Flak 88 - elevation zero : actions of the Flak unit Kampfgruppe Dohler in ground combat in upper Silesia, Eastern Front, 1945

The Luftwaffe Flak arm was the second largest branch of service, after the infantry, of the entire Wehrmacht, comprising over a million troops organised in 30 Flak Divisions by the end of World War II.

The "88" was its most numerous weapon which was produced in enormous quantities and concentrated around key industrial centres.

Meanwhile, at the local, tactical level, the 88's potential in ground combat was discovered early on, for instance by Rommel at Arras (1940).

At the very end of the war, static Flak batteries were time and again forced to engage in ground combat as the front disintegrated and Soviet armour flooded into the German homeland.

The action described in this work concerns one of over 300 Flak batteries mobilised from the heart of the Reich to defend the vital Upper Silesian industrial area - its factories, described as "gold" by Stalin, producing key weapons including the "88" itself - taking advantage of the barrier imposed on Soviet armour and artillery by the frozen Oder (January 1945). Oberleutant Gerd Dohler's account of the action of his Kampfgruppe from the perspective of the commander is complemented by the recollections of two of his teenage troops, Hans Kamradek and Hans Ganserer.