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

WALTER SCHUCK Duringflight training. Schuck in the Henschel Hs 123, “RG + NL”. past the A l, A2 and B1 courses. He had just completed the B2 course when on 10 May 1940 the news came that the German armed forces had opened a major offensive towards the west - against France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment 82, now commanded by Oberstleutnant Max Bauer, was moved rearward, to Cottbus, southeast of Berlin. At that place, Gefreiter Walter Schuck received his ” Luft­ waffe wings,” the Flugzeugfuhrerschein, on 14 May 1940. Walter Schuck had no desire to fire guns in anger. He was quite happy that he was able - and allowed! - to fly. Contrary to many of the hotspurs of the Fliegeraus­ bildungs-Regiment, who wanted to become Stuka pilots or fighter pilots, he settled for becoming a long-range reconnaissance pilot. He had seen the slender twin-en- gined Do 17 “Flying Pencils”, and wished to fly one of those. He remained at the Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment while waiting for an order which would transfer him to a С school, where pilots were trained to fly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. But faith had something else in mind for him. Maybe Walter Schuck’s amount of luck had come to an end, or was it that his success went to his head? Shortly after he had earned his “wings”, Schuck was merrily treating a Focke Wulf Fw 56 Stosser sin- gle-seater. Constructed as a fighter interceptor by Kurt Tank in 1933, the shoulder-winged Stosser was a quite A group from Hauptmann Schneidenberger’s Flughafenbetriebskompanie at Giitersloh, infron t o f a Ju 86 D with diesel engines “spirited” little plane, and Schuck just loved it. On this day, he saw no other aircraft in the sky, so he took the liberty to conduct some daring aerobatics. Just as he was buzzing at very low level above a small village - breach­ ing the most elementary security rules - he saw another aircraft appear. It was a Messerschmitt Me 108 Taifun liaison aircraft from the Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment, and Schuck immediately realised that he now was in deep trouble. The Me 108 was flown by a Leutnant, and it carried a Major from Fliegerausbildungs-Regiment 82. When Schuck landed at Cottbus, his trainer, Brewes, was wait­ ing for him with a sorrowful look on his face. All he could say was that Schuck was called to report to the commander of the Schiilerkompanie, an Oberleutnant. This was a professional officer, and Schuck knew that he would make no exception because of Schuck’s above-av­ erage talents as a pilot. The Oberleutnant showed no mercy: “Gefreiter Schuck, you have breached paragraph 92, fliegerische Zucht und Ordnung, and tomorrow you shall report to the military court!” On his way to the depot to hand in his parachute after the dressing down by the Oberleutnant, such a deep grief and despair was painted in Schuck’s face - he felt so depressed by the thought that the verdict by the military court would bring an end to his flying - that an Obergefreiter halted him. T