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

WALTER SCHUCK Franz Dorr (left) at Petsamo. Walter Schuck discovering the Nordic landscape. rock. When Schuck arrived in April 1942, snow still lay in patches everywhere on the ground. His first impres­ sion of the landcape as he gazed down from his Me 109’s cockpit was that it looked like a moon landscape with snow. Eventually, Schuck got so acquainted with the landscape that he was able to recognise the differently shaped rocks and lakes. Thirty miles southeast of Petsamo’s airfield, at the Litsa River, General Eduard DietFs German 20th Mountain Army was lined up against Soviet 14th Army and marine troops from the Soviet navy. Contrary to other sectors of the Eastern Front, the battlefield in this region had frozen into a positional warfare. Thirty miles behind their backs, the Soviet troops had Mur­ mansk. Possessing the only ice-free port in northern Russia, this small town was of great strategic impor­ tance to the Soviet defence. Since the autumn of 1941, Allied shipping convoys regularly brought war equip­ ment to Murmansk. Since the frontline remained in the same place, it could be distinguished from above through “dirt stars” in the snow - craters from artillery shells. There were three ways to reach the frontline. Either the fliers fol­ lowed the rocky coastline to the east. That flight path would bring them across the narrow land bridge to the Rybachiy Peninsula in the north, out over the Motovs- kiy Bay and further until they reached the Litsa River’s mouth. Another thirty miles to the east the coast bent southward, forming the Kola Bay - where Murmansk lay a few miles inland. The second way to find the frontline was to follow the dirt road from Petsamo on the German side to Ura Guba on the Soviet side; from the air in winter time it looked like a brownish line through the snowy land­ scape. When none of these methods worked because ground fog suddenly had swept in from the Arctic Ocean - which often happens in this region, so rich in contrasts - the pilots had to use their compasses to navigate. Hardly surprising, one great fear among the Me 109 pilots in the Far North was to get lost during a flight. It was always a great relief when they during their return flight could discern the mountain next to the airfield. For that reason, the mountain was baptised “Erldserberg”, Relief Mountain. 6./JG 5 was equipped with the new Me 109 F ver­ sion, and its pilots used to fly free hunting missions over the Soviet-controlled area. Almost every day, some of the 6th Staffel pilots rocked the wings of their Me 109 Fs, indicating a new aerial victory, when they returned to Petsamo. JG 5’s opponents in the air were divided between three different Soviet commands. The strongest was the Air Force of the Soviet Northern Fleet, Severnyy Flot (VVS SF). By the time of Schuck’s arrival, VVS SF reported a strength of slightly more than 200 aircraft. Then the Soviet 14th Army, responsible for the defence T