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.

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

"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"

“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.”