Sagittarius Rising

In the book Sagittarius Rising , the British author Cecil Lewis (1898–1997) describes his time as a pilot in World War I and a flight instructor in China in the 1920s. It was first published in 1936.

Lewis began his career as a Royal Air Force pilot when he was 17 when he was posted to France . There he fought in No. 56 Squadron among others against the " Red Baron " and in the losing battle of the Somme . Lewis describes the love of flying and the futility of war.

To this day, "Sagittarius Rising" is considered one of the most important books about fighter pilots in the First World War. Bernhard Shaw described Lewis' work as the work of a "thinker, master of words, and a kind of poet".

The work was filmed in 1976 by director Jack Gold under the title Aces High (German title: Schlacht in den Wolken ) with Malcolm McDowell in the lead role.

In December 2008, Eichborn Verlag published a new German edition under the title Schütze im Steigflug , translated and with an afterword by Klaus Binder ( Die Other Bibliothek , Volume 288).