Secret Projects of the Kriegsmarine: Unseen Deigns of Nazi Germany’s Navy
By Nico & Alessio Sgarlato
I was expecting to read about the German Navy's secret and unseen successful projects leading up to and including World War 2 for new combatant craft. However, my takeaway after reading this book was the large number of cited designs, while often creative, had serious flaws ending in either incomplete or failed outcomes. This came as a surprise to me given that the Germans have a long-standing reputation for excellent engineering that, among other endeavors, produced a wide variety of novel and successful military aircraft, rockets, land-based vehicles and armament systems. On the other hand, perhaps these numerous failures were typical for ALL combatants but (to my knowledge) few, if any, books have been written addressing this aspect of warfare. Probably the winners of such conflicts are unlikely to confess or reveal their less successful efforts?
Having said this, I feel that any student or enthusiast of all things warfare may find this an interesting read given the numerous and detailed examples of the challenges facing a technically advanced military (such as Germany's). The authors are to be commended for their research and the amazing amount of related information. At times I even felt that there might have been too much detailed information provided, but I also feel the authors needed to share what they had discovered. In my view, this is not necessarily a book for a large market but is certainly commendable for its detailed and authentic research plus unusual subject matter.
- Barnsley: Greenhill Books, 2022
- 6-3/4” x 9-3/4”, hardcover, ix + 182 pages
- Photographs, drawings, bibliography. $63.00
- ISBN: 9781784386970
Reviewed by: Robert Johnson, Largo, Florida
