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

WALTER SCHUCK and made a wide turn which placed him and his com­ patriots behind the mass of bombers. Then he attacked! Walter Schuck remembered the ruins in Hamburg when the nearest B-17 grew rapidly in size in front of his windscreen. He pressed the firing button. The 30mm cannons hammered, and in the next moment the whole giant tailfin of the bomber was dissolved by the explod­ ing shells. 2/Lt James W. McAfee’s B-17 of 398th BG was only seconds away from the drop point, and already had the bomb bays open, when the Me 262s attacked. The 30mm cannon shells hit from astern, blew the tailfin apart, shredded the waist gunner Sgt Felix H. Tichenor and tore an arm off the ball turret gunner Sgt Haskell Boyes. Staff Sergeant Frank E. Lewis remembers that he got a sight of “the horrible scene” where the waist gun­ ner had been massacred by the cannon shells, before he himself got out through the entrance hatch. Three other crew members managed to get out. The tail gunner Max W. Paxton came down safely in his parachute but was killed by German civilians on the ground. The pilot 2/ Lt McAfee, his co-pilot 2/Lt Donald J. Jones, and Flight Engineer Т/Sgt Arthur J. Roit went down with the plane and were killed on impact. Staff Sergeant Lewis and Т/ Sgt Paul Krup were more lucky - after bailing out they were captured by German troops. Below, explosions and black billowing smoke showed that the bombs were falling over Oranienburg’s aerodrome. As Schuck pulled up to avoid a collision, his Me 262 raced through the bomber formation. Sergeant Alan Morton, in the top turret of another B-17, froze when he saw the Me 262. “Me 262 at 5 o’clock, closing fast!” Morton yelled through the intercom as he flipped “On” “All” gun switches. Precisely at that same instant the entire Bomb Group formation was racked up hard left on its side turn­ ing off the target. And, desperately trying to slow down and slip behind them was this Me 262. Meanwhile, there was no way that Morton could react and turn his turret guns around on him. Finally the Me 262 ended up sit­ ting on the right wing tip of Morton’s B-17. The German and the American made eye contact for a full second, just 50 feet apart. Then the Me 262 increased speed and attacked another section of the bomber stream. Bringing his compatriots along, Schuck aimed at the wing of a bomber in another formation. A quick burst of fire, and as Schuck pulled up to avoid a collision, he caught a glimpse of the B-17 going down in flames. The 303rd BG B-17G Serial No. 44-8427, Callcode “VK-E”, had been baptised Hem 's Revenge in honour of the tail gunner Sergeant Thomas Henn - who had been severely injured by AAA shrapnel in January 1945. The pilot, 1/Lt Robert “Boss” Murray, was steering the “ship” on his 22nd combat mission when 30mm shells slammed into the two right engines. The Mission Nar­ rative noted: “An unexpected attack by six to eight ME-262s was encountered just after departing the target. 303rd gun­ ners claimed two destroyed. Henn’s Revenge was hit by the attacking Me-262s coming in on the tail. It burst into flames between the #3 and #4 engines, held course for a few seconds, peeled up, slid over and down to the right, through the formation, apparently out of control. Henn’s Revenge exploded at 2,000 feet and broke up into two main parts and crashed in the small Gross Glasaow Lake between Gross Schonebeck and Liebenwalde 20 km northeast of the target Oranienburg and about 28 km north-northwest of Berlin. A wing and engines fell in the upper part of the lake and the tail and part of the fuselage came down in the lower part of the lake. The wreckage could be seen 50 to 150 feet from the shore.” Seven of the crew members were immediately killed: Murray and his co-pilot 2/Lt Lawrence L. Fries, the navigator F/O Harold S. Smith, the Spot Jammer Sgt Gerald V. Atkinson, Т/Sgt Theodore A. Bates, Sgt Nich­ olas Rodock, and turret gunner Sgt Robert P. Rennie. Staff Sergeant Vito J. Brunale and Т/Sgt Carl O. Ham- marlund managed to bail out, but only the former would survive. Hammarlund was shot to death by his German captors. After Schuck had shot down his second B-17, he and his compatriots closed in on another formation of B-17s. Again he aimed at the engines when he opened fire at one of the bombers. The impact of the 30mm cannons was terrible. The giant bomber immediately slooped over and went down. Next! The 30mm cannons immedi­ ately set the bomber burning and then one of the wings was torn off. The Mission Narrative for 457th BG reads: “Bombing was visual in squadron trail formation. Bombs were dropped from 25,000 feet and results of all squadrons was good. Just after dropping their bombs the group was attacked by four ME-262’s from the tail. The lead ship s/n 44-8368 was hit by 20 mm cannon and, with two engines out, left the formation and later exploded. Also a plane in the high box s/n 43-38606, was hit and dove out of formation.” The first of these, 44-8368, was piloted by Captain Melvin M. Fox, with the Group C.O., Lieutenant-Colo- nel Francis, on board. It was hit between No. 1 and No. 2 engines. With large flames erupting from the engines, the bomber went down in an eastward direction. The second navigator on this crippled bomber was Lieuten­ ant Paul L. Hertenstein. Many years later he told the authors of this book: “I was kneeling in the nose, unable to see any ground action (from about 22,000 feet altitude). Fox told me that all others of the 10-man crew had bailed out, and that since the plane was burning and hard to control, that he was bailing out, and that I should also. After locating and attaching my chest parachute, I moved down to the open hatch which was below and between the pilots’ area and the nose section. I dove out headfirst, and the next thing I recall was acute pain in my back and slowly spiralling down at I would guess was at about 10,000 feet of altitude. Since about 1/3 of my parachute was missing, apparently ripped or blown T