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

WALTER SCHUCK Airacobras o fSoviet Northern Fleet. ticularly dangerous adversary, at least on pair with the Me 109 E. I./KG 30 was the only bomber unit left remaining with Luftflotte 5. On 12 November, its Ju 88s were sent out against Allied ships in the port of Murmansk. Led by Schuck, four Me 109s were assigned to escort the Ju 88s. By this time, Schuck commanded not only a Schwarm. His Staffel kapitan, Hauptmann Wengel, recognised the necessity to have the most experienced pilot to lead the Staffel in the air. In Wengel’s opinion this was Schuck - although some officers were envious that this tiny little Unteroffizier was allowed to command them in the air. As so often before, the strong antiaircraft barrage prevented the Germans from inflicting any significant damage to the port installations. But from his fighter pilot’s perspective, Schuck saw nothing of the reinforced Soviet fighter force in the area. Schuck encountered only three Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks. These had been scram­ bled by 2 GIAP/VVS SF from Vayenga aerodrome. Without any difficulty, Schuck was able to shoot down Starshiy Leytenant P. V. Bolshakov and drive off the two other Soviet fliers. At around this time, II./JG 5 left Petsamo. Ten of the Gruppe’s Me 109 F-4s were handed over to III./JG 5. The men of II./JG 5 boarded a Ju 52s, which took them to their new airfields at Alakurtti and Rovaniemi, 130 and 250 miles farther south. The 7th Staffel was trans­ ferred to Kirkenes and Nautsi. This left only 8. and 9./JG 5 remaining in Petsamo. Schuck had two good friends in the 8th Staffel, Feldwebel Josef “Baby” Kaiser and Oberfeldwebel Franz Dorr. He would earn the friendship of another 8./JG 5 pilot too, Unteroffizier Jakob Norz. Because of his mushrooming expeditions, Schuck was well in with the kitchen chief at Petsamo. In exchange for the loads of dried mushrooms which Schuck delivered to the kitchen, he received a steak now and then. This steak was carefully prepared on the iron oven in his tent - at the onset of the winter, the pilots still were billeted into tents at Petsamo! This of course drew the attention of many other men. One of the most hungry men was the Bavarian “Jockel” Norz. Jockel was a strong and self-assured Bavarian farmer, and a profound friendship developed between him and Schuck. Although he was only twenty-two, like Schuck, the assured Jockel eventually became like a father to Walter. By this time the men at Petsamo still were fairly well supplied, but they also were able to vary their meals through various measures, apart from Schuck’s “steak fixing.” They used snares to catch ptarmigan, an Arctic bird about the size of a small chicken - although later in the winter, when the ptarmigan eats only pine needles, its meat got a vile, acidic taste, causing the men to leave the bird alone. Of course they ate the dried mushrooms, and Schuck knew several receipts to prepare delicious T