There was no more hated aircraft on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War than the Junkers-87, which the Nazis dubbed the “thing” (from the German Sturzkampfflugzeug - “dive bomber”), and the Red Army soldiers called it “winged death” and “laptezhnik” (for fixed landing gear with characteristic fairings). Unsurpassed bombing accuracy and a large bomb load, the maddening howl of sirens that sounded during a dive, excellent training of the crews (it was on the “thing” that Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the best ace of the Luftwaffe and the only holder of the highest award of the Reich - the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, fought , Swords and Diamonds) - in the first years of the war, the Ju.87 had no equal, becoming the main symbol of the Blitzkrieg. It was the squadrons of “Junkers” that cleared the way for German tank wedges, snipering small targets - as our soldiers said: this winged bastard will even hit a polished nickel, as long as it shines! In the fate of the legendary aircraft, as in a mirror, the fate of the Luftwaffe and everything Hitler was reflected The Reich - from unprecedented rise to unprecedented fall, from brilliant triumphs at the beginning of World War II to rapid decline after 1942. Why the life of the famous dive bomber turned out to be so short-lived, how Hitler’s aces fought, won and died - read in this book, the best study of the combat use of the damned “thing”.