Secret Weapons

August 22, 2011
British scientist and TV personality Ford (German Secret Weapons) pulls back the curtain in this fascinating, accessible study of the weapons and tactics that changed the course of World War II. Many inventions that seemed like terrific ideas and had significant supportâsuch as dambuster bombs and Britain's Panjandrum (a rolling explosive wheel designed to destroy German fortifications)â never worked, while others, like the greatly-feared V-2 (a German rocket that was undetectable until after it struck), were game-changers. Scattered amongst the weaponry are movie-ready stories, such as that of Hans Mayer, the German physicist behind the "Oslo Report" that gave the Allies an incredible amount of information on Nazi military plans, and Werhner Von Braun, a German scientist who later worked for NASA as a rocket designer. Dr. Shiro Ishii's medical experiments in Japan rivaled those of Mengeleâover half a million people, many of them Chinese, were killed during gruesome experiments. Though he occasionally errs on the side of too much detail, Ford's engrossing examination of weapons and tactics will likely be devoured by interested readers.