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

WALTER SCHUCK FACTS I SOVIET 19TH GUARDS FIGHTER REGIMENT Kapitan Georgiy Refshneyder-Kalugin infront o f his Bell P-400 Airacobra I in the spring o f 1942. Due to Order No. 102 of the Commissariat of the Defence of the USSR, the fighter regiment 145 IAP was elevated to a Guards Fighter Regiment as the 19 GIAP on 4 April 1942. Commanded by Kapitan (later Mayor) Georgiy Refshneyder-Kalugin, the regiment had achieved excellent results during nine months of service at Murmansk during the German-Soviet war. Previously, the unit had fought well during the Winter War against Finland. Among 145 IAP’s earliest feats was the downing of the German ace Hauptmann Gerhard Schaschke in August 1941. Schaschke was the first great Luftwaffe ace in the Far North. When in late 1942 an Allied Lend Lease PQ convoy delivered the first batch of Bell P-400 Airacobra I fighters - which previously had been rejected by the RAF - to Murmansk, 19 GIAP became the first Soviet fighter unit to be equipped with this aircraft. Simultaneously, 19 GIAP received Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawks. In total, 19 GIAP was equipped with sixteen Airacobra Is and ten Kittyhawks in May 1942. The first air combat involving Airacobras in Soviet service took place on 15 May 1942, when a few 19 GIAP Airacobras clashed with a couple of JG 5 Me 109 pilots, including Walter Schuck. Next day the first loss was suffered, when the Airacobra with the serial number AH660 was shot down. The pilot, Starshiy Leytenant Ivan Gaydayenko, survived. In another encounter with Me 109 pilots including Walter Schuck on 28 May 1942, 19 GIAP claimed three victories against two own losses. 19 GIAP reported a major success on 15 June 1942, when nine German aircraft were claimed shot down. German loss files however reveal that actual German losses were far lower. Meanwhile, 19 GIAP lost five Airacobras through June 1942. One of the most serious setbacks suffered by 19 GIAP took place on 12 March 1943, when the unit lost eight fighters in combat with JG 5. Two weeks later, the unit’s fighters were caught in the landing circuit by an attack by Walter Schuck. Less than a fortnight later, 19 GIAP lost one of its most successful aces, Kapitan Ivan Bochkov. By the end of 1943, 19 GIAP had carried out a total of 7,451 combat sorties, claimed 170 victories and lost 86 aircraft in combat, including 20 Airacobras. A total of twelve of Walter Schuck’s victories were attained in combat with 19 GIAP. : ft T