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

WALTER SCHUCK О INTO FIRE AND ICE The new 7./JG 5 was mainly an NCO unit. Hauptmann Hans-Curt von Sponeck and Leutnant Fritz Simme were the only officers. The backbone of the Staffel was made up of Feldwebels Franz Dorr and Franz Strasser, the Unteroffiziers Walter Schuck, August Braun, Hans Link, Helmut Klante, Kurt Philipp and Werner Schu­ macher, and the two Obergefreiter Richard Steinbach and Kurt Scharmacher. The preparations for the transfer to the north were made in a rush. At 1400 hours on 30 December 1941, Hauptmann Graf von Sponeck led the Staffel’s last take off from Esbjerg. At an altitude of 500 metres, the Me 109s crossed the Skagerrak and flew in above the mountaneous Norwegian coast. They swooped down over the little town of Kristiansund and approached the nearby airfield, which was equipped with a concrete runway. While in the landing circuit, Schuck saw Haupt­ mann Graf von Sponeck’s “White 5” go down and land as the first aircraft. The Me 109 touched down, and at first it taxied gently. Then suddenly it started to skid to the side and after a while it nosed over. Next Messerschmitt landed - and the same thing happened. Next aircraft, and another repetition of the sorrowful scene. When it was Schuck’s turn, he under­ stood the reason to the accidents: The whole runway was covered with ice. He had to utilise his full concentration to avoid nosing over. No one was seriously hurt, but Hauptmann Graf von Sponeck was raging mad. He went to see the com­ mander of the airfield. Afterward, the pilots learned the actual reason to the accidents: In this Nordic region, wet ice on the runway had taught the Luftwaffe to use a new practise. They “locked” the tail wheel of the aircraft so that it could not turn and instead always was directed parallel with the aircraft’s longitudinal axis. The repair works took a couple of days, so Schuck and the other pilots of 7./JG 5 celebrated New Years Eve in a barrack at Kristiansund’s airfield. On 2 January 1942 they took off for the flight to Stavanger. Two aircraft that still had not been fully repaired were left behind with their pilots. They would arrive a few days later. The airfield at Stavanger on Norway’s southwestern coast was a key to Germany’s defence of occupied Nor­ way. From the beginning of the German occupation and throughout the war, Hitler lived with a constant fear for a British invasion of Norway. The long Norwegian coast­ line and the immense superiority of the Royal Navy seemed to point at a British invasion. No wonder Nor­ way was regarded as a potential major war zone. How­ ever, contrary to the German fears, after they lost it in 1940, the British never regarded Norway as anything but a secondary war zone. Nevertheless, in early 1942 there were almost daily intrusions into the southern Norwegian airspace by Brit­ ish aircraft. On the fifth day after their arrival at Sta­ T