German Secret Weapons: Blueprint for Mars

Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #5

by Brian J. Ford

This book is from the Ballantine War series detailing Hitler's Secret weapons Programs of WWII

Genres: History, World War II, Military History, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1969

About the author

Brian J. Ford is a research biologist, author and lecturer, who is known for popular science publications and select works on TV.

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are agonizing to review, since they combine the absolute best and the absolute worst in a historical non-fiction book. Three parts awesome to two parts awful. Where to begin...

The Good: Ok, I could really substitute the word "Great" here to describe the incredible array of photographs and drawings provided. Many I've never seen used before, and the sheer quantity of high quality shots alone makes this book a strong "must read". The descriptions and details provided are adequate, though there are some phrasing issues I found that did take some of the shine off the text.

The Bad: Font. Text. Formatting. This book is a smorgasbord of editorial errors which should not have survived a proof read. Tiny font in a two column format is difficult to read, but making that text barely legible is simply wrong. My copy is in pristine condition and the ink is so pale as to require extra lighting to really make it visible. It felt like they were trying to condense a 250 page book into 160 pages by format/font shrinkage. Just plain bad.

The Ugly: NO REFERENCES!!! WTF?!! No! Simply no! Not acceptable. Putting a single posting on the first page with a miniscule credits list for the photos is wholly inadequate. Not one other reference provided at all. Authors do not get free passes to put information down in a non-fiction historical book and then not provide any substance as to where this information came from. This book could be full of pure bunk, and there is no way to cross check or validate. I am not saying Ford has put out wrong information, and likely this fault lies with the publishers. Shame on you Ballantine! You either cut the material, or you allowed unreferenced material to be published under your name with no supporting evidence included.

This book could have been a 5 Star contender, as it is strong in providing many unpublished photos and illustrations to a target audience which would have devoured that knowledge. Major faux pas to make the book painful to read literally, and nauseating to fail to include references which in turn cost 2 Stars in deduction. I was going to give this a 2.5 star, rounding down. I'm swayed by the pictures again to be generous though, and will round up. 2.5+ Stars

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting little book about German secret weapon development during WWII. Not just a bland listing of the weapons involved (which are usually quite spectacular in scope but saw rather limited use) but also describes some of the organizational setup & effort of the Reich. Plus, some added tidbits which are usually some of the most intriguing factoids of these little known books: The author has spoken personally with people involved & claims that the first jet-powered aircraft flew in late 1937 or early 1938, not august 27, 1939 as the official history. The eye witness he spoke to claimed he saw a jet engine crash to the ground in the road he was walking in that period that had come of one of the aircraft flown at a nearby base. Sounds like a pretty convincing argument to me, being nearly crushed by one.

Having read many of these books, there is a strong consistency of not all history coming into the 'official' history books.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book and learned about a few projects I didn't know about plus how effective they were at hiding everything. It is amazing how much Nazism created such a fervor for national pride in the scientific community and then undercut promising programs due to the leadership up top. I think this creativity definitely lead to some plagiarism in later weapons tech but I don't think they really laid out the "Blueprint for Mars" as the title suggests other than the rocket development. I think it laid out the foundation for the Cold War but for me Mars was a stretch. A great read for anyone interested in this topic.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to find out how much of war is in"the vision thing", read this book. ICBMs, Tiger Tanks that could tear up an entire city strolling through, manned-bombers with fuel range sufficient to reach the USA, and jet fighters, the Comet Class, to knock American and British bombers out of the sky over Germany. The Nazis thought of everything! Brian Ford's slim but exhaustive volume gives proof to Douglas MacCarthur's dictum that "defeat in war is always a matter of one thing-'too late'".

[George Kasnic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Erratic writing. Unnecessary details crowd out important information. Projects are mentioned in passing with little explanation of goal or impact. Names are bandied about to no purpose. Even the schematics and maps are lacking. A poor entry to this normally informative series.

[carl theaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great info & pics for everything from jets, rockets, mini-subs & projectiles.

Ballantine books was the main source for WW2 books in the 60 & 70s and
this was part of an innovative illustrated series, a godsend to young history
fans. The intro is by Liddel Hart to show you they had credentials.

My edition is 1969, have to update GR later. 160pgs w/b&w photos
and ample text telling the story.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was truly impressed by the variety of weapons that the Nazi scientists were able to concoct; when I first got this book I was amazed that they were indeed able to fill an entire volume based on such a dubious premise. This is why I gave it a rather high rating, despite the text seeming rather ESL-ish in places and the pic reproduction having its pitfalls (two ongoing problems with this entire series of books btw).

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid---I can still remember the rockets and jets pics---many never published before.