Frontline Publishing – the same company that republished ‘Hitler’s Grey Wolves’ about U-boats in the Far East – will be releasing a paperback version of ‘Weapons of Desperation’ about the Kriegsmarine’s Kleinkampfverbände: midget submarines, human torpedoes, frogmen and explosive motorboats.
Often mistaken for deliberate suicide weapons more akin to the Japanese forces of the Second World War, they may have been involved in suicidal missions, but were not designed to be so. Researching this one was very interesting and involved visiting places like the Anzio beaches and nearby launching sites for the human torpedoes.
As much as I really liked the original painting on the cover of the Chatham book, I think they’ve done a great job with this one – the colourised photo of Walther Gerhold looks great, and the Biber pilot checking out ice around his hull is a classic.
I believe the book is out at the end of March.
