Publisher's abstract The author of this book lived two lives. In the first, he was a devout Nazi, a graduate of the Hitler Youth and the privileged National Political Academy (Napola), which trained the future elite of the Third Reich; served in the Luftwaffe, fought on the He-111 bomber as an air gunner and flight radio operator. Everything changed on June 22, 1943, when his Heinkel was shot down during a raid on Astrakhan and fell into the Volga, and Fritzsche himself was captured by the Soviets. Here, in his own words, another, “real life” began... This book is unique. During the post-war years, memoirs of dozens of Third Reich pilots were published - fighter pilots, bomber pilots, and air force commanders. But the memoirs of the “workhorses” of the Luftwaffe - gunners, navigators and radio operators - are literally in full swing. Perhaps because they died more often, or because Hitler’s propaganda paid less attention to them. The book by Klaus Fritzsche is a rare opportunity to see the combat work of a German bomber through the eyes of one of the crew members, a detailed and honest account of combat missions and risky missions, of bombing attacks on Soviet rear lines and communications, of raids on strategic targets and losses from anti-aircraft fire and fighter attacks. , about life and death on the Eastern Front and in Russian captivity. For this publication, the author provided many photographs from his personal archive and even wrote part of the text in Russian, which he learned during the years of captivity.

From the author’s website : “In January 2009, a book was published, an autobiographical story in which covers my entire life from childhood to the present day, “Air Gunner.” Through anti-aircraft fire." Unfortunately, the title of the book was chosen by the publishing house employees without the knowledge of the author, most likely for economic reasons (a bait to catch buyers). The abstract on the back cover of the book is replete with incorrect statements, and, what is most unacceptable, the last two chapters 3.13 were carelessly excluded from this edition. Perehvatkino, 2000" and 3.14 "Afterword". Due to the fact that in the "Afterword" I summed up my life, I considered it appropriate to include these chapters on my website."

Illustrations and captions taken from them on the author's website.