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

WALTER SCHUCK The wreck o f Unteroffizier Jo sefKaiser’s Me 109 E-7, WNr 5599, “Black 8 ”, after it went down near Parkkina on 13 June 1942. A further, less known, effect o f the blow dealt to PQ-17 was that it deterred the British from shifting an RAF expeditionary force to the Murmansk area. The plan, called Operation “Invector,” would have meant sending four squadrons of Spitfires from RAF Debden Wing and two squadrons of Hurricane fighter-bomb- ers - in all 96 aircraft and two thousand personnel - by ship to Murmansk. Thus, the pilots o f JG 5 were spared from encountering Spitfire fighters, which would have been a tougher match than the old Hurricanes, P-40s and Airacobras. A free hunting mission over the Soviet airfield sys­ tem west of Murmansk on 8 July led to the most dif­ ficult air combat Schuck had experienced so far. Once again, the opponents were from 19 GIAP, with three Airacobras and four Kittyhawks. Schuck succeeded in shooting down one of the Kittyhawks - piloted by Star- shiy Serzhant Babadshan, who was killed. But in the continued fighting, Schuck himself was a hairsbreadth from getting rammed by another Kittyhawk. Then when the exhausted pilots returned to Petsamo, one man was missing. It was Feldwebel Franz Strasser, Schuck’s Aus­ trian friend. His dead body was found near the wreck of his Me 109 E-7, half-way between the frontline and Petsamo. Temperatures kept rising. All o f a sudden, it was hot and dry, with the thermometer showing above 30 degrees Celsius. In the mountains, the dry Arctic birks and the tu rf were on fire. Smoke clouds hung over the entire region. The sun would never stop shining. By this time the pilots were operating at any time o f the day. They would be held in readiness even at two or three in the night, when the sun still was blazing from a clear blue sky. Walter Schuck was beginning to feel the exertion from the relentless combat activity, the never ending sunshine and the heat. On top o f that, his relations with Hauptmann Graf von Sponeck grew strained. Graf von Sponeck had always been slightly suspicious towards Unteroffizier Schuck, probably due to Schuck’s bad marks from previous commands. But Schuck also had a fairly un-militarily attitude which irritated professional officers - suffice the Jazz music. One day, Graf Spo­ neck caught Schuck returning from a mission where Schuck had failed to bring correct flight maps along. For that, Graf von Sponeck gave Schuck a quite harsh punishment - 14 days in detention. However, Schuck was spared from serving the sentence, but the note of it was another black mark in his papers. Schuck had more than one reason to feel relieved when he and Scharmacher were posted to Kirkenes in the rear. T