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

WALTER SCHUCK 1/Lt Joseph Peterburs infront o f his P-51D Mustang in the spring o f 1945. the south, and with a force of 372 heading for Branden- burg-Briest. The most advanced bombers were the 147 Flying Fortresses of the 3rd Air Division which went straight against Burg in the south. Both Oberleutnant Stehle’s Staffel and Me 262s of KG(J) 54 scrambled from this place. These fighters were first to intercept the Amer­ icans at around 1415 hours, and shot down a couple of B-17s. But the Me 262s were too few. Not many minutes later the bombers arrived over Burg, where they dropped 438 tons of bombs which completely destroyed the air­ field. Hangars and workshops were destroyed, the run­ way ploughed up by bombs, and sixty aircraft destroyed on the ground - including ten Me 262s. Meanwhile, the alarm sounded at the jet airfields at Rechlin-Larz, Parchim, Brandenburg-Briest, and Ora- nienburg. At 1415 hours, the Me 262s of 9./JG 7 and 10./ JG 7 scrambled from Parchim in the north. US fighters struck down on the jets as they were taking off, and two were shot down. Fifteen minutes later, Liberators of the 2nd AD bombed Parchim. Later, the damage inflicted on the runway caused a landing Me 262 to overturn and explode. The pilot was immediately killed. His name was Franz Schall, an Oberleutnant with 133 aerial victo­ ries on his account. Some forty miles farther to the southeast, Libera­ tors and Flying Fortresses completely destroyed Rech­ lin-Larz aerodrome, with 64 aircraft put out of commis­ sion on the ground. III./JG 7 took into the air to meet them, but the Me 262s were forced to defend themselves against the large numbers of escort fighters. Fahnrich Pfeiffer claimed the only B-17 destroyed, while two Mustangs and a Thunderbolt were reported shot down. Oberleutnant Walter Wever, the Knight’s Cross holder who commanded 7./JG 7, was killed when his Me 262 was shot down near Stendal. The 372 B-17s from the 3rd AD which were tasked to attack Brandenburg-Briest - of which only 138 were able to complete the attack - were intercepted by Me 262s from Stab/JG 7 and l./JG 7, flying singly. Oberleutnant Hans Griinberg, a former JG 3 ace who ended the war with 82 victories, attacked a formation of B-17, which had just bombed Brandenburg-Briest, and shot down two. Taking part in the raid against Brandenburg-Briest, 486th BG lost two and 487th BG four B-17s, most of them due to the concentrated AAA fire. In return, 1./ JG 7’s Gefreiter Heim and Feldwebel Schwarz were shot down and killed. In contrast to most of the other fifty-five Me 262s which scrambled against the American bombers, Schuck managed to hold his seven jet fighters together as they shot higher and higher into the blue sky from Oranien- burg. Ground control guided them against a large mass of heavy bombers which approached Oranienburg from the northwest at an altitude of 25,000 feet. Schuck man­ aged to evade the Mustangs which criss-crossed the sky, T