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

WALTER SCHUCK Kapitan Aleksandr Sknarev, the navigator o f Kapitan Vasiliy Khrypov's 118 RAP MBR-2, which was shot down by August Liibking on 26 February 1943. Here is seen in the nose gun position o f his MBR-2. Sknarev was killed in action on his 133rd combat mission on 16 Octo­ ber 1944. He was appointed a Hero o f the Soviet Union on 5 November 1944. lete types - four I-16s and two 1-153 biplanes from 27 IAP/VVS SF. In the ensuing combat, Starshiy Serzhant Aleksey Alekseyev’s 1-16 was shot down, the pilot bail­ ing out with slight injuries. By the same time, Kapitan Lapshenkov had returned with five 29 BAP/VVS SF Pe-2s from another attack against German supply ships in the port of Kirkenes. Kapitan Orlov could log another successful escort mis­ sion with four Airacobras and two Kittyhawks. The Soviet fighters had just seen the Pe-2s disappear east­ ward on their return flight, when suddenly they were attacked by two Me 109s from above. This was Schuck and his wingman. It was Serzhant Vladimir Shvaryov’s 37th combat mission. When his Kittyhawk shook under the hits from Schuck’s cannon, Shvaryov was painfully aware that he would be shot down again; he had been shot down twice before. He put down the Kittyhawk for a belly-land­ ing, but the rocky ground caused the plane to overturn. Shvaryov was killed in the blazing wreck. Once again, Feldwebel Schuck was the most suc­ cessful on the German side, in fact the only one dur­ ing this mission. The little Feldwebel’s successes, both in air combat and with his Staffelkapitan Hauptmann Wengel - who allowed Schuck to lead the Staffel in the air - evoked envy among some of the officers. It seemed to be Schuck’s fate to always be in trouble with some of his superiors. There was one kind of mission which Schuck loathed, and where he never was able to achieve any success - and that was bomb dropping. That, however, was an area which Oberleutnant Widowitz felt that he mastered. When the Stukas of I./StG 5 were shifted to Luftflotte 1 near Leningrad to help counter a Soviet offensive in that sector, the demand on JG 5’s pilots to perform fighter-bomber missions against the Soviet ships in the coastal area increased. Indeed, in return for I./StG 5, Fliegerfuhrer Nordost was provided with 4./ StG 5 (arriving from western Norway) with eleven Ju 87s and the new fighter-bomber unit 14./JG 5, equipped with Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-3s. But 4./StG 5 was mainly occupied attacking Soviet artillery positions and the Kirov railway, and the few Fw 190 Jabos were hardly sufficient for the task to block all Soviet coastal shipping and attack ships in the port of Murmansk. Inevitably, the Me 109s had to fly more fighter-bomber missions. “I only create holes in the water,” Schuck used to complain. On 15 February 1943, the Allied Lend Lease convoy JW-53 sailed from Iceland. Operating alongside with I./ KG 30, Ju 88s of l.(F)/22 were loaded with bombs and sent out after the convoy. On 17 February one of its ves­ sels, Andre Marti, was attacked by two of the reconnais­ sance unit’s Ju 88s, but one aircraft was shot down and the ship was saved from any damage. The strongest air attack against JW-53 was performed by ten of I./KG 30’s T