Schiffer Books

Germany's V-2 Rocket

by  Gregory P. Kennedy

Reviewed By  Michael Scott, IPMS# 43177

Format: 8-1/2 x 11, 160 pages, hardcover; over 130 b/w photos Firstly, this is a very nicely put together volume. Endpapers, binding, type, photographs (plenty of them), all the essentials are demonstrations of quality work. Even more so, the quality of the writing and scholarship are also first-rate. Mr. Kennedy knows what he is about, and he's done his homework. Granted, that this is a relatively narrow and specialized area of interest, at least on the surface, but Mr. Kennedy treats it with the historical and narrative depth it deserves. This is an excellent work which ventures a complete treatment of its subject, even though to do so, treads on uncomfortable ground. When John sent me this book to review, I pulled it out of the Tyvek wrapper to expose a large black and white cover photo of a V-2 lifting off. Now, being both a modeler and an historian, by education, I was both disappointed and interested. Disappointed because building a V-2 model, even in 1/48 scale, seemed to be a rather uninteresting idea; interested because the V-2 is the first real rocket, one that spawned the US and Soviet space programs, and I knew little about the rocket or its history. This book soon fixed that shortcoming in my knowledge of military history. This book is about the rocket, its history, its precursors and the early rocket men who made them. It's about the V-2 in detail. How it was put together, built, controlled, transported, launched. It is about the thousands of slave laborers who turned out these missiles to be used against Nazi Germany's enemies. It is about the race to capture the remaining missiles, documentation, launch equipment, and most importantly, German scientists who made the missile a reality. It ends with a chronicle of how the V-2 was the progenitor of the space program. An "unexpectedly excellent" book from Schiffer Books. Even if you don't have a serious history Jones, like me, you should consider this book for your library. I recommend it highly. Thanks to Schiffer Books and IPMS for the copy.

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