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OverviewRace to the Moon is a suspenseful thriller about the 30-year clash between the United States and the Soviet Union to be the first to put a man on the moon. This true account is heavy with intrigue, espionage, and controversy. Beginning with a 1961 pledge by President John F. Kennedy to plant the Stars and Stripes on the lunar surface by the end of the decade, the story flashes back to the first days of World War II. At that time, England was tipped off by a high Nazi official that the Third Reich was developing revolutionary long-range rockets. This same source clandestinely provided documents that shocked British scientists: The Germans were 25 years ahead of England and the United States in rocket development! And then, in September 1944, 60-foot-long V-2 rockets, for which there was no defense, began raining down on London, causing enormous destruction and loss of life. Even while the fighting was still raging in Germany in the spring of 1945, a handful of young U.S. Army officers scored a colossal coup: They connived to steal 100 of the huge V-2s that had been found in an underground factory. They were dismantled and slipped by train out of Germany, destination White Sands, New Mexico. Then began a no-holds-barred search for German rocket scientists in the chaos of a defeated Third Reich, with the Americans and British on one side and the Russians on the other. Within weeks of the close of the war, Wernher von Braun and 126 of his rocket team members were corraled, shipped to the United States, and began working secretly on missile development. At the same time, the Soviets literally kidnapped other German rocket scientists and sent them to Russia to continue their space work. In the years ahead, Wernher von Braun and his German rocket team, nearly all of whom became naturalized citizens of the United States, collaborated with American scientists to overcome enormous space achievements by the Soviets--and bungling by Washington politicians--to send Neil Armstrong scampering about on the moon in 1969. Full Product DetailsAuthor: William B. BreuerPublisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Imprint: Praeger Publishers Inc Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.624kg ISBN: 9780275944810ISBN 10: 0275944816 Pages: 232 Publication Date: 27 July 1993 Recommended Age: From 7 to 17 years Audience: Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Professional & Vocational , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand  We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of Contents"""This Great New American Enterprise"" The Oslo Mystery Package ""Today the Space Ship Was Born!"" A Bitter Clash of Viewpoints Operation Hydra The Gestapo Strikes at Midnight The Polish Underground Steals a V-2 The Great Treasure Hunt Begins ""Germany Has Lost the War!"" Journey to the Bavarian Alps Discovery at Kohnstein Mountain ""They're 25 Years Ahead of Us!"" Smuggling a Trainload of Missile Experts Threats and Blackmail Rattlesnakes, Tarantulas, and Guided Missiles Operation Osvakim: A Mass Kidnapping A Fateful ""Wrong Decision"" Billy Mitchell of the Space Age Goldstone Has the Bird! ""I'm Tired of America Being Second!"" An Astronaut is Missing ""But Why, Some Say, the Moon?"" A Christmas Eve Spectacular ""The Eagle Has Landed!"" Epilogue Bibliography Index"Reviews?The latest of Breuer's well-written books is more like his espionage histories-Hoodwinking Hitler, for instance-than like his more numerous battle and campaign narratives. Using abundant primary and secondary sources, many recently declassified, Breuer unfolds and engrossing narrative that will make space advocates weep with frustration when they see how much faster and farther we could have gone in laying the foundations of a permanent American space effort.?-Booklist The latest of Breuer's well-written books is more like his espionage histories-Hoodwinking Hitler, for instance-than like his more numerous battle and campaign narratives. Using abundant primary and secondary sources, many recently declassified, Breuer unfolds and engrossing narrative that will make space advocates weep with frustration when they see how much faster and farther we could have gone in laying the foundations of a permanent American space effort. -Booklist Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WW II spycraft and warfare. . . . Crackerjack war adventures--and, in this case, the moon's the limit. -Kirkus Reviews Highly recommended. General community college; undergraduate; pre-professional. -Choice His military perspective serves him well in the chapters tracing the V-2's development history, the Allies' undercover espionage and overt military efforts to neutralize the weapon, and the fateful decision by von Braun's team to seek out and surrender to the Allies to avoid capture by the Soviets in the waning days of the war. -Library Journal ?Highly recommended. General community college; undergraduate; pre-professional.?-Choice ?Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WW II spycraft and warfare. . . . Crackerjack war adventures--and, in this case, the moon's the limit.?-Kirkus Reviews ?The latest of Breuer's well-written books is more like his espionage histories-Hoodwinking Hitler, for instance-than like his more numerous battle and campaign narratives. Using abundant primary and secondary sources, many recently declassified, Breuer unfolds and engrossing narrative that will make space advocates weep with frustration when they see how much faster and farther we could have gone in laying the foundations of a permanent American space effort.?-Booklist ?His military perspective serves him well in the chapters tracing the V-2's development history, the Allies' undercover espionage and overt military efforts to neutralize the weapon, and the fateful decision by von Braun's team to seek out and surrender to the Allies to avoid capture by the Soviets in the waning days of the war.?-Library Journal Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WW II spycraft and warfare (Geronimo!, Sea Wolf, Hitler's Undercover War - all 1989, etc.). World War II? What docs that have to do with the moon? Quite a lot, especially in Breuer's version: Fully half of his text is a dramatic account of German rocketry in 1939-45, when Nazi scientists, led by the young and brilliant Wernher von Braun, developed the V-1 buzz bombs and V-2 rockets that rained terror in the skies of England. Plots and counterplots abound as the Nazis set up their missile shop in Peenemunde and the Allies try to knock it down (at one point launching 4000 airmen and nearly the entire British air force in a massive raid), while von Braun, who dreams of extraterrestrial travel, complains that his rockets are landing on the wrong planet. Himmler arrests von Braun; Speer frees him; Hitler goofs by aiming V-2s at London instead of port cities; as the Third Reich collapses, von Braun and 150 engineers surrender to bewildered GIs, explaining that they want to help America land on the moon. Meanwhile, Stalin's troops pull off the most far-reaching and bizarre mass kidnapping in 20th century Europe, sealing entire cities and combing them for rocket experts (20,000 fall into the net) to ship to Mother Russia. The space race is on. Breuer runs professionally through the postwar decades, from early White Sands testing to Armstrong's boots in the lunar dust, but this part of the story has been told before (although Breuer confirms that von Braun was ready to launch a satellite months before Sputnik put egg on our face, but was blocked by military squabbling). Crackerjack war adventures - and, in this case, the moon's the limit. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationWILLIAM B. BREUER landed with the first assault waves in Normandy on D-Day, then fought across Europe. Later, he founded a daily newspaper in Rolla, Missouri, and after that, a highly successful public relations firm in St. Louis. He has been writing books full time since 1982, twelve of which are now in paperback, and eight of which have become main selections of the Military Book Club. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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