The Secret Horsepower Race, Book Info.

[schwarze-man]

Hi everyone,
I have been fortunate to have helped the author, Calum Douglas, with his just-about to be published book "The Secret Horsepower Race".
I thought that members here might appreciate a little heads-up? I am not impartial as I have some involvement. However, I have no financial connection and I hope that this info will be of interest.
The book is a chronological description of WW2 Western Front aero-engine development. Calum has used archive research of original records to base the book on. Importantly, he has translated much original German material to English. This makes the book easy for English speakers to understand.
This is not a book of engine manuals. It is a history of the technical developments that allowed engines to increase in power from around 1000hp to around 2000hp in service use during WW2. Much of the Allied development is previously known but, the German story has been, at best, fragmented and poorly understood. Some of the details in this book are groundbreaking.
The book is well illustrated and is a big book with 478 large pages.
Despite not being a compilation of engine-manuals, there is a lot to get your technical head engaged. To me, it combines a great mixture of info and background story.
Price is £35 from the publisher and cheaper from other outlets. I believe the print-run is largely sold so, if you are interested, I would advise buying now.

Cheers

SM

[schwarze-man]

Oh yes, the word-count is about 250,000.

SM

[superbee]

Interesting article in the newest "Iron Cross" magazine,"Merlin V. DB 601A"

It compares both engines, the author concludes that the DB 601 was the better strategic engine in 1940 by its thoroughness, precision and economy of design.

[Nick Beale]

The book's advertised here, with a cover image.

[edwest2]

On another site, the author reports that the finished book is with the publisher and that orders placed with them are beginning to go out. The print run was 2,000 copies.

[schwarze-man]

Yes, it is out from Mortons.
This is a book that deserves careful reading. I would advise taking it as a complete read-through first. There is a lot here and, the stepping-stone format gives a great perspective, if you can manage to do that!
Calum has great cross-references and the context of the timelines should be carefully understood to guide your comparisons of competing developments.
A great book, not light reading!

Cheers

SM

[edwest2]

Here is the author signing some copies.

https://twitter.com/CalumDouglas1/st...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Usual disclaimer,
Ed

[Jukka Juutinen]

It is interesting to note that Douglas relies on massive amounts of DB technical documents. These type of documents are often claimed not to exist and thus authors keep pouring out totally uninteresting combat chronicles and painting guides.

[edwest2]

Jukka,

I understand why you are skeptical. Here is a quote from the author's site:

"Professor Doktor-Ing. Karl Kollmann, chief designer at Daimler-Benz aero engines until 1945. The Professor wrote his technical memoirs in 1947 which lay at the family home, almost unknown to the outside world until January 2016, when his son graciously supplied them for me to study.

"Kollmann`s work was central to the engines that would power the Messerschmitt 109 throughout the entire Second World War, and through his fathers writings an unparallelled opportunity exists to form a window in time back to a fighter aircraft engine designers drawing office in the 1940`s."

Best,
Ed

[Steve Coates]

Not only that but Calum has made countless visits to IWM Duxford to work through their material, in particular the German Document Centre and the Milch Collection as well as innumerable visits to Kew and elsewhere.

This post on his FB page makes it pretty clear that he has taken the road less travelled: https://www.facebook.com/TheSecretHo...41693639582601