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

WALTER SCHUCK Mladshiy Leytenant Vladimir Gabrinets. the frontline, four of 19 GIAP’s Airacobras were out on the aircraft type’s first combat mission on the Eastern Front. The formation was led by Mayor Pavel Kutakhov, one of the most experienced Soviet pilots in this com­ bat zone. Kutakhov had seen service already during the Winter War against Finland in 1939 - 1940, and he had been in action against the Germans since June 1941. On this 15 May 1942, Kutakhov’s four Airacobras joined seven Hurricanes from 197 IAP on a fighter patrol over the frontline. They circled at about 3,000 feet altitude, visible for the Soviet ground troops - which always gave the soldiers on the ground a feeling of safety - when the five Messerschmitts appeared about six thousand feet higher. Schuck spotted the Soviet planes before anyone else. He switched the radio to transmission and called out: “Indians below to the right!” No reply from Liiders. Damned! His radio did not work. Leutnant Liiders continued towards the southeast as before. Soon they would pass the Soviet fighters, who obviously had seen the Germans - for they formed up in a column and started to climb in a wide turn to the right. If this con­ tinued, Kutakhov would soon have led his fighters to a position straight behind the Germans. This could not go on! Permission or not, Schuck gave a hand sign to Steinbach, kicked the rudder pedal and pulled the stick. With the engine roaring, his Messer- Mayor Pavel Kutakhov, whom Schuck encountered - and nearly was shot down by - in hisfirst air combat on 15 May 1942. Kutakhov would survive the war with 14 individual and 28 shared victories to his credit. schmitt 109 E-7 banked to the left, standing on the star­ board wing. While he shoved the throttle handle forward with his left hand, Schuck directed his aircraft straight down against the Soviet planes. A glance at the altitude meter: 1,800 meter. Then he focused on the Soviet fight­ ers. Schuck had never seen an Airacobra before, neither had this aircraft yet appeared in the German aircraft identification papers which they had studied for so many hours. The pointed nose and the big stabilizer of the enemy fighters made him identify them as MiG-3s. Another quick glance at the altitude meter: 1,500 meter. When he looked up again, he saw the four “MiG-3s” - Airacobras - break off in a dive to the left. Schuck’s diving Messerschmitt had accumulated too much speed and the distance was too short to allow Schuck to follow them. He flashed past the Airacobras, and although he pulled the stick with all his might, the heavy rudders obeyed only slowly. Walter Schuck felt that he must have made the impression of a real rookie when his Me 109 recovered from the dive in a very wide and extended climb. What saved Schuck from falling prey to Kutakhov was the weak performance of the Airacobra. The Amer­ icans had delivered these aircraft to the British, who had rejected them and instead decided to deliver them to the Soviets. Although the Airacobra Mk I was superior to the old Hurricane, they were unable to compete with the Me 109. The Airacobra was notoriously underpowered, T