The Origins of Surface-to-Air Guided Missile Technology: German Flak Rockets and the Onset of the Cold War [Hardcover]

Author James Mills presents an amazing, detailed history review of the German surface-to-air guided missile technology development. Military ReviewWorld War II saw the appearance of numerous revolutionary armaments on both sides of the conflict that would radically change the nature of warfare, from jet aircraft to the ballistic missile and the atomic bomb. The greatest conflagration in history also saw the conception of the first surface-to-air guided missile systems, technology pioneered by German scientists and engineers through an extensive development program which ran from 1942 to 1945. Although the program did not achieve its main objective  to introduce a functional weapon system into the Luftwaffe air defense network  German research and development in most aspects of the technology was ahead of comparable research in the United Kingdom and the United States.The history of the transfer of German SAM technology to the Allies after 1945 has previously been overshadowed by the well-published transfers of the V-1 and V-2 guided missiles. This book presents the first complete history of Germanys wartime development of surface-to-air missile (SAM) technology, how the Allies acquired this secret research towards the end of World War II in Europe and in the early postwar period, and how they then exploited this knowledge.How German Surface-to-Air Missile technology captured by the Western Allies influenced Cold War technology.Explores the origins of SAM technology crucial armaments in modern air defence networks as a comparative history of the early development of the technology in the four countries concerned.First comprehensive analysis of the post-war German influences on the development of the technology by the Western Allies.Fullest examination to date of the transfer and exploitation of German intellectual property by the Allies after 1945. For military technology historians of this era, Millss book fills a gap in understanding Nazi Germanys contributilcu