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

WALTER SCHUCK day fighter pilot. This was a quite revealing contrast to earlier in the war, when day fighters received three of the five first Oak Leaves to be awarded, and four of the five first Oak Leaves with Swords to be awarded. Among over one hundred Oak Leaves recipients after 20 July 1944, Schuck was the only day fighter. A debacle was close to rupturing the whole award ceremony before it had even started. Since the attempt against Hitler’s life on 20 July 1944, it was prohibited to carry arms during award ceremonies with the Third Reich leadership. But the paratroopers protested and demanded the right to keep their pistols. Goring’s adju­ tant declared that in that case, there would be no award ceremony. Only after a heated argument did the para­ troopers decide to surrender and leave their pistols. When Goring entered the room, he appeared to be irritated. He held a brief speech where he vented his anger at the day fighter pilots. Schuck was totally taken aback. When the awards were handed over, Schuck stood as last man in the line. Goring spoke a few brief words with each man. When the turn came to Schuck, Goring asked: “And what are you?” “1am a day fighter, Herr Reichsmarschall!” Schuck answered with defiant pride in his voice. The Air Force commander was startled, but Goring was famous for always finding a way, and in the next second his whole appearance had changed into charm- full joviality. “How nice to meet one of our brave young fighter pilots!” Goring exclaimed, now with a broad smile, and asked: “From where?” “From the “Eismeer” - the Arctic Ocean, Herr Reichsmarschall!” “Ah, the Arctic Ocean? Interesting! And for how long have you been there?” “Three years, Herr Reichsmarschall!” The corpulent Reichsmarschall now was his old genial self, and cracked a joke as he handed over the Oak Leave to the little Leutnant from the Arctic Ocean region: “Three years? My God! And still not frozen stiff?" During the subsequent dinner, Goring paid a special attention to Schuck. Whether it was in order to compen­ sate for his previous harsh words against the day fight­ ers is not clear, but in any case Goring suddenly leaned towards Schuck and said: “From now on you will be the youngest Ober­ leutnant of the entire Luftwaffe!” That was not accurate. With his twenty-four years, Schuck was not particularly young among the pilot officers. There were many who were younger than him. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, the famous night fighter, had been promoted to Oberleutnant when he was only twenty-one. But Schuck definitely looked much younger than he was, and Goring loved to make such dramatic statement. Nevertheless, a certain war correspondent - after the war he became a famous German writer - was present, and he rushed to reinforce Schuck’s opportu­ nity. The war correspondent turned to Goring’s adjutant and said: “Did you hear that? You have to make a note of it!” Thus, Schuck was made an Oberleutnant there in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium on 7 November 1944. Then the subject turned to Schuck’s number of victories. An official in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium informed Schuck, possibly on the initiative of Goring, that they knew that Schuck had between thirty and forty uncon­ firmed victories in addition to his 171 confirmed victo­ ries. Schuck now was informed that many of these had been confirmed by the Navy, where sailors on board the ships Schuck had protected had seen Soviet aircraft go down into the sea, and these would now be officially added to his score of 171. Afterward, Goring said that he was going to his residence Karinhall in East Prussia. He wanted Schuck to come along, and suggested that they could go deer hunting together. But all Schuck wanted was to go home and see his family, so under the pretext that he had to return to the front as quickly as possible, he got out of the Reichsmarschall’s web. Back home in Oberbexbach he found that the senti­ ments had changed. Everyone was worried and hinted at a negative end of the war. Most of all, the Saarlander were worried that the French occupation would start all over again. With his “Far northern” perspective, Schuck could interprete the news that the Tirpitz - the German Navy’s pride - had been put out of action by enemy air­ craft in a Norwegian fiord on 12 November 1944 that the war was heading towards defeat. Still, the hope among the German populace was to a large extent kept alive through the propaganda about all the “miracle weapons.” As far as Schuck and everyone else could judge, this was not just talk. Each day, the flying bombs V 1 and V 2 were fired against the British Isles, and new and revolutionary combat aircraft, pow­ ered by jet engines, were taken into service. On New Year’s Eve, Schuck was witness to the marriage when the old “ Eismeerjager” veteran Theo Weissenberger got wed. Descending from the NCO level, Weissenberger’s extreme skills as a fighter pilot had provided him with a comet career. The last time he and Schuck had met, Weissenberger had commanded 6./JG 5, the Experten­ staffel. Since then he had rose to command in turn Il./JG 5 after it had been shifted to the Leningrad combat zone, and I./JG 5 fighting over the Normandy landing area. He had increased his victory tally to 200, of which the last 25 were attained on 26 combat missions over Normandy in the summer of 1944. By the time the two friends met at Weissenberger’s matrimony, Weissenberger was a Major and commanded the new I./JG 7, equipped with Me 262 jet fighters. In fact, the old “ Eismeerjager” Weissenberger enjoyed Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring’s very spe­ cial confidence. The debate whether the Me 262 would T