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

WALTER SCHUCK the longer operations against German convoys off Nor­ way’s northern coast. Hence, the Soviet Northern Fleet was compelled to maintain its Airacobras and Kitty­ hawks when it went to the offensive against the German coastal convoys. Although not as good as the Yaks in fighter combat, these aircraft at least had an operational range of between 650 and almost 1,000 miles - which could be extended through the use of drop tanks. Thus, the specific features in the Far North benefitted JG 5’s fighter pilots in the sense that the Soviet fighters they were up against generally were less dangerous than the more modern fighters in operation in other sectors of the Eastern Front. On 17 July, Schuck participated when III./JG 5 again managed to ward offan attempt by fifteen 9GMTAPA-20s - escorted by 56 Kittyhawks and Airacobras - to destroy the German ships in Kirkenes. Schuck was credited with the destruction of seven Soviet aircraft, including three “Bostons,” in that fight. The second of these “Bostons” was hit in the right engine, and either that engine seized or the pilot feathered the engine; in any case, the torpedo plane veered to the right and collided with another “Bos­ ton,” with the result that both went down. Due to the heavy losses in A-20s, Soviet Northern Fleet resorted to the use of fighter-bombers during its next attacks against German supply ships. In the morn­ ing hours of 21 July, Major Ehrler kept between four and eight Me 109s on constant patrol over a convoy of five transport ships and twenty-one escort vessels which left Kirkenes. Ten 78 IAP Kittyhawk fighter-bombers, escorted by six 2 GIAP Airacobras, made the first effort to strike against these ships. The Soviets were inter­ cepted by Oberleutnant Franz Dorr’s 7./JG 5 Schwarm, and Dorr shot down the Airacobra piloted by Leytenant N. M. Matveyev, the wingman of 2 GIAP’s commander. Three hours later, Jockel Norz was airborne to thwart the next Soviet attack, and shot down a Curtiss P-40. The Soviet pilot, 78 IAP’s Mladshiy Leytenant N. M. Lisichkin, ditched in the sea and went down together with his aircraft. The third Soviet attempt to attack the convoy was made at six in the morning, but the six 78 IAP Kittyhawks and six escorting 2 GIAP Airacobras ran straight into eight Me 109s, led by Major Ehrler and Schuck. The Kitty­ hawks jettisoned their bombs and sought to escape into the clouds, pursued by the German fighter pilots. Later, 78 IAP established that two pilots were missing from that combat - Leytenant N. M. Yemelyanov (it had been his 81st combat mission) and Leytenant D. I. Chinarin. Another outstanding success was achieved against the Lend Lease fighter planes on 22 July, when 2 GIAP and 78 IAP sent twelve Airacobras and ten Kittyhawk fighter-bombers against a German convoy east of the Jar fiord. On this occasion, the old Lend Lease aircraft were bounced from above by III./JG 5’s Me 109 G-6s, with Jockel Norz and Walter Schuck in the lead. Norz claimed three Curtiss P-40s, while Schuck was credited with the destruction of five Airacobras and two P-40s in twenty minutes. But the numerical successes which were achieved by a handful of skilful fighter aces in air combat could not alter the general course of the war. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allies had landed at Normandy. Schuck and his mates had heard about it both on German and Brit­ ish radio. Shortly afterward, the Red Army launched a major offensive against southern Finland, broke through the fortified “Mannerheim line” and captured the city of Viipuri. That was the beginning of the end for Finland’s participation in the war on Germany’s side. An incident which many in JG 5 and the 20th Moun­ tain Army saw as a bad omen was the death of Gener- aloberst Dietl, the 20th Mountain Army’s legendary and popular commander. Dietl had been ordered to Hitler’s Alp villa in Obersalzberg for an urgent discussion on Finland’s possibility to continue fighting on Germany’s side. Dietl arrived on 21 June 1944. The next day, he left in a Ju 52 to fly to Helsinki for negotiations with the Finns. But the aircraft would never reach its destination. It crashed near Salzburg, killing Dietl as well as the two generals Thomas-Emil von Wickede and Karl Eglseer. During the next weeks, Germany’s situation deterio­ rated day by day. The German Army was dealt its largets defeat in a single battle when the Red Army attacked and annihilated Army Group Center in Belarus. Germany’s Finnish ally was dealt another blow on 16 July, when Soviet naval aircraft sunk the pride of the Finnish navy, the cruiser Niobe. Then the news came that an attempt had been made on 20 July against Hitler’s life. A wave of revenge swept through Germany and its armed forces. One of the inno­ cent victims to the orgy in blood was Curt Graf von Sponeck’s father. General Hans Graf von Sponeck - who definitely had no connection to the attempt against Hit­ ler’s life because he had spent the past two and a half years in a prison cell - was just straight off executed. Far up north in Petsamo, the young men tried to close their eyes to all the bad news. Probably as self preservation, they tried to limit their thoughts and the subjects of their conversations to simple and “close” matters like the past air combat or purely private mat­ ters. Although some of them started to ask themselves whether this would become another thirty-year war - the idea that Germany could actually lose the war still was pretty unthinkable - they did not share those ideas with each other. Each man considered the responsibility of not demoralising the others with such talk. After all, they all needed each other, and it was vital to them all that the fighting spirits remained high. So even in the summer of 1944, the men in III./JG 5 were doing “business as usual”. They found joy and reason to celebration in each other’s individual combat feats, as it had been since the beginning. Their great hero was Major Ehrler, who had surpassed his 150-vic- tory mark and now was heading towards the 200th. By attaining twenty kills in July 1944, increasing his tally to 145, Schuck was closing in on his commander. T