Hitler’s Miracle Weapons, Volume 1

I had to get a book that claimed the exact opposite of what every other serious piece of scholarship on the German nuclear weapons program said (it was not even close to making a bomb). So I read Hitler’s Miracle Weapons. The art and models are very nice and if this was an acknowledged alternate history, I’d have little but praise for the book.

Unfortunately, the book makes tons of leaps of faith (to put it mildly) and makes the claims that:

• Germany had built and tested nuclear warheads but didn’t use them for “reasons” even though it intended to
• Said warheads ranged from small suitcase nukes to 20 megaton monsters
• The American nuclear bombs were taken at least partially from German technology.

It does provide a lot of sources, but they feel circular. Moreover, it simply moves on with absolute confidence to the next wunderbomb, speaking as if it was an acknowledged fact that Germany had an arsenal more diverse than a postwar nuclear power. This is a kooky book, but it’s the detailed kind of kooky book. Make of that what you will.