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

WALTER SCHUCK Walter Schuck immediately before take o ff at Petsamo. Petsamo, 15 June 1944: Walter Schuck hasju s t landed after achieving his 100th victory and receives thefirst congratulations. A fourth 46 ShAP/VVS SF Shturmovik was shot up by Oberfeldwebel August Lubking. Leytenant L. M. Kalmykov succeeded in flying the crippled 11-2 for thirty miles before it crashed into the sea, killing Kalmykov and his rear gunner, Mladshiy Serzhant Ya. Ya. Kredy- shev. However, the Soviets simply were too many to be warded off. While the Me 109s tangled with the second 11-2 formation, the first group broke through and made a lightning strike against the ships, scoring several bomb hits on the 7419-BRT steam ship Florianopolis. Next fol­ lowed four 11-4 torpedo planes from 9 GMTAP, covered by twelve fighters. The Il-4s flew at a higher altitude and dropped their torpedoes by parachute - a Soviet special­ ity. Testifying to their efficiency, one of the torpedoes hit the steamship Dixie (1610 BRT). Schuck and his mates climbed to intercept the Il-4s, but became entangled with the 255 IAP Airacobras and 78 IAP Kittyhawks which escorted the Il-4s. It was a terrifying air battle. Schuck claimed a Kittyhawk shot down. In the next minute, 9 GMTAP’s next formation - six A-20s - arrived, escorted by another sixteen Aira­ cobras from 255 IAP. Schuck, Gayko, Linz and Dorr immediately turned against this new threat. The “Bos­ tons” sent a hailstorm of red bullet flares towards the Messerschmitts, but although these “pearl necklaces” passed only a few yards from his own cockpit, Schuck pressed home his approach flight until he was straight behind one of the “Bostons”. He squeezed the firing but­ tons and saw a row of explosions on the torpedo plane in front of him. Then there was a huge explosion, pieces of metal which whirled through the sky, and the “Boston” was gone. Schuck was totally exhausted when he landed. He jumped out of the cockpit and just walked away without a word. Everyone was silent. It was as if they felt that the last word had not been said yet. Indeed, that same evening the Soviet Northern Fleet sent another large formation to strike the same ships, this time in the port of Kirkenes. This strike too was prepared on the basis of photos from a 118 RAP photo reconnaissance Spitfire. Again, the Germans were greatly outnumbered in the air. Still, together with Unteroffizier Heinrich-Friedrich Wiegand and Ober­ feldwebel August Lubking, Schuck tore straight into the mass of Soviet aircraft. He claimed an Airacobra shot down. In the next minutes the three Me 109s fell down upon the Shturmoviks, blowing a whole row of them out of the sky. Schuck was credited with the destruction of three, Wiegand with two and Lubking claimed one 11-2 shot down. But the surviving Il-2s managed to damage the steam ship Marga Cords (1112 BRT). When the last 11-2 of 46 ShAP had returned to base after that mission, it was established that three Il-2s had been lost. One of the Il-2s which were shot down by Schuck and his mates in the evening combat on 17 T