You Up There - We Down Here: Schoolboys Deployed as Anti-Aircraft Gun Assistants - Hardcover

Oberleitner, Gerhard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3952296872 ISBN 13: 9783952296875

Publisher: History Facts, 2011

Synopsis

The author describes 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”.

About this title

About the Author

The author, MSc Eng. Gerhard Oberleitner, was born in Ybbs an der Donau, Austria, on April 7, 1928, the younger son of a Master Carpenter. He attended grade school in Ybbs, and the first to fourth years of high school in Vienna 19. He was supposed to attend the fifth to eighth high school years in Amstetten, but after the first trimester of the 6th grade, he was drafted as a Luftwaffe Anti-Aircraft Assistant. Almost up to the end of World War II, he served with a heavy AA battery in St. Valentin. After the war, he completed his studies at the Waidhofen High School, graduating with his Matriculation Certificate on June 6, 1946. Subsequently, he earned a Master's degree in civil engineering and architecture at the Technical University of Vienna, graduating in 1956. After his journeyman years gaining practical experience in various architectural offices, and then as Construction Manager with Metallwerk Plansee, he became a freelance architect and judicially chartered consultant for architecture and structural engineering. Married for the second time, Gerhard Oberleitner has four children and six grandchildren. He alternates between homes in Ybbs a.d.D. and Reutte in Tyrol. He holds a private pilot's license and counts modern history and philately among his pastimes. Gerhard Oberleitner has written numerous professional articles and is the author of the book "History of the German Field Postal Services 1937 - 1945" (published 1995 by Steiger Verlag, Innsbruck, Austria), this volume and a manuscript titled "Der Ziegenkopf von Dabrowica" ["The Goat's Head of Dabrowica"].

Edition details

• Publisher: History Facts
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3952296872
• ISBN 13: 9783952296875
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 270