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

WALTER SCHUCK Ф FROM ME 109 TO ME 262 With Stab and III./JG 5 pushed back from the Eastern Front to Norway’s western coast, the main enemy shifted from being the Soviet Air Force to the RAF. Since 1940, the RAF had made regular attacks against German tar­ gets along the Norwegian coast, and these missions were now being met with serious resistance. On 7 December 1944, III./JG 5 shot down a Mustang, a Beaufighter and two Mosquitoes from RAF Coastal Command’s Banff Strike Wing, for the loss of two own aircraft. On 11 Jan­ uary 1945, when RAF Bomber Command despatched Lancasters against the U-boat base in Bergen, III./JG 5 and German ground fire claimed sixteen British air­ craft shot down, with III./JG 5 again sustaining two own losses. At the cost of three own aircraft, III./JG 5 shot down six of the Banff Strike Wing Mosquitoes on 15 January 1945, one of them piloted by Wing Commander Max Guedj. The largest among these air battles was fought on 9 February, when forty-three aircraft led by Wing Com­ mander Colin Milson were sent out to attack the Ger­ man destroyer Z 33. They were intercepted by twelve Fw 190s from 9. and 12./JG 5, based at Herdla near Bergen. Ten of the attacking aircraft were shot down, but the Germans also lost four fighters. With one of them, Leutnant Rudi Linz was killed - just after he had achieved his 70th victory. In the afternoon on 16 February, III./JG 5 was scrambled against a new incoming formation. Flying an Me 109, Schuck spotted the enemy aircraft at 4,000 metres altitude over the sea, off the Trondheim fiord. As he came closer, he could identify them - twelve Beau- fighters escorted by two formations of Mustangs. Schuck led his formation straight through the shield of Mustangs and onto the Beaufighters. Following the first attack, he could see four of the two-engined bombers go down. The Beaufighters jettisoned their bombs and entered a Lufbery Circle. Schuck banked sharply and slid down in position behind one of the bombers. With the bomber filling his whole windscreen, Schuck opened fire. The first shells exploded along the fuselage of the Beau­ fighter. Schuck corrected his aiming slightly and then gave the bomber a second burst which caused the fuse­ lage to break off behind the wingroots. Without bothering to study the descending parts of the destroyed Beaufighter, Schuck directed his Me 109 towards the next bomber, but in that moment his wing­ man cried out a warning: ‘‘Achtung! Mustangs!” Something exploded next to Schuck’s cockpit, and almost instinctively he hurled his Messerschmitt into an evasive maneuver. He caught sight of two Mustangs which tried to attack him, but his rash evasive maneu­ ver had made them lose him. In the next moment, Schuck flew into a thick cloud. He climbed, came out of the cloud, and saw the two Mustangs. Flipping over, he swooped down behind the Mustang on the left hand