Wings of War: An Airman's Diary of the Last Year of the War (Vintage Aviation Series) - Hardcover

Stark, Rudolf

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1612001874 ISBN 13: 9781612001876

Publisher: Casemate, 2015

Synopsis

This is a rare day-to-day account by a young German squadron leader in Jagdstaffel 35 during the grim last year of the war. Originally published in 1933, it provides minute descriptions of kills, losses, and the Germans’ step-by-step retreat in the face of increasingly overwhelming Allied forces in the air.

Brutally honest and vividly written, Stark’s account of the end-game of the Imperial German Army Air Service provides an intimate, front-row glimpse of the death-throes of a once feared corps. This book also contains reproductions of some of the author’s paintings depicting life on the Western Front.

Table of Contents

I Flying a Scout Machine
II With Jagdstaffel XXXIV on the Verdun Front
III The Amiens Offensive
IV May, 1918, in the Somme area
V Leading Jagdstaffel XXXV
VI On leave
VII The English Offensive
VIII Cambrai becomes a battle area
IX Idle days in the Vosges
X Fighting on a wavering front
XI Is it the end?
XII The end

About this title

About the Author:

After the war Stark, like many of the young men whose lives had been torned and transformed by the conflict, became somewhat of an adventurer. He flew for a while with Polizei-Fliegerstaffel 1 at Schleissheim, then as a test-pilot for Dornier. After that he went to South Africa only to return to his homeland in 1926 - a hard year of inflationand soaring unemployment - where he painted advertaisements, and even became farmer for a short while. Pressed by financiel difficulties and driven by his strong desire to fly again, Stark joined the secret German airforce with the rank of Oberleutnant. During the second World War he commanded an airfield in Italy. He died in 1982.

Review:

"joins Casemate’s Vintage Aviation Series of notable World War I aviation works for modern readers...a work of depth and insight, illustrated with the author’s own photographs and paintings from a cockpit perspective. Stark was a gifted artist and a painting in the book looks familiar because it appeared in color on the cover of the Autumn 2002 issue of Over the Front. League members are highly encouraged to read this classic of aviation history literature" (Over the Front, Autumn 2015)

“Leutnant Rudolf Stark flew in Jadgstaffel 34 and commanded Jadgstaffel 35 in the last year of the war. His autobiography provides a thoughtful look at the decline of Germany, its military, and its air force in the last half of 1918.” (World War One Illustrated)

About this edition

• Publisher: Casemate
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1612001874
• ISBN 13: 9781612001876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 228