Rybin, Y. Luftwaffe ace Walter Schuck researched / Christer Bergstrom, Yuriy Rybin. - Sweden : [s. l.], 2019. - 190 p. : ill.

WALTER SCHUCK Josef “Jupp”Kunz, his wingman, and “Jockel”Norz at IIL/JG 5 Me 109spreparing to take off. Petsamo, early 1944. down five miles south of Arktika aerodrome. Thus, 9./JG 5 had lost another commander. Schuck had barely seen Leutnant Walter’s “Yellow 4” go down in flames before the first group of six Yak-9s dived out of the clouds to attack again. When eight Yak-7Bs also appeared, Schuck brought his wingman along to meet these in a head-on attack. For twenty minutes, a confused air combat raged between the clouds, with the frustrated German fighter pilots constantly kept in a defensive position. When they finally withdrew and returned to their base, it was estab­ lished that two Me 109s were missing. Luckily, one of the pilots managed to make it back to the German lines on foot, but Leutnant Walter would remain missing. He was succeeded by Leutnant Wolfgang Rost. The month of February continued in the same way. During the month’s four first weeks, JG 5 claimed six victories in the Far North, against six own combat losses in the same region. On the last day of the month - 29 February 1944 - Leutnant Rost collided with his wing­ man during air combat near Murmansk and bailed out into captivity - where he united with Leutnant Walter. Thus, Schuck had lost five of his Staffel commanders in different circumstances since he arrived in the Far North less than two years earlier. It probably was during one of those days that the engine in one of the newly delievered Me 109 G-6s seized while Schuck was testing it in flight. Schuck had to take to the parachute, and when he came down on earth he twisted an ankle. The result was that he had to spend two weeks in hospital. As the days slowly grew longer, the war in the air intensified again - with varying results. On 3 March, III./ JG 5 claimed three victories, including two by 8th Staf­ fers Leutnant Bernhard von Hermann. On 5 March, two Il-2s were claimed shot down while two Me 109s and a pilot with the 8th Staffel were lost. Oberfeldwebel Rudi Linz, one of the emerging aces in 8./JG 5, scored the only victory on 8 March, against an Airacobra. In return, two Me 109s were lost. With one of them, Leutnant Hans- Bodo Diepen of Linz’s Staffel was lost. On 12 March a landing accident destroyed three of the new Me 109 G-6s, and a pilot of III./JG 5’s Stabsschwarm was injured. This was outweighed on the next day, when a group led by Hauptmann Ehrler returned from a successful engagement with Il-2s and their fighter escort. In the ten-minute scrap at low level over the Rybachiy Peninsula, Ehrler claimed three and Jockel Norz two victories, while Leutnant Bernhard von Hermann and Schuck’s friend Oberfeldwebel Josef “Jupp” Kunz bagged one each. All of this was attained without own losses. On 17 March, a German east-bound coastal convoy caused the first large-scale air battle in the Far North in nearly half a year. Most of III./JG 5 was in the air to protect the convoy, but the first air attack hit the con- T