History Facts

You up there - We down here

Anit-Aircraft Assistants vs. Allied Bomber Crews

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The author describes in the book "You up there - we down here" his experiences as a Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft Assistant 1944-1945: “It was simply a question of us fifteen to sixteen-year olds manning the anti-aircraft guns on the ground defending ourselves against the airmen in the bombers and fighters 20 000 feet above our heads.”

Letters, reports, documents and above all, the author’s complete diary and photographs that do so much to authenticate this time capsule. He describes how it was in those days, the final two years of World War II – both on the ground and in the air, manning the guns and systems of the 7th German Anti-Aircraft Brigade, or on operations with the bombers of the 15th US Air Fleet - including insight into the lives of the schoolboy troopers “down here” and the bomber crews “up there”.

This Time Capsule >You up there - we down here includes some 280 photographs and illustrations, most of them never published before. Format 20*28cm, 270 pages, Hardcover.

ISBN: 978-3-9522968-7-5
  • Extract
    Table of contents
    Eight comrades
    Things get serious
    Routine in the position
    What the day may bring
    Rough times
    Climax
    Appendix
  • Reviews
    recollectionsofwwii.blogspot.com 10/2011 (Matthew Smaldon)
    In 1944, entire German school classes were deployed as anti-aircraft gun assistants (Luftwaffenhelfer) to support the heavy Flak defending Germany and Austria. These schoolboys were drilled in the use of the 88mm Flak gun to support the soldiers of the Wehrmacht battling the allied bomber streams. The author, Gerhard Oberleitner, was one of these boys, and was deployed near St. Valentin, Austria, to protect the local tank production works, one of the biggest in the Reich.

    Letters, reports, documents and above all, the author’s complete diary and photographs do much to support this detailed and extensive account. He describes how it was in the final two years of World War II, both on the ground and in the air, manning the guns and systems of the 7th German Anti-Aircraft Brigade. The author has also carried out research into the operations of bombers of the 15th US Air Fleet - the foes that his unit were opposing, thus providing an insight into both the lives of the schoolboy troopers “down here” and the bomber crews “up there”.