Customer Reviews
Brilliant Book - By: Dr. A. N. PAYNE, 14 Nov 2008 
An incredibly well-written book with a fantastic mix of comedy, fact & fiction. It couldn't be any better. Parsons is really good at describing everything possible & setting your mind running. Every single invention he decribes comes with a extremely good piece of story telling, which is probably written better than most books out there. Including some the better-acclaimed history & factual books.
Allin all, a good buy & an incredible read.
A bit too familiar and not well written - By: Mr. G. Smith, 13 Jun 2007 
I was very disappointed with this book. For me, it covers ground that is already very familar, such as - during WW2 the Germans designed some very big tanks, that were far too big to be practicable & they didn't get around to finishing them before the war ended.
Nearly all the items described are of German design, & (for me) it became dull well before the end. Each item comes with a short bit of 'fiction' to describe how the item might have performedin battle, but this just seemed to be a way of stretching some notes mostly taken from other books into something publishable.
An awesome read - By: Gary O'Reilly, 12 Feb 2007 I'm the kind of person who'll read lists of trivia just to have something to randomly inject into conversations. I don't know why, but randomly blurting out things like "Adam from Mythbusters worked as a model maker for ILM"in a pub & seeing the bewildered faces of other people at my table amuses me. But after a while, TV & movie based trivia begins to tire. That is why I am grateful for this book.
Now, instead of "they use the wilheim screamin this scene", I can say "The Germans planned to use rocket powered suicide bombsin world war two", & be able to back it up with fact.
This book is what makes history fun. Sure, normal documentaries are fine, but reading about a tank so large it physically can't use paved surfaces without breaking them beyond repair is far more interesting. Or how about an aircraft carrier made of ice? Flying tanks? Some of the creationsin this book genuinely defy belief, & if I hadn't done a little prodding around myself I'd have thought them made up for entertainment.
Don't make the mistake of believing that this book is full of boring technical readouts & blueprints, as it isn't. Each chapter covers the development history, any actual production of the invention, & an analysis of just how useful it would have been, with colourful & amusing comments on the zaniness & downright stupidity of some of them. Alongisde these are a theoretical deployment of the inventions, with an after-action style report, & a personal diary-like entry of someone involvedin the invention itself, which are also brilliantly written.
An altogether brilliant read whether you're a WW2 history buff or not. The blurb on the back of the book says it all: "Only the slow-witted are reading this anywhere other thanin line at the cash register. Ask an adult to help you if you're still not sure you want to buy the book."
Hitleriffic! - By: C. W. Daniels, 03 Jan 2007 I was expecting the usual boring Christmas presents - a porsche, a harem of slavishly devoted beauties to wash my feet, the country of Spain, etc.
But to my surprise & thrill I received this book instead! I'm not a World War II buff or a technical details junkie, but I've always had a passing interestin World War II; I'd watch documentaries on the Discovery/History channel & such. This book does contain a good portion of technical specs but what really makes it a five star achievementin my book is Zack Parsons' relish & love for the subject matter. His fictional explorations of what would have happenedin development & deployment are incredibly well written & something to look forward to after coming to grips with how insane & off the wall some of these ideas were - Flying tanks, back pack helicopters, stupidly gigantic land cruisers, & not to mention a Nazi Space Station!
Cracking read!
Funny, informative, and well worth a read - By: PR Jones, 27 Dec 2006 Although this book is definitely not a traditional history book, I can still thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has a passing interestin World War Two as a whole or weird & wonderful inventionsin general. The author has clearly done a good task of researching a wide range of crackpot ideas whilst managing to avoid descending into dull technical history, which could have been quite easy given the lack of much 'real' evidence of these hypothetical inventions.
Interestingly, the technical aspects of each invention are accompanied by both a hypothetical deployment history & a short story entitled 'what fight have been'. Despite the fact that both of these sections are complete conjecture, they give the reader a feel for the weirdness of the schemes which figures alone could not do. It is a very unusual step for a history book to take, but it works very well.
The book is also well illustrated throughout, which again makes it a lot easier to get your head around what is being described.
Finally, for those familiar with somethingawful.com, the book is seeded with a sense of humour that always makes it lively, witty & a pleasure to read. I'll admit that it made me laugh out loud less than I thought it would based on the website, but that is only because it is actually a work of real substance which constant silliness would have gotin the way of.
