Berg, Helmut Sie nannten uns Helden. Der Stuka-Flieger Hans Deibl

The exciting fate of the Lower Austrian Stuka pilot Hans Deibl in the Second World War dramatically demonstrates how Hitler's Nazi regime was able to instil war enthusiasm and fanaticism in the youth. Even as a child, Hans Deibl, a high school graduate, dreamed of flying. In 1938 the time seems to have come. Enthusiastically, he becomes a fighter pilot in one of the most feared aircraft of the German Luftwaffe, the dive bomber Junkers Ju 87, called "Stuka".

The young, dashing officer seems made for this death-dealing machine. Stuka pilots are the "pop stars" and youth idols of the Luftwaffe. Hans Deibl enjoys the role of the celebrated hero and heartthrob. After numerous dangerous missions, he is shot down in aerial combat over the Sahara and seriously wounded. Already during the war, the young pilot-hero began to have doubts about his duties. Openly and unreservedly self-critical, the mature pacifist reports on seduction and delusion. His wish: to be an admonisher and enlightener. In the year this book was published, Hans Deibl was 100 years old.