CROSSBOW AND OVERCAST

by James McGovern ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

McGovern has done a remarkable job of gathering and assembling some not easily available material relating to the development of the V-2 rocket in Germany and to the ultimate U.S. coup of getting 100 rockets and 115 German scientists to the States. The final value of this action was that the U. S. went into the rocket race with men who had three decades of rocketry experience and were the most well-versed team in the world. The British began their spy operations into the German mystery weapon in 1942. Try as they did, they could not discover what the weapon was, not at least until it was practically upon them. They did discover, however, these enigmatic concrete ""ski slides"" pointing toward London and, although they didn't know what they were bombing, they put into operation project Crossbow: massive bombing attacks on the mystery installations. Eventually, the U. S. decided to get into this also and developed a secret project named Overcast whose objective was to capture rockets and scientists. Fairly half of the present material concerns the Germans themselves, notably Wernher von Braun and General Walter Dornberger, who developed the V-2 project. The author interviewed both men extensively and was himself an intelligence officer in postwar Germany. The final race between the Americans, British and Russians for these ""spoils"" gets quite exciting.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION