Mortons Media Group was established in the 19th century and has been producing book-length publications since the early 2000s. The company established a dedicated books division in 2019 and Mortons Books has already earned a reputation for publishing high-quality titles by authors who are true experts in their field. For the best reads on rail, aviation, nostalgia and history, look no further. This book is part of their imprint: Tempest Books addresses all aspects of aviation history are covered in authoritative detail. The aviators and aircraft of the Second World War are profiled by our titles alongside more modern fighters, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft and transports. 'Secret projects' and experimental designs are also an important part of the Tempest Books portfolio.

Dan Sharp studied history at the University of Liverpool and has worked as a writer and editor since 1998. Having spent several years as the news editor of a regional daily newspaper, he switched to motorcycle magazines. As a hobby he began doing primary source research that has resulted in quite a few historical aviation books. These include Cold War – Sex, Spies and Nuclear Missiles (2013), Messerschmitt Me 262: Secret Projects and Experimental Prototypes (2013), Messerschmitt Bf 109: Secret Projects and Experimental Prototypes (2013), Dueling Above the Trenches – Sopwith Aircraft of the Great War (2014), D-Day Operation Overlord and the Battle for Normandy (2014), Luftwaffe Secret Jets of the Third Reich (2015), Spitfires Over Berlin (2015), The Hated Volksjäger: Histories of the Heinkel He 162 (2015), Luftwaffe – Secret Bombers of the Third Reich (2016), and Messerschmitt Me 262: Development and Politics (2023). Dan Sharp currently lives in Nottinghamshire with his wife and two children.

This tome represents an outgrowth of Tempest Books Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe. Volume 1 by Dan Sharp that covered Jet Fighters 1939-1945 (2020). Volume 2 in this series covers Bombers 1939 – 45, again by Dan Sharp. This Volume covering the Messerschmitt Me 328 follows books in the Development & Politics series on the Messerschmitt Me 309 and the Messerschmitt Me 262. This portrait hardcover book features a gorgeous cover painting of the Me 328 head-on by Piotr Forkasiewicz. The rear cover features four black and white photographs that are included within the book. I counted 184 black and white photographs and drawings, plus 51 color side view illustrations by Zoltán Csombó.

Dan Sharp addresses the development of the Me 328, beginning with in 1928 German engineer, Paul Schmidt, and his design of a pulsejet engine that was granted a patent in 1930. Several aircraft, along with flying torpedoes, were envisioned, but building a successful pulsejet was elusive. Engine manufacturer, Argus, became involved on August 21, 1939, at the request of the Air Ministry. Argus engineer reportedly was able to install a pulsejet in a car and unbelievably wasn’t killed. Messerschmitt was enlisted in 1941 which birthed project P 79. Politics always affects the development of any aircraft, usually in the negative, and Dan certainly brings this element to the forefront. This latest released is based in Dan Sharp’s diligent research involving thousands of archival technical documents and avoids previous publications. Doing so provides a new look at the development of the Me 328.

Early designs, Projektubergabe P 79/13b, looked at two engines mounted under the wings, as seen at the top of Page 25. The bottom of the page shows off an asymmetrical fuselage, P 79/15 with a single engine mounted at its center. In this case, the pilot was located on the left and space for fuel [or a second crewman] was on the left. Although envisioned early on as a parasite fighter, designs for additional potential roles, fighter-bomber / bomber, remained in play. The eventual airframe of the Me 328 began to coalesce, but potential future developments continued. This is illustrated on Page 47 with a twin pulsejet Me 328 design. This design appeared to be as a parasite fighter with it carried with its wings retracted inside the host aircraft. Meanwhile, the DFS built Me 328 V1 made its first flight on August 1, 1942, as a towed glider. Page 55 provides two of four photographs of the Me 328 V1 flying on September 1, 1942. The expectations at this time were extremely high with the Me 328 projected to be a ‘fast-bomber’ that was significantly faster than a Me 109G and a Me 210. Later, the projected MG 151 guns were deleted since no aircraft would be able to catch the Me 328. The only issue was that the Me 328 had yet to be tested with the Argus pulsejet engines.

The Me 328 V1 was fitted with two underwing Argus Pulsejets and test flown but was destroyed on its 30^th flight when the control lines for the elevators broke due to engine resonance.The Me 328 V2 was achieved on October 31, 1942, as a glider. Wolfgang Spate, then serving with the Me 163B test unit, reviewed the Me 328 with the two test pilots and killed the project. Of course, speaking from experience, Research and Development projects never die, they just live on in another form. DFS continued to test pulsejet engines and wooden models of the Me 328 in wind tunnel research. Page 87 shows off the VSR 9 pulsejet that was tested with and without inlet fairings.

Page 112 shows off the Me 328 V2 with its rear fuselage twin pulsejets mounted on a Dornier Do 217 K-3. The details of these flights did not survive, but indications are that the Me 328 V2 was able to successfully separate from the Do 217 K-3 and able to fly on pulsejet power multiple times. The Me 328 V2 was later converted back to having the pulsejets mounted under wing and sent to be tested at Peenemunde where it was evaluated to destruction. This destruction resulted from the twin pulsejets shaking the airframe into pieces. Design work continued, but the next step was evaluation of the Me 328 as a ‘self-sacrifice’ aircraft.

When the Messerschmitt design was transferred to glider expert DFS, DFS took the opportunity to enhance the original Messerschmitt design. DFS was able to use their expertise to propose many improvements, however, Messerschmitt retained final approval on the design, and refused to implement the DFS suggestions. Page 171 shows off four of the fifty-one Me 328 profiles byZoltán Csombó. These four proposals were from a June 22, 1943, DFS report with all four of these proposals (Skizze 18, 19, 21, and 23) being high wing designs with the Argus pulsejets, mounted on the wing further back than on the Messerschmitt design. Notable in the top three profiles are the large fuselage to wing fairings.

The sections include:

• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Origins: 1928 to February 1942
  • The Argus Reynst-Pot
  • ‘Borrowing’ From Schmidt
  • Messerschmitt P 79
  • Eleven (Surviving) P 79S
  • More Engines, Or Larger [Page 025]
  • P 79 Construction Description
  • Rivalry With Lippisch
  • P79 Prototype Planning
  • DFS Brought On Board
• Chapter 2: Light Fighter and Multirole: March 1942 to August 1942
  • Multirole Me 328
  • Prototypes On Order
  • Ten Me 328s
  • The Me 210 Disaster
  • One Last Me 328 Designer
  • DFS 230 With Pulsejets
  • Amerikabomber
  • Me 328 As A Parasite
  • The Host Aircraft [Page 047]
  • Me 328 V1 First Flight
• Chapter 3: Flying Artillery To Vulkan: September To December 1942
  • Design And Performance [Page 055]
  • The Take-Off
  • Airborne ‘Stalin’s Organ’
  • No Guns
  • Safe Pulsejets
  • The Warschau-Süd Model
  • Freeing Capacity
  • Me 328 Buzz Bomb
  • Me 328 V1 Destroyed
  • Saur’s Flight Test
  • Späte Puts The Knife In
  • Me 328 / Do 217 Mistel
• Chapter 4: JSF To The ‘Stop’ Order: December 1942 To September 1943
  • List Of Demands
  • Me 328 B
  • Me 328 Spec Comparison [Table]
  • Pulsejet Flight Test Results
  • The Manned Missile
  • The Me 328 Sideshow
  • A Battery Of Tests [Page 087]
  • Me 328 Mistel – First Flight Test
  • Me 328 Mistel – First Spearation
  • Rail-Launched Me 328
  • JSF’s Me 328 B
  • Me 328 V2 With Rear Fuselage Pulsejets
  • Turbojet Me 328 Progress
  • Me 328 V02 Sacrificed [Page 112]
  • JSF’s Vanishing Frenchmen
  • Hanna Goes To Hörsching
• Chapter 5: ‘Self-Sacrifice’ Aircraft: September 1943 To November 1944
  • Zobel’s Final Verdict
  • Me 328 AS 1-TL-Jäger
  • Rise Of The Fanatics
  • Who Lives And Who Dies
  • JSF And DFS Continuation
  • Bypassing Milch
  • ME 328 B V1 Complaints
  • Hitler And The Suicide Plan
  • KG 200 And Tank Get Involved
  • Working Party
  • Glide Bomb Me 328
  • Jacob’s Confession
  • Ziegler On The Me 328 B V1
  • DFS To JSF To Gotha
  • Tired Of Waiting
  • To The End
• Summary
• Appendix I : Horace ‘Rex’ King On The Me 328 B
• Appendix II: German Version Of The Suicide Weapon
• Me 328 In Profile: Zoltán Csombó [Page 171]
• Endnotes
• Bibliography
• Index

I really never expected a book this long [188 Pages] to be devoted to the Messerschmitt Me 328, but here it is. Development and Politics is the order of the day in this case. Want to know more about pulsejet design? Why was the development of the Me 328 transferred to DFS [Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug]? Why was it then passed off to JSF [Jacobs-Schweyer Flugzeugbau]? Why was it then again passed off to Gotha? All these answers and more are contained inside this tome. There are a lot of unpublished design drawings and photographs to grab your attention. I was able to read this book over four days as Dan Sharp continues to add new twists to the tale. There are no Me 328 airframes that survived, but there was a replica [at least in 2015] on display at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Model kit wise, there are several kits available, all in 1/72-scale. PM Model released a simplified injected plastic kit of the Me 328 V1 and V2 glider in the nineties, and later again by PM Model in 2017. The PM kit was re-released by Squadron Encore Models in 2012 with resin a resin cockpit, the Argus pulsejets, landing skid, takeoff trolly, and control surfaces. 12 Squared released an injected plastic Me 328B kit in 1993. Huma Modell released their injected plastic two-kit boxing of the Me 328A and Me 328B in 1994 that is more detailed than the PM Model releases. Airfix released an injected plastic 1/72 Do 217E Mistel kit with the Me 328 in 2001 and Airmodel released a vacuform kit in the early 2000s. Bird Models released three resin Me 328 B variants in 2007 and 2008. A Escala released seven variants of the Me 328 in resin in 2013, but I have not had a chance to see this series of kits.

My thanks to Casemate, Tempest Books, Mortons Books, and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great book.

Highly recommended!