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

WALTER SCHUCK О UNDER GRAF VON SPONECK’SWINGS When Unteroffizier Walter Schuck arrived at his new unit’s air base, Brombos, a thaw had set in. As he touched down with his Me 109, he found the grass field which served as runway at the new airfield to be dan­ gerously soft through the humidity by the melting snow. He barely managed to avoid to nose over. As he later learned, several other pilots had been less lucky when they had arrived earlier, and many Me 109s had crashed on landing. Schuck reported to the new Staffel’s commander. This proved to be a resilient Oberleutnant who previ­ ously had served with JG 54. His name was somewhat familiar, Hans-Curt Graf von Sponeck. His father was a fairly well-known Army General, Hans Graf von Spo­ neck. On the first day of the invasion in the West, 10 May 1940, Generalleutnant Graf von Sponeck’s 22nd Air Landing Division had seized the bridges and air­ fields in the vicinity of Rotterdam and the Hague. For this he became one of the first Knight’s Cross recipients, which of course made him quite influential. It has not been possible to establish whether Generalleutnant Graf von Sponeck’s influence contributed to the shifting of his son to a rear unit, which stayed out of combat for such a long period. 10./JG 3 was a cross between a replacement unit and a combat unit. It was assigned with the double task of providing Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring’s train with air cover, and teaching combat tactics to rookies. Schuck enjoyed the time in 10./JG 3. At Brombos the pilots were billeted into one of the numerous small cha­ teaux in the area, and the fliers felt like kings. Although the enlisted men and the NCOs were never allowed to go to Paris, the officers brought all sorts of sweets from the French capital. Oberleutnant Rudolf Freiherr von Mentzingen - who previously had served as a dip­ lomat in Turkey and now made some military service time with 10./JG 3 - took special care o f the men. Deriv­ ing from a noble family, he enjoyed teaching the sons of workers and miners the good manners of the upper class. Among other things, he taught Schuck and his comrades how to eat lobster with mayonnaise accord­ ing to the perfect table manners. During the pilots’ regular patrol flights, they never saw any enemy aircraft. 10./JG 3 also was ordered not to fly more than half-way across the English Channel, and this was before the British had commenced their reg­ ular aerial intrusions over German-occupied northern France. In mid-April 1941, Oberleutnant Graf von Spone­ ck’s Staffel was renumbered into 1. Staffel of the new Erganzungsgruppe/JG 3, and shifted to Krakow in Ger- man-occupied Poland. At Krakow’s aerodrome, Schuck again saw one of the diesel engine Ju 86s, which had caught his interest during his time with the Flughafen- betriebskompanie in Giitersloh. As he was walking around the aircraft, admiring it, he came into talking to T