10" x 7.5". A 14 page printed typewriter-face report including 2 sketches of the German Bachem B-349 Natter designed to act as a vertical launch interceptor against American high-altitude daylight bomber formations. It is uncertain as to whether the Natter ever saw action although one report mentions an attack on March 25th 1945 over Hanover on a formation of four-engined Liberators succeeding in downing two and damaging a third.
Effectively this was the world's first ground to air missile with the pilot closing with the target aircraft before jettisoning the nose-cone and firing 24 Henschel Hs 217 F”hn unguided rockets. The pilot would then turn away and parachute to safety. Read further information on the Natter.
In very good, near-immaculate, condition in original wrappers. Protected in a modern handmade archival cloth slipcase, leather label titled in gilt.
Following the Normandy landings in 1944, combined American and British intelligence units working under SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied European Forces) produced a wide-ranging series of detailed surveys and reports on captured German industry and armament production as allied troops advanced across occupied Europe. Printed in small numbers for a restricted circulation, these military and commercial intelligence reports, containing material unpublished elsewhere, seldom come onto the market.
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