The Deadly Fuze : the Secret Weapon of World War II [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

The Deadly Fuze is a book that's easy to read and graps the readers full attention when describing the efforts and achievements on the way to develop the proximity fuze. Considering today methods of design and development, the achievements as described in the book are even more appreciated as a true wonder of technology. It is a - must read - for everyone involved in proximity fuzes whether it is on the manufacturing side or today's user side.

I would have to say my initial interest in the Proximity Fuze is personal--my father was employed by Section T, now the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. APL later declared that the VT or Proximity Fuze was its first project showing effectiveness from conception to practical application--in other words, from theory to application.

Few will know (although you can find some information on the WWW) that the VT Fuze is credited as one of the three top secrets that won the war--the others being D-Day, and the A-Bomb.

So, the participants worked on a heady project. Baldwin declares, and who could argue with the success, that only a democracy such as ours could have unleashed the imagination, creativity, technical prowess and confidence, to actually produce a functioning proximity fuze...the idea being neither original nor particularly "new."

What is also astounding is that it is clear that two years prior to the War, our government was really actively participating in hiring the greatest minds of the day and harnessing their potential in creating NEW and EFFECTIVE WEAPONS....long before anyone dreamt of Pearl Harbor. Unfortunatley, the fuze was not yet available on 12/7/41---but it was CLOSE!!! And, it was most effective against the type of Japanese aircraft deployed that day, saving thousands of lives and time in the Pacific Theater.

As Dr. Tuve, head of Section T said, the greatest interest then was TIME, not MONEY. And, he made sure that Section T delivered.

I found on error in the book--a quibble, I suppose--regarding the recognition by the Navy...the Bureau of Ordnace Award (with Symbol) did go to my father--I have it. Along with his long-time colleague Robert Herman.

However, I am somewhat surprised that Hollywood has not made a movie about this period and the development of the proximity fuze...why not? It is as thrilling as Hunt for Red October, but it isn't fiction. The information was declassified in 1976, and Baldwin's book followed shortly in 1980. It is as exciting a read nearly 25 years later as it must have been then, and the ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS are even more thrilling. What excites more (and Baldwin recognizes this, although it must have been very heady)--very few people knew what they were working on....the tasks, Top Secret, were parceled out in such a way so that millions of these fuzes were produced, but very few knew what they were, how they worked, or why they worked. EVERY country was working on one. The Japanese had one, but our taking of Iwo Jima appears to have stopped the program cold.

General Patton, I'll paraphrase here, credited this fuze in its horrendous anti-personnel capacity as having won the Battle of the Bulge...and that the "funny" fuze would revolutionize warfare...until our potential enemies had one. After reading Baldwin's tome, one has to ask....do we actually have a better one now? If not, why not? Of course, in 1939, we thought America could do ANYTHING!!!

That is a time we could all connect with on some level.