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

WALTER SCHUCK <Э THE END IN FINLAND The nervousness in the German command circles grew when the Finnish foreign ministry on 31 August informed the German government that Finland had opened peace negotiations with the Soviet Union. Two days later, the Finnish government severed its ties with Germany and issued a formal demand that all German troops were to be evacuated from Finnish soil before 15 September 1944. By this time, the autumn had set in unusually early in the Far North. Thick fog swept in from the Arctic Ocean and covered the Petsamo area. Then a low pres­ sure ridge brought enduring rainfalls and a low cloud ceiling which kept III./JG 5 largely grounded for sev­ eral weeks. Subsequently, III./JG 5 was no longer sub­ mitting any aerial victories to the headquarters. Added to the series of blows against the harbours and German shipping in the northern fairwaters in July and August, this apparently led the the suspicious German political “commissars” in the rear to draw negative conclusions regarding JG 5. Since the 20 July plot against Hitler, the increasingly paranoid leadership believed that it could see “defeatism,” “cowardice” and “sabotage” every­ where. In this tense atmosphere, an NSFO was sent to III./JG 5 in Petsamo. The NSFOs - Nationalsozialistische Ftihrungsoffi- ziere - were officers who had been politically selected to indulge a stronger political belief into the soldiers. Fol­ lowing the coup attempt against Hitler on 20 July 1944, a campaign of “political rectification” swept through the whole Wehrmacht. The so-called “German salute” - the “Heil Hitler” call and the right arm stretched upward in the classical Hitler salute - became obligatory through­ out the Armed forces. Also, NSFOs were sent to all mil­ itary units. The men in Petsamo gathered in the mess barrack. They sat in chairs in rows, and on the little stage in front of them the NSFO stood and watched them with the look of a school master. They looked back at him and inspected the little man in his blue uniform. They noticed that he wore no honory badges or anything else which could tell that he had seen action in the frontline - his tunic only carried the Iron Cross of the Second class without swords, indicating service in the rear. Then the NSFO started speaking. He spoke about the duty against the Fatherland, the “sacred mission of the beloved leader Adolf Hitler,” the “privilege to fight under the Fiihrer’s banner,” and the responsibility of the soldiers. Then he started to speak about the “Eismeer- jager", and his next words hit the men like an electric shock: “All of you are coward pigs,” he roared and looked out over the crowd with a face which revealed that he expected the men to feel ashamed. “All of you are cow­ ard pigs, because if you weren’t, you would have shot down more enemy aircraft and prevented our ships from being sunk and harbours from being destroyed!” T