Reviews for V-2 Ballistic Missile 1942 - 52 (New Vanguard Series)

The average rating for V-2 Ballistic Missile 1942 - 52 (New Vanguard Series) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-01-10 00:00:00 Beverly Titel My son David loves books about military history, and every now and then I borrow one from him. I found this one extremely interesting... having worked at two startups, I am receptive to stories about what happens when you try to introduce new technology. Here are some of the lessons I learned from David's book on the V-2. - The V-2 program was very expensive. In fact, it cost about as much as the US's Manhattan Project, which ended up producing the world's first nuclear weapons. - Despite the huge investment, the V-2 hardly helped Germany at all. The first prototypes only became operational when the war was as good as lost. The number of people killed in V-2 attacks was actually less than the number of slave laborers killed in building the rockets. - Like most new technology, V-2 rockets were exceptionally fragile. Less than half of them actually worked, and they had to be transported with great care. Military units were encouraged to think of them as perishable goods. - All the above notwithstanding, the V-2 was a technological breakthrough. It was a proof-of-concept for a completely new type of weapon. - The V-2, as originally conceived, was not cost-effective as a way to deliver a ton or so of high explosives to a distant target. Combined with the new and much more potent technology of atomic weapons, it was, however, the perfect delivery system. - Despite the fact that their country was in ruins, and they had made little useful contribution to the war effort, the developers of the new technology had no trouble at all finding attractive new jobs. As soon as the Allies invaded Germany, there was a frantic scramble to kidnap/recruit the rocket scientists. All worth thinking about next time you join a startup. Oh yes, and one more lesson. Everyone approves of whistle-blowers in principle, but in practice things rarely go well for them. Security was tight on the V-2 project, and for quite a while the Allies didn't really know how far advanced it was. Some of the non-German workers managed to pass on information to the spy network. The Allies decided that the best strategy was a decapitation strike, killing all the management and engineers in one go. But they didn't drop the bombs accurately, and instead killed several hundred of the slave laborers, including the ones who had passed on the information.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-02-04 00:00:00 David McDonald Este libro me ha gustado mucho porque te ayuda entender el impacto del misil V-2, tanto en el plano científico como militar. Es sorprendente que la percepción que se tiene sobre el V-2 es que "llegó tarde para cambiar el curso de la Segunda Guerra Mundial", pero lo cierto es que el desarrollo del misil V-2 comenzó mucho antes de que estallase el conflicto, y ya en 1937 existía un programa oficial de desarrollo. Una maravilla tecnológica para su época, el V-2 fue un absoluto fracaso como arma: debido al reto que suponía su reentrada en la atmósfera, el explosivo empleado era de poca potencia. Como resultado, la campaña de lanzamientos entre finales de 1944 y principios de 1945 (siete meses) supuso menos explosivo (en cuanto a capacidad destructiva) que un bombardeo de la RAF EN UNA NOCHE. El fracaso militar del V-2 se puede resumir en la trágica estadística de que murieron más personas en su desarrollo, ya que se emplearon trabajadores forzados de campos de concentración de las SS en condiciones deplorables, que en su empleo. En un análisis al final de la guerra, se determinó que la V-1 (el misil de la Luftwaffe, sencillo y fácil de fabricar), había tenido mucho más éxito que la maravilla tecnológica de la Wehrmacht. Un muy buen libro para l@s aficionad@s a la historia militar y también a la ciencia, porque es innegable que los desarrollos tecnológicos del programa V-2 fueron la base para la carrera espacial y la tecnología de satélites que tenemos hoy en día.