Zerstorer ("Destroyer") - this is how destroyers were called in the German Navy, and in the Luftwaffe - a special class of aircraft that did not have an analogue in Soviet aviation, being a product of the blitzkrieg concept and intended for combat use over enemy territory, destruction of the enemy air force and ensuring the actions of its own bombers. However, the idea turned out to be stillborn - the very first "Cersterer" Bf 110, designed by V. Messerschmitt as a long-range fighter of escort and conquest of air superiority, was used for its intended purpose for a very short time: already in the summer of 1940 it became clear that the "one hundred and tenth" could not cope with the tasks set, and it was necessary to urgently modify it into a high-speed bomber, reconnaissance and night fighter, and if on the Western Front it was used primarily as an interceptor, becoming the basis of the Reich air defense, then in Russia - as an attack aircraft. The fate of the cars that were supposed to replace him was much less successful - Me 210 became the main failure in Messerschmitt's career, beating everything "records" of accidents, destroying many pilots and, in the end, being disgracefully discontinued, and the radically redesigned Me 410, which finally succeeded "bring to mind," began to enter the combat units too late, when its niche was long occupied by fighter-bomber modifications of the Fw 190, and achieved the main successes as a heavy day air defense fighter, although this "role" was not even considered when developing tactical and technical requirements for the project. As a result, there was a paradoxical situation when the "old man" Bf 110 was in production longer than the aircraft created to replace it, and was used from the first to the last day of the war. This book restores the true story of the Luftwaffe's "Destroyers" from the rise to fall of the Third Reich, from the first high-profile victories to the crushing defeat and unconditional surrender of Hitler's Germany.