“Most of the those manning the 88 anti-aircraft batteries were Luftwaffe and kids around 12-15.”
My wife’s great uncle was drafted late in the war when in his 60’s...and he manned 88’s in Berlin.
Yeah, the old guys also went into anti-aircraft or the Volkssturm (People’s militia). Many of the older guys not on ack-ack where “infantry” and were issued “panzerfaust” (basically an anti-tank bazooka) plus a rifle.
A lot of them died in the Battle of Berlin.