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

WALTER SCHUCK A Spitfire PR.IV in Soviet service. by 78 IAP Kittyhawks and attacked the torpedo planes over and over again, claiming several shot down. Dur­ ing the hectic air combat, Schuck fought only to protect the ships. As soon as he saw hits on an enemy aircraft, he turned to attack the next. He did not bother to check whether he had actually destroyed them; his victories were confirmed by other pilots in the unit. During one of these air battles over the German convoys - the exact date could not be established - Schuck saw how a “Boston” which he had set burn­ ing still managed to drop its torpedo, which steered straight against a German freight ship. Schuck imme­ diately turned the belly of his Me 109 towards the ship, so the men on board could see the German crosses, and then flipped over again and fired towards the torpedo. Thus the ship crew became aware of the approaching danger and was able to steer their vessel away from the torpedo. 9 GMTAP lost all A-20s and two of the Il-4s dur­ ing the 25 May battle. When the German fighter pilots returned to their base afterward, they counted no less than thirty-three victories - a clear exaggeration, since the figure included twenty “Bostons”. As we have seen previously, the confused situation in such large-scale air battles often led to multiple claims, although this was an unusual case. But in any case, it was a severe Soviet defeat. 255 IAP failed completely in its task to cover the 9 GMTAP torpedo bombers, and could not report more than one Me 109 destroyed (which even proves to be erroneous, due to German records). The men of III./JG 5 were in a festive mood. Schuck was credited with six victories, reaching a total of 90. The Gruppenkommandeur Major Ehrler bagged four. Oberfeldwebel Rudi Linz chalked up five, and Ober­ leutnant Franz Dorr four. Even young pilots who usually did not belong to the “scorers” were credited with good success in the air battle on 25 May - Feldwebel Heinz Arnold bagged three, and Oberfeldwebel August Lub- king and Feldwebel Helmut Neumann two each. Unter­ offizier Rudolf Artner, a very talented rookie who both Ehrler and Schuck often chose as their wingman, was credited with the destruction of an Airacobra. But Schuck and his mates knew that the Soviets would not give in, and the ships still had not reached their destination. At 0422 hours the next morning, Schuck and eighteen other pilots took off to perform the next convoy escort mission. Half an hour later, as they were circling above the convoy north of Vardo, they spotted the Soviet aircraft formations emerging from the haze at low level - Il-2s, Il-4s, and, above and ahead of them, fighters of vari­ ous types. This time, the escort consisted not only of Airacobras and Kittyhawks from the same units as the previous day, but there were also Yak-9s of 20 IAP. Another bitter air battle broke out, this time mainly at low level above the waves, while the antiaircraft guns T