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

WALTER SCHUCK О LUFTWAFFE VOLUNTEER Walter Schuck volunteered to the new German Air Force, the Luftwaffe. On 3 March 1937 he received his letter of acceptance. But Schuck would learn that the way to heaven was thorny - in double meaning. The con­ ditions for his acceptance by the Luftwaffe was first that he served a term of compulsory work with the Reichsar- beitsdienst, and then basic military training followed by a period as a Luftwaffe ground soldier. The Reichsarbeitsdienst - the German State Labour Service - was a compulsory six-month manual labour service which preceded compulsory military ser­ vice for all young men from the age of 18 in the Third Reich. However, volunteers to the armed forces could be drafted, like in the case of Walter Schuck, from the age of 16. Walter Schuck’s Reichsarbeitsdienst service started in March 1937. Lasting until November of that year, it meant heavy manual work at dyke constructions, drainage work, and road construction. To a short-stature and not particularly strong-bodied youngster like Walter Schuck, who in addition was two years younger than the rest of the his Arbeitsdienst-Kameraden, this was quite a period of probation. Placed with youngsters from all parts of Germany, he learned the hard way to suppress his Saar dialect. Schuck’s period of basic military service was not much easier. It commenced at the Luftwaffe’s Flieg- er-Ersatz Abteilung 24 at Quakenbriick in early Novem­ ber 1937. The following winter, the scepticism towards any master - be it in civilian life or the military - which Schuck had learned from his father, was reinforced through harsh personal experience. In May 1938, Schuck was posted to the Airport Ser­ vice Company, Flughafenbetriebskompanie attached to a bomber unit at Giitersloh. This brought a relief to the tormented Walter Schuck. His Company C.O. was a Hauptmann Schneidenberger. Born in the former German colony Southwest Africa (today’s Namibia) of a German father and a Chinese mother, Hauptmann Schneidenberger became more or less isolated from the rest of the officers. Because of this, he developed quite relaxed relations with his subordinates. The duty of an Airport Service Company was to provide an aviation unit with ground service, and in Schuck’s case he was to serve as a guard. The air unit which was supported by his Company was IV./KG 254, commanded by Major Carl Rutgers. (Later it was renumbered into II./KG 254, and then II./KG 28.) This unit was equipped with Junkers Ju 86 D bombers with diesel engines. This aircraft fascinated Schuck, and he could walk around a parked Ju 86, admiring it, for long periods. Schuck was assigned to a driver, who was tasked to transport bombs from a store outside the airfield and bring them to the Waffenmeister, the armourer, who would check them and arm them. Schuck got along well with the older driver. This man liked to read detective T