Just Finished Reading: V2 by Robert Harris (FP: 2020) [370pp] 

England, November 1944. It was almost over. With the Normandy landings and the Allied move into France everyone could see that the end of the terrible war was coming to an end. But then, almost like a bad dream, it wasn’t. Hitler had been promising for some time that new, secret weapons were being built and that the Allies would suffer once they were released. Some saw it as simply impotent propaganda but some knew the truth. Such weapons did indeed exist. The RAF had been photographing their development for months and the British government had been developing methods of defence. When the first of the so-called ‘vengeance’ weapons, which the public dubbed the “doodlebug” because of its characteristic noise, was finally used Londoners used to the Blitz gritted their teeth and decided they could bare it a bit longer. When the defences started to be increasingly effective against the new menace another sigh of relief echoed through the long-suffering population. It was all over now, surely. But in occupied Holland a new threat lurked – the second ‘vengeance’ weapon, the V2. This was a very different beast to the doodlebug. Once launched from mobile sites it was impossible to intercept and what made it worse was that there was no warning, none. Only after the explosion of impact would people know what had just hit them – if they survived. With the new terror weapon making the population increasingly jittery there was only two ways the British could stop them: overrun the launch sites and put them forever out of range or catch them on the ground and destroy them. But with the advance into Holland stalled after the failure of Operation Market Garden this was going to take some time. But if they could catch the launchers before that could move, that would be quite something. The suggestion was made that as the missiles flew in a ballistic path the arc could, at least theoretically, be calculated. Radar would pick up the launch and track the flight for a few seconds and, minutes later, the impact would be known. If the curve could be calculated in SIX minutes the point of origin could be determined and an air strike launched. The hunt was on and the clock was ticking... 

As a determined fan of the author as well as someone who has had a long fascination with both V weapons (they were both amongst the plethora of models I built as a child), I’d been looking forward to this book for a while. I was not disappointed. Told mostly from the viewpoint of WAAF officer Kay Caton-Walsh who started off as a photo-interpreter before picking up her slide rule to calculate ballistic curves, and Rudi Graf who grew up longing to build rockets capable of reaching space before working on the V2 project with his friend Verner Von Braun, this was both a fascinating look at both sides of the rocket equation. I found it particularly interesting that the author looked at the justification (and self-justification) for the rocket project from the German side, especially when they not only had to square using it as a weapon but also the use of slave labour to enable it being built in the first place. The moral pretzel turning, especially from Von Braun, was something to behold. Interestingly, I later read a book on the photo recon side of things (review on Monday) and noting was mentioned about calculating flight paths. I know the Operation Big Ben was based around attacking launch sites but, as yet, don’t know too much detail about it. So, more research to come! Apart from some very minor wobbles (mostly on the relationship side of things) I enjoyed this very much indeed. It felt much shorter than it actually was and totally absorbed me into the narrative. Definitely recommended for anyone interested in an often-overlooked aspect of WW2 and for anyone interested in a cracking good read.