VFW-Fokker Kumar and Sesta SAM programs +

Pioneer

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G'day all

Looking through the ubiquitous Bill Gunston's The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles again...
Came across the following VFW-Fokker Kumar and Sesta SAM programs, which I haven't been able to find anything on either the web or this forum!
Also out of note is the picture and vague description of the "Underwater launch of solid-propellant missile from Type IXC U-boat in summer 1942"
Is there a subject in relation to these 'underwater launched German missiles' on this forum?

Regards
Pioneer
 

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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles

I came across a copy of that once and considered buying it. I recall the edition I read crediting Red Dean with a range of over forty miles, based on its size. I already knew better. I declined to waste my money, and now I wonder how much else of Gunston's stuff is full of similar mistakes.

In addition, the more of his stuff I read as an adult, the more I detected an underlying agenda. Sorry, Bill; you gave me many happy childhood years with my nose in a book, but the gloss has now come off.

I would not be inclined to trust that book as an authoritative source. (EDIT: In response to Pioneer's post below. Not any more, at least; in its day, I agree it was probably the best a layperson could get their hands on - though how someone with access to sources that Gunston probably had could miss out on Red Dean's range by a factor of ten still befuddles me.)
 
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The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles

I came across a copy of that once and considered buying it. I recall the edition I read crediting Red Dean with a range of over forty miles, based on its size. I already knew better. I declined to waste my money, and now I wonder how much else of Gunston's stuff is full of similar mistakes.

In addition, the more of his stuff I read as an adult, the more I detected an underlying agenda. Sorry, Bill; you gave me many happy childhood years with my nose in a book, but the gloss has not come off.

I would not be inclined to trust that book as an authoritative source.

I appreciate your views and sentiment pathology_doc.
At the end of the day, the 1979 addition of The Illustrated Encyclopedia of the World's Rockets & Missiles was more comprehensive than any other book on the subject - other than Jane's Defence books, which I neither had access, let alone the money to purchase as a kid. I think one could also take into consideration that Gunston wouldn't have had the vast information openly available to him, as one would have today, with the advent of online access to archival information, let alone access to information on Soviet missiles/rockets. In truth, this book alluded me to many obscure missile programs that I never knew or appreciated, just as my question pertaining to VFW-Fokker Kumar and Sesta SAM programs emphasises IMO.

Regards
Pioneer
 
If I recall correctly, the whole German idea of launching rockets from sub was not so much to launch them in air, but to hit ships from below them?
 

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