Chapter 5 Summary and Analysis

Gert is promoted, becoming second in command of the Flying Hitler Youth. Many of the pilots are young and will later be deployed in war due to enormous casualties. That summer, Gert, Rabbit and Alfsons are placed on the same flight team. The commandant, Winkler, is a savage disciplinarian but they need his approval to move up in the ranks. As the weeks pass, they rarely see German planes flying, as the American 8th Air Force is engaging in bombing raids during the day and the British Royal Air Force at night. Hamburg has just been attacked for four nights. Cologne has just experienced its first 1000-bomber raid, and Ruhr, Germany's main weapons forgery, is attacked next. The small towns often ignore the air raid sirens.

The Allied bombings never shake the morale of the German people and few believe that...