Table of Contents

"This Great New American Enterprise" The Oslo Mystery Package "Today the Space Ship Was Born!" A Bitter Clash of Viewpoints Operation Hydra The Gestapo Strikes at Midnight The Polish Underground Steals a V-2 The Great Treasure Hunt Begins "Germany Has Lost the War!" Journey to the Bavarian Alps Discovery at Kohnstein Mountain "They're 25 Years Ahead of Us!" Smuggling a Trainload of Missile Experts Threats and Blackmail Rattlesnakes, Tarantulas, and Guided Missiles Operation Osvakim: A Mass Kidnapping A Fateful "Wrong Decision" Billy Mitchell of the Space Age Goldstone Has the Bird! "I'm Tired of America Being Second!" An Astronaut is Missing "But Why, Some Say, the Moon?" A Christmas Eve Spectacular "The Eagle Has Landed!" Epilogue Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

This is the first book to trace the entire story of how America got to the moon before Communist Russia. The book opens with an appeal by President John F. Kennedy for winning the space race, then flashes back to World War II and traces the history of rocket development by the Germans, who were 25 years ahead of all other nations in rocket R&D! Also told is the story of the German scientists who were smuggled to the United States--to develop the rocket program that would propel the U.S. to the moon first.

About the Author

WILLIAM B. BREUER landed with the first assault waves in Normandy on D-Day, then fought across Europe. Later, he founded a daily newspaper in Rolla, Missouri, and after that, a highly successful public relations firm in St. Louis. He has been writing books full time since 1982, twelve of which are now in paperback, and eight of which have become main selections of the Military Book Club.

Reviews

?Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WW II spycraft and warfare. . . . Crackerjack war adventures--and, in this case, the moon's the limit.?-Kirkus Reviews

?Highly recommended. General community college; undergraduate; pre-professional.?-Choice

?His military perspective serves him well in the chapters tracing the V-2's development history, the Allies' undercover espionage and overt military efforts to neutralize the weapon, and the fateful decision by von Braun's team to seek out and surrender to the Allies to avoid capture by the Soviets in the waning days of the war.?-Library Journal

?The latest of Breuer's well-written books is more like his espionage histories-Hoodwinking Hitler, for instance-than like his more numerous battle and campaign narratives. Using abundant primary and secondary sources, many recently declassified, Breuer unfolds and engrossing narrative that will make space advocates weep with frustration when they see how much faster and farther we could have gone in laying the foundations of a permanent American space effort.?-Booklist

"Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WW II spycraft and warfare. . . . Crackerjack war adventures--and, in this case, the moon's the limit."-Kirkus Reviews

"Highly recommended. General community college; undergraduate; pre-professional."-Choice

"His military perspective serves him well in the chapters tracing the V-2's development history, the Allies' undercover espionage and overt military efforts to neutralize the weapon, and the fateful decision by von Braun's team to seek out and surrender to the Allies to avoid capture by the Soviets in the waning days of the war."-Library Journal

"The latest of Breuer's well-written books is more like his espionage histories-Hoodwinking Hitler, for instance-than like his more numerous battle and campaign narratives. Using abundant primary and secondary sources, many recently declassified, Breuer unfolds and engrossing narrative that will make space advocates weep with frustration when they see how much faster and farther we could have gone in laying the foundations of a permanent American space effort."-Booklist