Last Talons of the Eagle: Secret Nazi Technology Which Could Have Changed the Course of World War II

by Gary Hyland, Anton Gill

Much has been written about the doodlebugs, V2 rockets, and other advanced technologies that the Nazis used to terrorize Europe during World War II. But there is a less well-known under the barrage of Allied bombing, German scientists were secretly devising plans for an incredible battery of weapons that had the potential to drastically affect the outcome of the war. There were designs for a hypersonic space plane-a manned V1 flying bomb from which the hapless pilot would eject moments after aiming his craft at an Allied target-and plans for aircraft that consisted only of wings. There were dozens of other prototypes that were technologically way ahead of their time-against which the Allies would have been helpless. Exhaustively researched and grippingly written, Last Talons of the Eagle shows how history might well have been very different had these craft ever flown.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany

373 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 3 out of 5]

LAST TALONS OF THE EAGLE takes a comprehensive look at the various secret technologies that were designed, tested or built for use of the Luftwaffe in its efforts to stave off the Allied bombing campaign against Germany, as well as for the use of the Wehrmacht itself.

Examples of these technologies included "designs for a hypersonic space plane, a manned V-1 flying bomb" [the Fieseler Fi 103 Reichenberg] that was to be employed by its pilot to fly into an Allied bomber formation, allowing scant time for said pilot to bail out of the Fi 103, and prototypes for "flying wing" aircraft. Indeed many of these designs and prototypes were fantastically futuristic, anticipating by several decades aerospace technologies that would later be perfected in the U.S. and Western Europe.

This is a book ideally suited for any readers who have an interest in technology. There are lots of photos of prototypes, designs from projects that never saw the light of days because of Germany's declining fortunes as the war proceeded, and aircraft (e.g. the Heinkel 162 jet fighter) that saw limited combat.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd rate this higher because the content is rather fascinating and it prompted me to learn more about Dora where prisoners assembled V-1s and V-2s inside of a mountain. If you like (and can picture) various aircraft designs and their military and engineering implications, this will be an excellent read.

Unfortunately, for me, the paperback edition has a very annoying flaw in the location and use of its plates. First, Hyland does not bother to number the plates and create references to specific images within the text. Second, the plates are in three sections, which would be less of a problem if the plates depicted aircraft in the order they appear in the text. This lack of order created lots of referencing and re-reading every plate's description to determine if I could find an image that matched the description within the text, which was incredibly frustrating. (It also made no sense to put the highly experimental aircraft designs in the middle of the book instead of making those the third set of plates.)

[Peter Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

German aeronautical science was already quite advanced in the late 1930s and the desperation of the war forced them to experiment even further. Whilst the allies were busy perfecting the planes that would win the war, the Germans built some weird and not so wonderful contraptions. These go well beyond the commonly known Komets and Me262s.


There is the Arrow, a plane with an engine at both ends, various rockets and jets, planes with rotating wings, vertical take off interceptors and most unbelievably, a Mach18 reaching plane powered by coal.


There are some fascinating accounts in here. However, the book is probably 40 pages too long and is badly hurt by the lack of drawings of each plane. Other than that, it's pretty good.

[Rick Chagouri-Brindle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the advanced technologies development by the Nazis in aviation at the end of World War 2.