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

WALTER SCHUCK Two MBR-2s o f 118 RAP in the air over the Kola Bay. should have stuck to your position and covered me!” Then something unexpected happened. Widowitz - apparently not satisfied with the effect his words had on the Feldwebel - pulled his flight pistol and pointed it at Schuck, yelling: “I swear that if that ever happens again, I will shoot you!” The whole room froze. Rapidly grasping the situa­ tion, Schuck pulled his flight pistol and directed it against Widowitz. With his eyes narrowing as always when he was very serious, and with a calm and yet threatening voice, Schuck said: “Herr Oberleutnant, let’s see who shoots first!” By now, the whole situation was absolutely crazy. “Stop it, both of you, stop it!” screamed Hauptmann Wengel. Widowitz stared at Schuck, furious but at the same time taken aback by Schuck’s bold move which com­ pletely had altered the situation. Then he flung his pistol on the desk and bolted out of the command post. “I will talk to him,” said Hauptmann Wengel. “Just leave!” + While all of this took place, another quite dramatic event took place on the Soviet side in connection with the Schuck - Widowitz Jabo mission. Shortly after Widowitz and Unteroffizier August Liibking had dived away from the pursuing Soviet fighters over the Rybachiy Penin­ sula, Liibking came across two single-engined MBR-2 flying boats. August Liibking immediately destroyed the first one and then set after the second, which crashed into the sea after a few minutes. During Lubking’s attack against the last flying boat, the rear gun tower of the Soviet aircraft was filled with thick smoke. When Serzhant Nasarov, the rear gunner, removed the canopy to be able to breathe, he was sucked out as the aircraft went into a dive. By pure luck, and fully instinctively, he managed to get hold on the tailfin of the descending airplane. Kapitan Sknarev, the navi­ gator, saw his distressed situation and alerted the pilot, Kapitan Vasiliy Khrypov. Despite severe battledamage to the MBR-2, Khrypov was able to nurse it down to a forced landing on the water below. Meanwhile, Nasa- rov’s body violently waved from one side to another as he desperately and frozen stiff in the ice cold wind clung to the wingstruts and tailfin. When the MBR-2 touched down on the surface of the water, the floats were torn off, and through dozens of bullet holes, water poured into the burning aircraft. Khrypov managed to get the rubber dinghy into the water. The three Soviet airmen paddled as fast as they could to get away from the flames from the burning fuel on the waves. Two hours later, they were rescued by Escort ship Toros. They were frozen and burned, but T

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