The Mare’s Nest is about twelve thousand German scientists and engineers laboured with sixteen thousand slave labourers to build the secret weapons that would reduce London to ruins: how close they came to success! Here is the full story written from secret British and German documents, and from the private papers of the scientists and war leaders who mounted the British Intelligence counter-offensive.
In Germany inter-service rivalry undermined the competing weapons projects until all were too late; and in Britain the most tempestuous dispute of the war thundered along the corridors of Whitehall, while senior defense scientists waged their personal battles.
For a year, the British War Cabinet was led to believe that the German rockets were a well-planned giant hoax, a ‘mare’s nest’ as the Prime Minister’s personal Scientific Adviser, the controversial Lord Cherwell, put it on October 25, 1943.
Here are the secret disputes and intrigues that rocked the War Cabinet for eighteen vital months of the Second World War. Here too is the full story of the heroic R.A.F. Bomber Command assault on the Peenemünde rocket installations.
This narrative of the tremendous duel between Hitler with his research scientists and engineers and the British Government with its Intelligence and Scientific experts and codebreakers, will enhance Mr. Irving’s reputation for brilliant investigation of little known aspects of the last war.
The Mare’s Nest has 336 pages
Joseph Austin-Crowe –
The book follows a fascinating parallel narrative, where the two 'sides' are presented in their modes of thinking, yet hints of the outcomes of any decisions (other than the obvious!) are provided as tantalising teasers to each next chapter.
The entire subject, that is, weapon development in WWII – may seem vast, but really this is a treatment of the intelligence efforts relating to the V-weapons. When considered, should any document on this subject not be more than a very narrow, dry, discourse?
Quite the opposite! Mr Irving provides insight into the personalities involved, fairly treating them with absolutely no obvious bias one way or the other.
I found myself, on two or three occasions, second-guessing (not accepting?) Mr Irving's analysis of some of the player's motivations (eg, Cherwell), but then realising that this is part of the good authorship of this book: A viewpoint is not so hammered down that it is not left open to some interpretation. This, I find, is commendable.