German Guided Missiles of World War II

"Guided missiles were among the most cutting-edge of the new military technologies that Nazi Germany developed - but beyond the V-1 and V-2, most are little known. In 1943, the guided missile age began, with the Mediterranean deployment of the Henschel Hs 293 and the Fritz-X. They scored immediate and spectacular successes - most famously sinking the Italian battleship Roma as it sailed to join the Allies - and sparking a vigorous but little-known "Wizard War" to develop electronic countermeasures, the first effort of its kind. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe was failing to stop the Allies' massed bombers as they devastated Germany. Fielding guided surface-to-air missiles was an astonishingly ambitious response - but the Wasserfall, Schmetterling, and others reached surprisingly advanced states of development. This authoritative book explains the development and combat use of these advanced weapons, as well as the X-4 air-to-air missile and its wire-guided antitank missile derivative, and their influence on postwar missile development."