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Stealing Hitler’s Rocket

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Stealing Hitler's Rocket, written and read by Guy Walters.

'As vivid and enthralling as the story deserves… recounted with a quiet restraint that makes it all the more devastating' The Telegraph

Adolf Hitler’s plan to break British morale during the months after the D-Day landings in June 1944 involved the invention and implementation of the world’s first rocket delivered warhead – the V1, or ‘Doodle Bug’ as it was christened by Londoners. Thousands were launched from their sites in the Low Countries against the British capital, killing 6,184 people and injuring 17,981.

As the launch sites for the V1 were captured by Allied forces advancing through Belgium and into the Netherlands, a new, more terrifying rocket now hit London in mid-September, seemingly out of thin air – the V2. A streamlined rocket which stood as tall as a four-storey building, the V2 was highly advanced technology. Powered by a rocket engine burning a mix of alcohol-water and liquid oxygen, it blasted its way to the edge of space, before falling back to Earth at supersonic speed. Unlike the successes allied pilots and anti-aircraft crews had enjoyed shooting down the slower and more cumbersome V1, the V2 struck London almost undetected. It truly was Hitler’s terror weapon made devastatingly real, causing over 30,000 casualties and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless, with the randomness of the strikes unnerving the British public even though their destructive capacity was less than the Blitz in 1940-41.

But Winston Churchill’s intelligence chiefs of SOE had known of the weapon weeks before it first struck the mainland as the Nazi boffins (led by Werner Von Braun who would go onto fame with the US Apollo Missions in the 1960s) tested the V2 in Eastern Europe. Away from prying eyes. Or, so they thought. In Stealing Hitler’s Rocket, historian Guy Walters will reveal the true extent to how much we knew of this modern-day weapon and the operation by the Polish resistance to enable Britain and her allies to prepare for the day of reckoning.

Critics Review

As vivid and enthralling as the story deserves… recounted with a quiet restraint that makes it all the more devastating. With Stealing Hitler’s Rocket, Walters has rescued a band of extraordinary people from the footnotes of a narrative that tends to focus on the wider grind of the war effort.
The Telegraph
A fascinating account of one of World War Two’s most seminal episodes, beautifully told.
Roger Moorhouse
This is a fascinating story of a bold and successful mission by members of the Polish resistance to smuggle a disassembled V2 rocket from Nazi occupied Europe to Britain. It’s an absorbing read.
Professor Frank McDonough author of The Hitler Years series
A dazzling account of one of the most audacious episodes of the Second World War. Meticulously researched and written with verve, Stealing Hitler’s Rocket is a tour de force.
Giles Milton, author of The Stalin Affair
Mr Walters, having mined hitherto unearthed files and records, tells the story with high drama
Country Life
[A] remarkable book
Aspects of History
Vividly and enthrallingly written
The Telegraph
A real thriller
The Tablet
Author Guy Walters
Narrator Guy Walters
Duration 7 hours and 31 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781035910878
Format Audiobook
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
Genre History
Availability AU, GB, IE

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