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

WALTER SCHUCK Leutnant Horst Berger, III./JG 5, in March 1943. Soviet aircraft. His aim was successful. After only a few minutes a whole formation of Soviet fighters appeared and entered the landing circuit. Schuck sneaked in behind them. He aimed at one and opened fire. There was a bright flash and the Soviet fighter crashed onto the airfield’s runway. Without any time to waste, Schuck positioned himself behind the next. Another burst of fire and the Soviet fighter crashed. A P-40 Kittyhawk from 20 GIAP and one of 19 GIAP’s Airacobras lay burning on the ground. Schuck swooped past the airfield at an altitude of only a couple of feet, too low to allow the airfield’s antiaircraft guns to open fire at him. Now the first Soviet touched ground and was rolling along the run­ way. Schuck dived down on him with blazing guns and caused a third burning wreck on the runway. With that completed, Schuck turned towards the south and then took course towards Petsamo. It was totally dark by the time he reached his home base, but the landing lights helped him to locate the runway. Although Walter Schuck actually had shot down two of the Soviet fighters, and claimed the destruction of a third on the ground, the lack of witnesses only allowed him one confirmed victory - apart from the 11-2. But later the German radio monitoring station on the “Release Mountain” near Petsamo reported something quite sensational from the Soviet side: Because the run­ way at Murmashi had been blocked by crashed Soviet fighters, the other airborne Soviet fighters had been una­ ble to land. Since they were short on fuel, some of their pilots had to abandon their aircraft and bail out. Four days later, on 29 March, Schuck was awarded with the Ehrenpokal, the Honorary Goblet. 258 SAD’s next attempt to strike against Petsamo’s aerodrome, on 27 March, was thwarted even before the Soviet aircraft had entered their approach flight. The five Il-2s, seven Kittyhawks and seven Airacobras which had been tasked to perform the operation, were attacked as they assembled in the air above their own air base. Three 13.(Z)/JG 5 Me 110s had been sent out to attack Mur­ mashi Aerodrome together with six Me 109s from 6./ JG 5, and the German airmen arrival coincided just with the Soviet take-off. While the Zerstorer dropped their bombs over the airfield, Oberleutnant Heinrich Ehrler led the six Me 109s against the Soviet airplanes which circled above the runway. In a combat similar to the car­ nage on 19 GIAP at the same place fifteen days earlier, three Il-2s and three Kittyhawks were shot down. Ehrler claimed five victories in four minutes. In return, he also was a close shave from getting shot down himself - by the Kittyhawk piloted by 19 GIAP’s D. S. Gonchar- yonok, who immediately afterward was shot down by Leutnant Theodor Weissenberger. But during 6./JG 5’s return flight it was discovered that Unteroffizier Edmund Krischowski was missing. He had been shot down by 19 GIAP’s ace Kapitan Pavel T