-19(US National Archives), 21(t)(IWM), 22, 23(0, 24(US National Archives), 26(b)(US National Archives), 28(IWM), 29(b), 31 (US National Archives), 32(US National Archives),34(US National Archives), 39(US National Archives), 42(US National Archives), 44(US National Archives), 49, 52, 57(US National Archives), 63,65,66(IWM), 67,69(0,72,730WM), 75(US National Archives), 78(US National Archives), 82(US National Archives), 83(Associated Press), 84(National Air and Space Museum), 86(US National Archives), 89(US National Archives), 112(US National Archives), 114,115,116,120,123(Tank Museum), 125(US National Archives), 128(IWM), 130(US National Archives), 132(b)(US National Archives), 134(US National Archives), 135(0,135(b)(IWM), 136(IWM) ,137(US National Archives), 138(US National Archives), 140(US National Archives), 141(US National Archives). All Illustrations Aerospace Publishing except: John Bachelor: 124. Pilot Press Limited: 16-17. Wieslaw Baczkowski: 38,40,50-51. Page 2: Fieseler Fi 103s - Vis - line the corridor of an underground factory. Contents INTRODUCTION 6 CHAPTER ONE JET AIRCRAFT 8 CHAPTER TWO ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT 34 CHAPTER THREE HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS 44 CHAPTER FOUR ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT 52 CHAPTER FIVE SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 60 CHAPTER SIX AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS 84 CHAPTER SEVEN AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 90 CHAPTER EIGHT SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES 100 CHAPTER NINE ARTILLERY 108 CHAPTER TEN TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS 120 CHAPTER ELEVEN SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS 128 CHAPTER TWELVE NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS 138 INDEX 142 Introduction efore we begin to examine the large and diverse unilaterally, the projects were actually based outside Barray of secret weapons produced in Germany Germany: in Holland, the Soviet Union, Sweden and before and during World War II, we should perhaps in particular Switzerland. define what is meant by the term 'secret'. Most In the strict sense, then, when we address the topic weapons are developed in secret - or at least, under of German secret weapons of World War II, we are conditions of stringent security - whether in times of faced with an enormous task. But the term 'secret peace or war, if only because, as the old adage has it, weapons' has a more precise meaning in general use: forewarned is forearmed. In Germany's case, there it implies something which goes beyond the develop- was an added imperative: the Versailles Treaty which, ment of a piece of more or less mundane equipment at the end of World War I, forbade her to develop (and in conditions of secrecy. It implies a genuinely new even to possess) certain categories of weapons, such concept, something truly out of the ordinary, which as aircraft and tanks. Development programmes for simply could not work without a new understanding these weapons had to be carried out in absolute secre- of physical science or chemistry; a new mastery of cy, since the ultimate risk (though probably a small technology; or some great leap of creative, imagina- one by the time these development programmes were tive invention. In the place and at the time in question, under way) was the occupation of Germany by the there was certainly no lack of those. victorious Allies. In many cases, up until the moment that Hitler signalled his intention to revoke the Treaty WUNDERWAFFEN Perhaps the alternative term frequently used in Ger- many at the time - Wunderwaffen - comes closer to defining the true nature of these secret devices, for they were often truly things of wonder, being either completely new and hitherto undreamed-of outside a small select group, or achieving previously unthink- able levels of performance thanks to breakthrough innovations in science and technology. Some of them, it is true, were 'ideas whose time had come', in that the basic principle was understood, but had not yet been successfully applied, and in these cases, teams of scientists and engineers in America, Britain and Germany (and sometimes elsewhere: there were sev- eral significant advances made by Italy) were engaged in a headlong race to get the first reliable working ver- sion onto the battlefield. The development of the jet aircraft and of radar, not to mention the development of nuclear fission, stand out amongst those. But in other areas, particularly in rocketry and the invention and perfection of the all-important guidance systems, Germany stood head and shoulders above the rest. Left: The Junkers Ju 287, with its forward-swept wings, was just one of a number of futuristic designs developed by German scientists and engineers in World War II. Her scientists made an enormous and outstanding Above: A borderline secret weapon: the 'Goliath' was an contribution, not just to the German war effort, but to explosives-filled wire-guided tank and a typically modern civilisation. However, there were areas where innovative approach to dealing with bunkers and armour. German science and technology were deficient, most importantly - arguably - in the field of electronic the very outset, and the resources squandered upon computing machines, which were not weapons them- producing them - and then keeping them in service - selves but something without which the bounds of redirected into more appropriate channels such as the technological development would soon be reached. more practical PzKpfw V Panther. However, all too often these deficiencies arose as a In a very real sense, Hitler himself motivated and result of demand chasing insufficient resource, and ran the German secret weapons programme. There time simply ran out for the scientists of the Third seems to be a direct and very tangible link between Reich before a satisfactory result could be produced. this programme and his psyche, and we are perhaps left wondering whether the Wunderwaffen would have TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE existed without him. On balance, it seems certain that Time and again in the course of this work we will they would have done, given the creative imagination come upon development programmes which were of so many German scientists and the readiness of either cancelled before they came to fruition or which many of her military men to accept innovation, but it were still in progress at the war's end. Many of them, is equally certain that without Hitler's insistence, of course, did not get under way until 1944, when the many weapons systems which made a very real spectre of defeat was already looming large in Berlin impact upon the course of the war would either not and many essential items were in increasingly short have been developed at all, or would, at best, have supply. We can only speculate upon the possible out- been less prominent. come of an earlier start on the course of the conflict. Nonetheless, without the genius of many German Others were cancelled simply because they did not scientists and the brilliance of German technologists appear to offer the likelihood of spectacular results, and engineers, the entire programme would have been and in those cases we can, all too often, detect the stillborn. Many of the weapons produced for the first hand of Adolf Hitler. In general, we can note what can time in Germany and employed in World War II went only be described as a wrong-headed insistence on his on to become accepted and very important parts of the part that big (and powerful) was always beautiful (and broader armoury, and several have made an enormous irresistible). This major flaw led him to push for the impact on life as a whole outside the military arena. development of weapons such as the fearsome - but The more spectacular failures have a certain grandeur, only marginally effective and very expensive - despite their shortcomings, and even the outright PzKpfw VI Tiger and King Tiger tanks, which would myths - and there were many, some remarkably per- have been far better consigned to the wastebin from sistent - frequently had an underpinning of fact.