Diemer, Bodo Überlebenschance gleich Null

One of the "miracle weapons" with which the German Luftwaffe hoped to turn the tide of the war was the Ju 88, which had been converted to torpedoes but was already obsolete by 1943/44 and was used as a torpedo bomber to stop enemy convoys and supplies. Bodo Diemer's autobiography "Überlebenschance gleich Null" (Survival Chance Equal to Zero) is an unvarnished account of his death-defying missions as a torpedo bomber pilot. Bodo Diemer offers a multi-faceted inside view of the late Luftwaffe, which was heading towards its end, with its senseless courage to die, its frustrations, boozing and self-anesthetising excesses. Let his autobiography catapult you directly into the cockpit of his torpedo bomber and experience the author's daring missions at first hand. The book also captivates with technical flight details.

Nevertheless, they had to fly? a suicide mission in the books. And once you actually got close to a ship's target, the torpedo proved to be a numb nut: frustration without limits. "Of 44 torpedo pilot crews I knew," Bodo Diemer reports in his diary-like and breathtakingly excitingly written book of memories - the first transcripts right after the end of the war in 1945 - "only three returned." One of them was his own. And it was like a miracle, with him rubbing his own eyes. Flying luck? Pilot's skill? Both came together. Even his very last flight on 6 May 45 with a battered Ju 88 directly into British captivity in Denmark had almost ended in disaster! Diemer offers a multifaceted interior view of the late Luftwaffe, which was heading for its end, with its senseless death-wish, its frustrations, drunkenness and self-stupefaction excesses. The reader feels as if he is in the cockpit with the missions and is placed in a state of high tension. And those who value aeronautical details will get their money's worth. Diemer sums up: "Like most of my comrades, I was not even 24 years old. Destruction, killing and being killed, under the will-o'-the-wisp of patriotism and loyalty to the flag, that was our world until then. Now we were left alone, betrayed by our cowardly and incompetent marshals who, against all human reason, led us into total surrender by virtue of their command. Now they were finished ? Vae Victis ? Woe to the vanquished!" Last but not least, an Flieger-Generalfeldmarschall Sperrle, as cowardly as Göring, makes his ghostly-grotesque appearance in the book.