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

WALTER SCHUCK Oberleutnant Fritz Stehle. pit, his limbs were shaking and he was soaking wet all over. The next day Schuck made his second take off, with­ out any problem at all. The third day he made two more training flights, after which he felt that he could master the Me 262 quite well. On the fourth day, Schuck wanted to try a high-al- titude flight and asked Weissenberger if he could assign him a wingman, which of course was no problem. The two Me 262s took off and reached an altitude of 9.000 metres. Schuck enjoyed the easiness with which the jet plane slid through the cold skies at this high alti­ tude, when suddenly the voice of the ground control was heard in his earphones: “Reconnaissance aircraft over Berlin, leaving at 6.000 metres.” Schuck decided to have a look, so he flew in the assigned direction. In the area between Leipzig and Dresden, some 80 miles south of Berlin, he spotted three unidentified aircraft slightly higher, and at a distance of maybe two miles. As he came closer, he was able to iden­ tify them as a Lockheed Lightning and two Mustangs. Schuck increased power and his Me 262 made a rapid climb towards the enemy aircraft. He aimed at the clos­ est Mustang from astern and below and opened fire. The 30mm guns in the nose of the Me 262 hit the American fighter with a terrible impact. The pilot bailed out in the last moment before his plane exploded. Schuck immedi­ ately turned against the second Mustang, shot and saw it descend with a thick pile of smoke. The Lightning disap­ peared below in a dive. Afterward, when they had landed, when Schuck’s wingman filed his report, he exclaimed: “Man, I have been two years in the Home Defence, but I have never before seen anything similar!” Weissenberger laughed and replied: “Well, he is from the Eismeer, and that’s how the Eismeerjager do things!” + Two days later, Major Weissenberger sent Schuck to the aerodrome at Kaltenkirchen north of Hamburg, where he was to assume command of JG 7’s 3rd Staffel. The for­ mer Staffelkapitan, Knight’s Cross holder Oberleutnant Hans Waldmann, had been killed in a mid-air collision with his wingman. Schuck’s first impression of Kaltenkirchen was not particularly good. He arrived at at around ten in the evening as the passenger of a twin-engined Sie- bel Si 204 liaison aircraft, and reported to I./JG 7’s commander. The Gruppenkommandeur, Major Erich Rudorffer, had established his command post in a bus on the airfield. “Ah, another of those Eismeerjager,” Rudorffer commented with a sarcastic smile when Schuck made