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

WALTER SCHUCK Schuck and August Liibking at the commandpost at Petsamo. “collagues” among the airmen in the Soviet Northern Fleet. They did not have to wait long. At about nine in the morning, the whole III./JG 5 was scrambled. A large formation of enemy fighters had been spotted, heading straight towards the airfield. A few minutes later, they appeared - twenty-two Airacobras and Kittyhawks from the naval 2 GIAP and 78 IAP, aiming to attack Petsamo’s airfield. In the air combat which broke out, the Soviets showed that they no longer were rookies. Leutnant Karl- Heinz Schneider, one of the pilots in Schuck’s Staffel, was shot down and killed. Nevertheless, the inequality between the old Lend Lease planes and the ‘109 “Gus­ tavs” cost 2 GIAP and 78 IAP a loss five planes. Still, the Soviet fighter pilots managed to reach their main goal, which was to detract the Germans from the main attack force - twenty-four torpedo planes and bombers, which flew against the port of Kirkenes. Major Ehrler had just despatched one of the Soviet fighters over Petsamo’s airfield when he received a radio call, informing him of many bombers in approach flight at 3,500 metres over the coast in the north, heading westward - probably towards Kirkenes. A new German supply convoy had just reached Kirkenes, and this was the target for the Soviet A-20 and 11-4 bombers and tor­ pedo bombers. Ehrler ordered his pilots to split up in three groups. Unteroffizier Suske and a couple of pilots from Schuck’s Staffel remained fighting with the Soviet fighter-bombers at Petsamo, but the bulk of III./JG 5 rushed to protect their precious supply ships. While Jockel Norz led a group of Me 109s to the northwest, towards Kirkenes, Major Ehrler and the other pilots flew to overtake the enemy before they had reached their target. However, Ehrler’s intention failed. The Soviet bombers went into a shallow dive, thus gaining speed, and reached their target before any Messerschmitts had intercepted them. The bombers performed their attack without any fighter cover. Due to a coordination failure, the Soviet fighter escort - forty-three Airacobras and Kittyhawks - arrived too late, and by the time Ehrler’s group turned north from Petsamo, the Soviet fighters were racing to catch up with the bombers. Instead they ran straight into Ehrler’s and Schuck's group ofMe 109 G-6s. Schuck and Liibking each claimed one shot down Airacobra. Then they heard Norz’s voice in the radio, calling out from the air over Kirkenes: “Bostons are attacking the ships! I will attack!” Four times, Norz was heard calling out “Abschuss!” - each time reporting the shooting down of a Soviet torpedo bomber. But his intervention came too late to prevent several freight ships from getting hit by bombs and torpedoes. The whole port area was engulfed in thick smoke as fires spread on the ships. Ehrler’s group immediately broke off from the Soviet fighters and turned west to punish the enemy bombers. Northeast of Kirkenes, Schuck caught a lonely “Boston” on an T