At first sight, this magazine, issued as an instalment of a part-work, looks unattractive to the modern reader; a 64-page, 1970s part-work, illustrated by fairly average graphic art and comparatively few - and quite poor - photographs. And initially, the text is off-putting. The first substantial chapter deals with German secret aircraft projects and has a number of places where there are factual omissions, only some of which have come to light since publication.

But then, the writers get onto meatier matters, going in depth into artillery and missiles, and things get much better. There is a surprising amount of detail in these sections, and the writing style picks up with a far easier style than would have been expected.

Little commented upon was the use of slave labour in the German war effort. This is despite reference being made to the V-2 production facility in 'central Germany' (actually KZ-Dora, near Nordhausen in the Harz) and the large numbers of missiles deployed. Other references are made where the use of slave labour can be inferred by reading between the lines.

Throughout, there is a continual theme; that German success in World War II was a virtual impossibility in the long run because of the interference of Hitler in key decisions. Moreover, Hitler's own ingrained belief in Social Darwinism left different teams competing with each other for favour and resources. Any number of the concepts explored in this book were workable and feasible (though many were not), but development was left too late, either because projects were passed over, or because people with access to the right channels were allowed to go their own way, using resources that would have been better directed to the immediate war effort. And a degree of arrogance also played its part, in the infamous 'one year rule' - certain projects were shelved in the early years of the war because there was a policy of only supporting projects that could be finished within a year because "the war will be won by then".

We should be thankful that these attitudes prevailed. And we should be thankful that resources were wasted on a wide range of different projects, instead of concentrating on a couple of key ones, such as jet engines and atomic weapons.