As the course of World War II turned against Nazi Germany, from early 1943 the Luftwaffe began to consider inventive and radical designs for weapons to confront the waves of Allied heavy  bombers that were targeting the Reich and the expanding mass of Soviet armour threatening the Eastern Front. 

Similarly, the war at sea demanded more sophisticated air-to-surface weapons as the U-boat fleet suffered debilitating losses. At the fringes of weaponry development, there were no bounds to what was put forward for serious consideration. 

Some of these proposals were destined never to leave the drawing board, while others not only underwent trials, but were issued to operational units and used in action. 

Following many years of research and drawing on first-hand interviews conducted with former pilots and German archive reports, Luftwaffe Special Weapons 1942–45 examines the many different types of weapons that comprised the Luftwaffe’s increasingly potent arsenal during the second half of the war. 

These often radical weapons embraced a blend of cutting edge technology with boundary-pushing and daredevil intent combined with lethal effectiveness.

The book is available for purchase in printed or digital edition directly from Osprey here

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